New England Patriots - NESN.com
The Miami Dolphins will aim to get back on track when facing the New England Patriots this Sunday.
Miami began the 2025 season with an alarming 33-8 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. The Dolphins don’t want that performance to cascade into another dud when hosting the Patriots in Week 2.
The team responded to the season-opening blowout by holding a players-only meeting on Tuesday. Starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said Wednesday, per ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques, that he was pleased by how many teammates showed up on a scheduled off day.
“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. “We got all of that communicated to those guys, so that’s what we’ve got.
“I thought that that was the cool thing, is that was their process going into Week 1; win, lose, you got to see a lot of the same guys back in the film room, back in the meeting rooms, and I thought that was a cool thing.”
Linebacker Jordyn Brooks hoped the meeting would help avoid a repeat of last season. The Dolphins started 2-6 and missed the playoffs despite a second-half rally.
“Losing the way we did can be discouraging. Outside noise — people talking, family talking, everybody talking,” Brooks said. “[The meeting was] just kind of making sure that everybody’s together. When you lose like that, it’s easy for people to get discouraged, start looking, questioning maybe yourself or others. So making sure that we all locked back in, making sure that the belief is still there.”
The Dolphins started the 2025 campaign by allowing 30 unanswered points to the Colts. Tagovailoa mustered just 114 passing yards with three turnovers while Daniel Jones, released by the New York Giants last season, completed 22 of 29 passes for 272 yards and a touchdown.
Another loss could set flames to head coach Mike McDaniel’s seat, so Sunday’s game is about as crucial as a Week 2 game gets for Miami.
