New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots are looking to get back on track against the Miami Dolphins in Week 2.
Mike Vrabel’s squad didn’t get off to the best start during their season-opening loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, though that matchup did provide some insight into what exactly they’ll need to correct heading into their first divisional matchup on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
I’ve got seven specific storylines to keep your eye on:
The Patriots have historically struggled during early-season games down south, dropping three of their last four games played at Hard Rock Stadium in September and October.
Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill ran wild in 2023, Mac Jones had two backbreaking turnovers in 2022 and Knowshon Moreno (in his antepenultimate game) powered an unbelievable second-half comeback in 2014 — but the biggest factor attributed to those losses has always been tied to the weather.
New England isn’t nearly as hot or humid or wet or… y’know, gross, as Miami.
Vrabel talked about the weather during one of his pre-practice press conferences this week, saying: “It’s going to be warm, it’s going to be wet, it’ll be humid. I’m sure it’ll rain, probably lightning, who knows.”
AccuWeather doesn’t know, but they gave prediction that calls for a high of 86 and a 60% chance of rain.
Tua Tagovailoa has come out victorious in all seven of his starts against New England, which is good.
Tagovailoa has completed 69% of his passes for 1,616 yards, 11 touchdowns and just four interceptions in those games — which, again, is good.
The Patriots haven’t given us any reason to believe things will change on Sunday, but perhaps they can take advantage of a signal-caller who is coming off a putrid three-turnover performance during opening weekend.
“We have to be more balanced. We have to use our run actions and be able to run the football,” Vrabel said following his club’s season-opening loss. “It’s hard to turn it into a drop-back passing game in this league. That’s just the facts.”
No, he wasn’t lying.
Drake Maye had more dropbacks (53) than any other quarterback in Week 1, and has almost zero chance of finding success should he be forced to continue that trend — which means there needs to be a concerted effort to establish the run in Week 2.
Rhamondre Stevenson, TreVeyon Henderson and Antonio Gibson combined for 45 total yards, but the complete and total lack of a running game primarily came from the fact that the club was trailing from an early point in the game and abandoned it altogether. Hunter Henry and Garrett Bradbury were also horrific in the running game, so there was that.
I’d imagine there’s a concerted effort to get the stable of running backs some early opportunities toward the boundary and see if they can get themselves going.
The Dolphins currently employ Matthew Judon, Jake Bailey,...
