If you’re a Miami Dolphins fan, you’re confident of just one thing Sunday:
The New England Patriots offer the best remedy for your situation.
At home.
At 1 p.m.
At this panic-button crossroads of two, 0-1 teams facing the kind of pressure you shouldn’t see entering a second week.
The schedule couldn’t offer a better opponent, because you see the New England jerseys and they haven’t scared you for years. The Dolphins have won four games games against the Patriots and seven of the past eight meetings.
They haven’t lost at home to New England since Tom Brady was its quarterback in 2019, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Struggling Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is 7-0 against the Patriots, too. Only Dan Marino (9-0), Joe Namath (9-0) and John Elway (10-0) have a better run against them. Tua arrived as the Evil Empire was sinking, and he’ll have ample chance again to right himself and his offense Sunday.
Consider: Las Vegas quarterback Geno Smith had a league-high nine passes for more than 20 yards last week against the Patriots. Smith isn’t Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. But four of those passes were for 30 yards or more in the second half.
Do you see the path for Tua shaking that three-turnover Colts game and receiver Tyreek Hill can get his first catch of more than 30 yards in 18 games?
Do you see, for all the hand-wringing over the Dolphins missing two offensive linemen, the Patriots’ injury to second-team, All-Pro cornerback Christian Gonzalez might be more significant?
Do you understand how the Dolphins’ Week 2 can put some distance between them and Week 1?
“I got the offense together and we had a meeting about things that we wanted to do to hang our hats on this week, points of emphasis and how we want to go about it this week,’’ Tagovailoa said.
No one’s kidding themselves about the Dolphins. They were 2007 awful in the opener. But this defense that got dragged up and down the field in Indianapolis should be better this week.
That’s because the Patriots offensive line isn’t in the same hemisphere as the Colts offensive line. The Patriots line gave up four sacks in the opener. The Colts ran the ball 40 larynx-stuffing times down the Dolphins and paved the way for being the first offense since 1977 to score on all seven possessions.
“We didn’t get to pass rush,” linebacker Jordyn Brooks of the Dolphins’ league-low eight pressures on 33 Colts dropbacks last week. “They had 40 run attempts. It was just a lopsided game and so when you’re playing that type of football, you can’t get to the pass rush.”
The good news: Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels — yes, him again — either doesn’t trust his running game or called a bad opener. The Patriots ran just 18 times against the Raiders — and four were by quarterback Drake Maye. Meanwhile, Maye threw 46 times, completing 30 for 287 yards.
Finally, there’s the 1 p.m. start. It isn’t a scorched-earth September in South Florida. You need a snorkel just getting to the car. But the humidity remains the stuff the Patriots can’t prepare for — and it didn’t help even when Bill Belichick tried in bringing them down Tuesday before the 2022 opener.
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The Dolphins won 20-7 that day. Tua threw for 270 yards. That’s how it’s been of late. That’s what they need to put the opener behind them.
There’s a flip-side to all this history and recent numbers. That’s what it means if the Dolphins lose Sunday.
Because new Patriots coach Mike Vrabel knows all those numbers matter only so much. He’s 2-0 against Mike McDaniel and Tua. One of those wins was that ridiculous 28-27 comeback in 2022 that crushed the Dolphins season.
So, Vrabel isn’t framing Sunday as some chance to stop the Patriots’ confounding run against the Dolphins.
“I feel the opportunity to go on the road and win a division game,” he said. “That’s what I feel and that’s where our thought process is.”
The Dolphins’ past week didn’t sound so routine. They had a players-only meeting, talked of players missing assignments, were hit by a league investigation into Hill’s domestic situation and had general fallout keep falling from their Indianapolis performance.
“Week 2 is generally a big week where you can see a lot of improvement, and that’s obviously where our mind-set is and where our focus lies,” McDaniel said.
The Dolphins’ schedule couldn’t serve up a better opponent in Week 2. It’s on them to decide what kind of statement they make.