Pats Pulpit
Pat Lane and Matt St. Jean relive New England’s home wins against Miami and Jacksonville, both in the snow
Twenty-one years ago, the New England Patriots completed the most dominant streak in the history of the NFL, finishing with 21 wins in a row across two seasons. Since it was such a dominant run, we have decided to take a look back at each one of the games.
This is the fifth in the series, so expect a ton more to come, and make sure to follow along on YouTube for the accompanying videos for each game as well.
Today, let’s take a look at Wins No. 9 and 10.
2003 Week 14 | Dec. 7, 2003, 4:15 p.m. ET | Gillette Stadium
Setting the scene: New England got crushed by a huge Nor’Easter the weekend of this game, with areas in and around Boston seeing north of 20 inches of snow. The snow had mostly stopped by kickoff, but the roads were a mess, and the seats in the stadium hadn’t yet been shoveled out, so there was snow everywhere in the stadium, which would be an important factor in this game, obviously.
The field conditions were also rough in this game as well, as this was before the Patriots had switched the field to turf, and the Patriots were still playing on grass. The Dolphins came into Gillette winners of their last three, with the last one being a trouncing of the Bill Parcells-led Dallas Cowboys. They were only two games back from the Patriots in the AFC East, and fighting to stay alive in both that race and the race for a playoff berth.
If the Dolphins were to win this game, they would be only a game behind the Patriots for the AFC East, and the Patriots wouldn’t have the first tiebreaker over them either. It was, on the other hand, a “hat and t-shirt game” for the Patriots, meaning that they would clinch the AFC East with a win.
Game breakdown: Probably unsurprisingly, both offenses had a really hard time moving the ball in the first half. The Dolphins would finish with 49 net yards for the half, and would only make it as far as the Patriots’ 49 yard-line. The Pats, meanwhile, were able to gain some good yardage on their first three drives, turning one of them into points, but were almost completely unable to move the ball after that.
The second half is where things started to get interesting. The Dolphins punted on their first two possessions of the half, making it eight straight punts for them. On their ninth drive, however, they started to move the ball, getting it all the way down to the Patriots 10. Rodney Harrison would time his blitz off the edge perfectly, however, and Jay Fiedler would lose the ball. Mike Vrabel recovered it, and the Dolphins wouldn’t get into field goal range again.
The Patriots offense did...
