The New England Patriots appear poised to provide one of the most unique challenges in the NFL this season: they’ve aligned their offensive personnel to run the football relentlessly and with a lot of power up front. That will make today’s matchup between the Dolphins and the Patriots a fascinating one to watch play out; as this will be strength on strength.
The Dolphins didn’t exactly shine from a statistics perspective last season in run defense, but the Dolphins’ defensive front has a deep group and should challenge New England effectively.
How can the Dolphins disrupt New England in Week 1 and secure a win? Here are a few items for a recipe for success.
Put your corners to work
The Dolphins’ defense boasts one of the top cornerback duos in all of football with Byron Jones and Xavien Howard as a 1-2 punch. And the Dolphins would be wise to call upon that pair to help funnel the field against New England. The Patriots’ wide receiver corp is not where they’re going to find their identity as a football team and so the Dolphins can use their talent advantage here to shut down area of the field and help funnel the run defense into a tighter portion of the field.
Howard and Jones must play well to give Miami the chance to turn this game into 9 on 9.
Play with an extra hat in the box
The Patriots are going to try to thrive with play action passing and creating voids for the second level. The Dolphins must keep this area congested and the best way to do that is to keep the second safety (Eric Rowe) down in the box. That way, Miami should find a number advantage in fitting up the run. That would make life more difficult for New England and task the Patriots with trying to find a way to take the top off the defense vertically to loosen up the safety.
And while Mac Jones threw those routes well in college, this is his first NFL start and it comes against one of the best ballhawks in football.
A big day from Eric Rowe and Jerome Baker
If the Patriots are going to find success offensively, it will be because of their ability to run the ball and subsequently manipulate the middle of the field defenders with their run reads and pass assignments. And so the pressure will fall on Baker and Rowe to make sure they’re playing assignment based football and not being premature with their decisions on when and where to flow. That is, of course, easier said than done. But it is what must be accomplished for Miami to be at their best against the Patriots.
