Who is Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel?

April 23, 2024

The Dolphins hung on to beat the Patriots on Sunday Night Football. The Athletic has you covered with the latest news, reaction, analysis and more.

Chad Graff, Jeff Howe, Steve Buckley and The Athletic NFL Staff

September 18, 2023 at 12:07 PM EDT Dolphins hold off Patriots, New England falls to 0-2: What we learned

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40 New Updates

Bradley Chubb notches first forced fumble of season

Miami Dolphins veteran defensive end Bradley Chubb knocked it away from rookie wide receiver Demario Douglas for his first forced fumble of the season.

The forced fumble was the Dolphins’ first takeaway as a team this season and just their 15th since the start of last season (second fewest in NFL).

New England bends but doesn't break

Bill Belichick's New England Patriots defense started off with a bend-but-don't-break approach.

Three-high safeties were sitting back and forcing the Miami Dolphins to run the ball or throw it short. The Dolphins did just that on their first possession, nickel-and-diming the Patriots down the field. But the New England defense held in the red zone, and the Dolphins walked away with a Jason Sanders field goal to take an early 3-0 advantage.

Belichick's approach seems sound on the surface, but will his defense be able to keep Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle under wraps for 60 minutes?

I wouldn't count on it.

No TD on this goal-to-go drive

After forcing the New England Patriots to punt on their opening drive, the Miami Dolphins marched down the field and moved inside the Patriots’ 5-yard line, but had to settle for a field goal.

Last season, Miami scored touchdowns on 83 percent of their goal-to-go drives, fourth best in the NFL.

Following that drive, the Dolphins have punched it in three times in six such drives this season (50 percent).

Patriots committed to taking away deep ball

The New England Patriots are betting that if they take away the deep ball, the Miami Dolphins won't be able to sustain long, touchdown drives.

On the Dolphins' opening possession, the Pats were right even if it yielded a Miami field goal. We'll see if that holds up all game.

Miami takes an early 3-0 lead.

Tagovailoa connects with Berrios for first down

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa connects with fifth-year wide receiver Braxton Berrios to convert on third-and-3.

Dolphins are now in the red zone with just over three minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Patriots seeking rare fast start

The Patriots get the ball first and look to start fast, something they have struggled to do of late.

Since the start of last season, New England has only scored two opening-drive touchdowns, tied for the second-fewest in the NFL over that span.

Patriots sporting throwback 'Pat Patriot' uniforms tonight vs. Dolphins

The Patriots are wearing their red “Pat Patriot” uniforms tonight against the Dolphins. The design is modeled after the uniforms New England wore from 1984-92.

The Patriots will wear these again in Week 13 against the Chargers.

Can Dolphins deliver another 500-yard performance?

The Dolphins racked up 536 yards in their season-opening win over the Chargers, the most by any team in Week 1 since 2019 when the Ravens put up 643 against Miami.

To date, only three teams in NFL history have gained at least 500 yards in each of their first two games of a season: 1991 Bills, 1998 49ers and 2011 Patriots (1991 Bills and 2011 Patriots each reached the Super Bowl that season).

Hunter Henry made his catches count in Week 1

Patriots TE Hunter Henry led all tight ends with 56 receiving yards in Week 1 and, perhaps more importantly, all five of Henry’s catches went for a first down or a touchdown.

There were only three instances of a tight end having at least five catches and all five going for a first down or touchdown in a game last season.

What history says about 2-0 vs. 0-2 start in race for NFL postseason

The Dolphins look to improve to 2-0 with a win tonight while the Patriots are looking to avoid an 0-2 start. Just how much of a head start do 2-0 teams have on those who fall to 0-2 this week in the playoff race?

Since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002:

61 percent of teams to start 2-0 have gone on to reach the playoffs (105 of 172)
10.1 percent of teams to start 0-2 have gone on to reach the playoffs (17 of 169)

In the two seasons using the current 14-team playoff format:

11 of the 13 teams to start 2-0 reached the playoffs including both Super Bowl winners (2021 Rams and 2022 Chiefs)
11 of the 12 teams to start 0-2 missed the playoffs (all but the 2022 Bengals)

Early NFL Week 2 takeaways

Week 2 is extremely important in the NFL, as teams can quickly begin to hinder their playoff chances by starting out 0-2. A few teams that entered this season as Super Bowl contenders are facing that reality, while some others — like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons — that began the year as underdogs are surprisingly undefeated after two weeks. Will Baker Mayfield and the Bucs build off their early momentum? And how concerned should we be about Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals?

The Athletic NFL writers Dan Pompei, Mike Jones and Ted Nguyen share their takeaways on the day’s top storylines.

GO FURTHER

NFL Week 2 takeaways: Baker Mayfield is cooking, Bijan Robinson off to strong start

Some good news, some bad for the Patriots before the game

USA Today Sports

The Patriots got a mixed bag of news before Sunday Night Football.

The good news: Both of their starting guards will make their season debuts after missing last week’s game. Cole Strange was out due to a knee injury and Mike Onwenu was out due to an ankle injury. The Patriots also get back wide receiver DeVante Parker, who missed the first contest due to a knee injury.

The bad news: The Patriots will play against the Dolphins without their version of a Tyreek Hill stopper in Jonathan Jones. The cornerback had limited Hill to only seven catches on 16 targets for 88 yards over their last five matchups when lined up against each other. But Jones will miss Sunday’s game against Hill and the Dolphins due to an ankle injury he suffered Thursday.

The Patriots will also play without Trent Brown and Sidy Sow, who had been their starting offensive tackles in the final days of training camp. In their absence, Calvin Anderson will play one of the tackle spots with one of Tyrone Wheatley or Vederian Lowe at the other tackle spot.

Tua Tagovailoa stretches the field

Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa completed eight passes that gained at least 20 yards against the Chargers, most of any quarterback in Week 1 and the most he’s had in any game of his career.

Despite missing four games due to injury in 2022, Tagovailoa (seven) trails only Patrick Mahomes (nine) in games with at least five completions of 20-plus yards since the start of last season.

Al Michaels on criticism, dinner with John Madden, working with Kyle Shanahan

USA Today

Each week during the football season in this space, we will interview a different broadcaster. The goal is for readers to gain insight into how NFL and college football broadcasters approach what they do, along with some questions tied to the game they are assigned that week. Our second Q&A subject is Amazon Prime Video “Thursday Night Football” play-by-play announcer Al Michaels.

GO FURTHER

Al Michaels Q&A: On criticism, dinner with John Madden, working with Kyle Shanahan

Predictions for Dolphins vs. Patriots, other Week 2 games

Here are my game projections for the NFL’s Week 2. If you’re new to this series, I project the score for every game and the chance of victory for every team using my NFL betting model. The model phases out older data and uses data from this year as the season progresses.

My NFL betting model takes in a flurry of different metrics and creates a projection for each team. Those projections are then used to project a spread and total for each game. My model can find the chance a game covers the spread or total. I use an “edge threshold” to determine what to bet on. You can find my best bets for Week 2 here.

If there is another game with an edge and there is no bet, it’s likely because of an injury or some other circumstance that I’m not confident my model can capture.

What does the model say about tonight's game? Read more here.

GO FURTHER

NFL Week 2 model projections: Predictions for Chiefs vs. Jaguars, Dolphins vs. Patriots and every other game

Patriots have much to be encouraged about

Everything was set up perfectly for quarterback Mac Jones and the New England Patriots. Thanks to another defensive stand, they got the ball back with only 56 yards separating them from what would be an incredible come-from-behind win over the defending NFC-champion Philadelphia Eagles in the season opener.

This was a chance to prove that Jones and the offense are a different group than the one plagued by inefficiencies and incompetence a year ago. A chance to rub it in to the doubters who thought this Patriots team didn’t stand a chance against the Eagles and doesn’t have a shot at making the playoffs. And, yes, a chance with Tom Brady in the stands to pull off the kind of late comeback that he completed so many times on this field.

But that’s not how things have gone for the Patriots since No. 12 left, and that’s not how it went in last week's 25-20 loss. Instead, even on a night their defense dominated what’s supposed to be one of the league’s best offenses, they made too many unforced errors to win.

GO FURTHER

Patriots have a lot to feel good about despite squandering upset chance vs. Eagles

Recapping the Patriots' loss to Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles held on to defeat the New England Patriots 25-20 on Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Here’s what you need to know:

-New England got the ball with under two minutes remaining and 56 yards away while down five points, but couldn’t close out its final drive to score.

-Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts went 22-of-33 passing for 170 yards and one touchdown, while Patriots QB Mac Jones completed 35 of his 54 passes for 316 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

-The Eagles beat the Patriots on the ground — rushing for 97 total yards compared to New England’s 76 yards — while Philadelphia’s defense came up big in key moments.

GO FURTHER

Eagles hold on for win vs. Patriots: How Philadelphia’s defense staved off New England

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