FOXBOROUGH, Mass. _ Bill Belichick is infamous for his short, curt answers in his postgame press conferences, but after the New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 21-11, on Sunday, the coach seemed to be in a talkative mood.
Maybe it was because he was pleased with the performance from his players.
Maybe it was because he was pleased with the performance of his coaching staff.
Maybe both.
On the flip side, the side you obviously care about, the game left questions about both Miami players and some of the coaching.
And that issue for our purposes here will focus primarily on the defense, and specifically the defensive front.
Because we all saw the Patriots steamroll the Dolphins for 217 rushing yards. And they did it in a manner that suggests the Dolphins need to do some soul searching this week before they face the Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.
Here's the issue:
The Patriots came out intent on running the football and using quarterback Cam Newton as the trigger to those runs on run options and spread plays.
And they showed this approach in the first quarter by picking up four rushing first downs and converting two of their three third-down situations into first downs by running the ball.
And they showed this approach some more in the second quarter by picking up three more rushing first downs.
So, it stands to reason, the Dolphins made some adjustments to all this. Clearly this was not the same New England offense they faced in the 2019 regular-season finale. And Newton does things Brady never could.
The problem is that after halftime, when Dolphins coaches had more than ample time to get with their players to make adjustments after initially doing some of that on the bench in the first half, things got worse.
The Patriots were more effective running the ball in the second half than they were in the first half. The Patriots rushed for 129 yards in the second half compared to 88 in the first half.
So either the adjustments failed, which is on the coaching.
Or the execution failed, which is on the players.
Either way, bad news for Miami.
Let's talk about the adjustments first. Look, this game was going to be one of adjustments because both teams were going to try new things. The Dolphins have a new offense. The Patriots have a new quarterback for the first time in 19 years and were going to do different things that suit Newton.
Having no preseason added to the riddle presented by both teams.
"Obviously, neither team had seen each other this year and so working out things during the game that come up or came up either on the sideline and players making adjustments to different looks that came up on the field and so forth," Belichick said. "I thought that the players really handled that well, as did the staff."
The problem, again, is the Dolphins got progressively worse. They allowed 4.6 yards per rush in the first half and the Patriots eventually finished the game averaging 5.2 yards per rush for the game.
So even as Miami brought more players into the tackle box, used run blitzes, or perhaps after coaches gave a quick tutorial on defensive assignments about who has Newton and how to defend the edge of the formation, the problem went unsolved.
"We had a lot of production in the running game in a number of different ways, but it was pretty balanced," Belichick said. "We got the ball outside. We got it inside. We had multiple ball carriers: Julian (Edelman), Cam, the backs, and so forth.
"So, it was a good balance and the execution was good. Our offensive line I thought played well against a physical front. Miami's got some big, strong players in there and they had a couple of guys from the Patriots last year, and signed some defensive ends as free agents, so they have upgraded their roster there. But I thought we played very competitively against them."
And now let's talk about the execution issue. Because that speaks to player talent.
The Dolphins spent a lot of resources during the offseason to improve the defense and specifically the defensive front.
The club signed linebacker Kyle Van Noy, linebacker Elandon Roberts, defensive end Shaq Lawson, defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah, and selected defensive tackle Raekwon Davis, who started on Sunday, in the second round.
That investment collectively did not pay a high dividend this game. Obviously not high enough to give the Dolphins the advantage in one of the game's deciding factors.
What is more concerning is the Patriots don't really have playmakers on the outside that should scare anyone. So New England ran the ball down Miami's throat even though it could not legitimately threaten the Dolphins corners on the outside.
Said another way: The Patriots were one dimensional and the Dolphins still couldn't stop that one dimension.
That's concerning because teams ahead on the schedule won't be one dimensional. The Bills, for example, have Stefon Diggs, Cole Beasley and John Brown on the outside and quarterback Josh Allen can run every bit as well as Newton and on Sunday he passed for 312 yards and had a 104.6 passer rating against the New York Jets.
The Dolphins need to figure out their assignments for a running QB and understand how to also protect the edge at the same time to have future success. The adjustments they failed to make on Sunday must be made this week. The talent also needs to be up to executing their assignments.
Because the Bills are going to see Sunday's loss to New England and probably try to attack the Dolphins in a similar manner.
