New England Patriots overpower Miami Dolphins Part One
They say Dolphins are benign creatures. That may or may not be true but it certainly was true for the Miami Dolphin tonight. Against the New England Patriots the Dolphins showed little or no aggressiveness. The Patriots toyed with the Dolphins to win 41
to 14 and were in control of the game.
The dolphins didn’t start out too badly though. There was an early setback, a glimpse of things to come but overall the first quarter was very good for the Dolphins.
Miami started on the 20 yard line and were covering ground well. Quarterback Chad Henne opened the drive with a 12 yard pass to running back Ronnie Brown and in the 4th play completed a 21 yard pass to tight end Anthony Fasano to average 10 yards
per play. But then the Patriots put a stop to their advance.
On the fifth play Miami’s quarterback took too long to make a decision. While Henne waited for a receiver to open up, the Patriots converged on him from all sides. Defensive end Tully Banta-Cain was locked in battle with Miami’s offensive lineman, Jake Long.
Banta-Cain moved up but Long was able to keep him off his quarterback. When Banta-Cain finally got past Long, he was behind the quarterback and Henne was aware that Banta-Cain was gunning for him. Henne was forced to make a run for it as no receiver was open.
Matt McQuistan tried to Keep New England’s Mike Wright at bay for a while, but after Henne started to run under pressure from Banta-Cain, Wright was able to land on top of the quarterback. Jermaine Cunningham was backing up Wright’s push for the sack. Miami
lost 5 yards in the drive but for the Patriots the victory was psychological.
Henne tried to salvage the play and passed 9 yards to Ronnie Brown. The effort though was undone in the next play as a rush by Ronnie Brown lost two yards. 38 yards from the endzone, the Dolphins got into punt formation. Brandon Fields 27 yard punt ended
up being muffed by wide receiver Wes Welker. Welker recovered the ball on New England’s 11 yard line.
Patriots’ wide receiver BenJarvus Green-Ellis opened the offense with a 6 yard rush to the 17 yard line. Quarterback Tom Brady couldn’t complete a pass in the next two attempts and Zoltan Mesko was forced to punt the ball. The 60 yard punt was returned for
13 yard to the 36 yard line.
Henne started off the next drive with a 21 yard pass to wide receiver Devon Bess. From the 43 yard line, running back Ricky Williams ran 11, 6 and 5 yard consecutively, being stopped twice by linebacker Jerod Mayo and running out of bounds once.
The Dolphins called the first time out of the game at this point and returned with a 7 yard pass to Williams to break into the redzone for the first time in the game. However an offensive holding penalty pushed the Dolphins back to the 24 yard line from
the 14 yard line. A play later Henne threw his first of only two touchdown. Henne waited for Bess to open up to receive and threw a short right pass at Bess. The wide receiver had New England’s safety Patrick Chung trying to pull him out of bounds. Chung had
his arms around him but his grip loosened. Bess was treading the edge and dived into the endzone before New England’s approaching free safety James Sanders or cornerback Devon McCourty could stop him.
The Next Patriots drive ended without scoring after 5 plays and 24 yards, 10 of which were lost to a penalty. The subsequent Dolphins drive was even worse. In 3 plays the Dolphin travelled 12 yards but then the drive ended in an interception. Defensive End
Rob Ninkovich was trailing Brandon Marshall as he cut to the left to receive from Henne. The quarterback though was off target and threw the ball straight into Ninkovich’s hands.
A minute remained in the first quarter. Before time ran out the Patriots made three plays for 8 yards. At the end of the quarter the Dolphins led 7 to nothing.
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