Patriots-Dolphins LIVE Blog: Pats Improve To 6-2 With 27-17 Win Over Miami
BOSTON (CBS) - Follow along for all the updates from the Patriots-Dolphins showdown at Gillette Stadium!
FINAL -- Patriots 27, Dolphins 17: Whatever Bill Belichick said to his team in the locker room at halftime, it worked.
The Patriots scored 24 unanswered points in the second half, scoring two touchdowns off of Miami turnovers.
After a 25-yard first half from Brady, he finished the day with 116 yards with a touchdown and a pick. Maybe his biggest play was made with his feet though, as he scrambled for eight yards and key first down on a fourth quarter fourth-and-four.
Stevan Ridley also played a major part of the Patriots' turnaround in the second half, finishing the day with 79 yards on 14 carries and capping off New England's scoring with a three-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
After a tough first half, the defense put the pressure on Tannehill and forced him to make mistakes in the second half. They pitched a shutout over the final 30+ minutes of the game, and finished with six sacks, two fumble recoveries and a pair of interceptions on the afternoon.
The Patriots are now 6-2 on the season, and a perfect 4-0 at Gillette. Up next is a visit by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and then the Patriots will enjoy their bye week before a Monday night tilt against the Panthers in Carolina.
We'll have plenty of coverage on this one throughout the afternoon, so stick with CBSBostonsports.com! You can also catch full postgame shows on 98.5 The Sports Hub and on WBZ-TV.
4th Quarter, 2:00 -- Patriots 27, Dolphins 17: After the blocked kick, the Pats offense can't get 10 yards on three tries and will have to punt after the two minute warning.
Ridley picked up nine yards on three carries, and is up to 79 yards on the ground for the day.
4th Quarter, 2:42 -- Patriots 27, Dolphins 17: Miami marched down the field after a HUGE first down conversion on a third-and-23, but they stalled when Rob Ninkovich sacked Tannehill on third-and-three at the New England 15.
Sturgis lined up for a 38-yarder to make it a one-score game, but Chandler Jones got one of his gigantic mitts on the ball and blocked it.
And there was no pushing penalty called on that one. Pats take over at their own 36 with under three minutes to go.
4th Quarter, 7:14 -- Patriots 27, Dolphins 17: Brady was sacked and fumbled two plays after picking up the first down, but Miami was called for an illegal bat on the play and instead it turned into a Patriots first down.
It was a tough call, as it looked as though Miami defensive end Olivier Vernon was trying to pick up the fumble rather than poke it upfield.
But four plays later, Stevan Ridley found the end zone from three yards out to give the Patriots a 27-17 lead.
That's 14 points by the Patriots off of Miami turnovers today, and the Phins haven't scored since Stugis' 52-yard field goal late in the second half.
4th Quarter, 9:35 -- Patriots 20, Dolphins 17: After some fancy footwork by Blount, the Patriots found themselves facing a fourth and four at the Miami 34.
Going against the wind, the Patriots decided to go for it, and with all his targets covered Brady rumbled eight yards for the first down.
It wasn't pretty or majestic by any means, but it worked.
4th Quarter, 13:10 -- Patriots 20, Dolphins 17: Teamwork is a great thing, especially on defense.
After the Dolphins picked up a pair of first downs to start the quarter, Tannehill went deep to Mike Wallace down the sidelines. Devin McCourty was there to defend the pass, and as he went out of bounds, tipped it to Marquise Cole for the pick. Cole did a great job to get both feed down inbounds.
While that was good news for the secondary, there is some bad news. Kyle Arrington is out for the rest of this one with a groin injury, so we'll see a lot more of Cole.
End 3rd Quarter -- Patriots 20, Dolphins 17: Stephen Gostkowski gives the Patriots their first lead of the day with a 48-yard field goal, but the Pats have to be upset they didn't put up more points.
After Solder's hold, the Pats picked up just 10 yards on a second-down carry by Ridley. Brady couldn't hook up with Danny Amendola on first and third down passes, though Amendola had a bad drop on the third down attempt.
That's 20 unanswered points by the Patriots though, following up one of their worst halves of football in a long time with their best quarter of the season.
3rd Quarter, 0:18 -- Patriots 17, Dolphins 17: After the Patriots lucked out on a third down hold on the Dolphins that gave them a first (after Brady forced a pass to a triple-covered Gronkowski again), a hold by Nate Solder wipes out a beautiful Gronko touchdown catch and his spike that followed.
The Patriots are currently at the Miami 30, and just called their first time out to keep the wind on their side.
3rd Quarter, 2:34 -- Patriots 17, Dolphins 17: Logan Ryan nearly had his second pick-six in as many weeks.
The Pats brought the blitz on a third-and-two, and Tannehill's pass intended for tight end Dion Simms nearly landed in the hands of Ryan.
After the offense went three-and-out, the Pats D forces the Dolphins to do the same. Brady will take over at their own 34.
3rd Quarter, 4:01 -- Patriots 17, Dophins 17: Nothing doing for the Pats on that possession, as they go three-and-out for the second time this quarter.
3rd Quarter, 4:50 -- Patriots 17, Dolphins 17: The Pats will get the ball back after a nice stand by the defense.
The Dolphins picked up a first down on a 20 yard completion by Tannehill to Matthews, Miami's longest play of the game, but the Pats forced three straight incompletions and Miami had to punt.
Kyle Arrington and Alfonzo Dennard made good plays on first and second down to break things up.
The Pats will now take over on their own 31-yard line after a seven-yard punt return by Julian Edelman.
3rd Quarter, 6:42 -- Patriots 17, Dolphins 17: Well that escalated quickly.
After not scoring a third quarter touchdown in the first seven weeks of the season, the Patriots now have two in the last 1:46.
Brandon Bolden ran it in from two yards out three plays after the fumble, and all of a sudden we have a tie ball game at Gillette.
3rd Quarter, 7:43 -- Dolphins 17, Patriots 10: How things change so quickly in the NFL.
The Pats take advantage of Miami's bad offensive line, and rookie Logan Ryan gets to Tannehill for the sack and a forced fumble. Rob Ninkovich (who else!) picked it up and ran it into the end zone, but was ruled down at the Miami 12.
This is the second straight week that Ryan has come up with a big play on defense. Now we'll see if the Pats can tie it up with great field position.
3rd Quarter, 8:28 -- Dolphins 17, Patriots 10: Here's something we haven't seen from the Pats yet this season; a third-quarter touchdown.
Brady and company put together a five play, 65-yard drive capped off by a 14-yard touchdown from Brady to rookie Aaron Dobson. Brady was under heavy pressure and was hit as he made the throw, but found Dobson in the end zone to make it a 17-10 game.
Dobson made a nice double-move to fake out his defender and get open.
Ridley started the drive off with a 23 yards run (a run on first down! Who'da thunk it?) and Brady hit Gronk over the middle of the field two plays later for another 23 yards.
Brady now sits fourth all-time with 343 passing touchdowns.
3rd Quarter, 10:13 -- Dolphins 17, Patriots 3: Big break for the Patriots, as the Caleb Strugis misses a 46-yarder that would have put Miami up by three scores.
The Dolphins had their way with the Patriots defense again until they got into the Pats' red zone. After Mike Wallace took an end-around eight yards to the New England 19, he dropped a potential touchdown catch on second down.
Then the Pats brought the blitz on third down, and Rob Ninkovich hit Tannehill and Dont'a Hightower finished it off for New England's first sack of the day.
3rd Quarter, 14:10 -- Dolphins 17, Patriots 3: New half, same ineffective Patriots offense.
After an incomplete pass to Aaron Dobson on first down, Brady stumbled over Steven Ridley on second down and was hit as he threw. Then Odrick got to Brady for his second half of the day and a seven-yard loss on third own.
Halftime -- Dolphins 17, Patriots 3: Brady takes a knee, and the Patriots head into the locker room after one of their worst halves of football.
The Pats are pretty lucky to only be down 14 points, as they picked up just 59 yards of offense. They have just five first downs (compared to Miami's 13), and have gone just 2-for-5 on third down (Miami is 6-for-10). Brady's 25 passing yards are the lowest for him since 2003.
The longest play by the Patriots in the first half was an eight-yard run by Brandon Bolden.
The Dolphins are dominating the clock, holding the ball for over 19 minutes in the first half.
As for the New England defense, they looked good against the run early on but got shredded by Lamar Miller as the game went on. He has 63 yards on 13 carries, while Daniel Thomas has added 40 yards on seven carries to go with his five-yard touchdown reception.
2nd Quarter, 0:30 -- Dolphins 17, Patriots 3: The Patriots come up with a big third down stop as Devin McCourty breaks up a possible touchdown pass to tight end Charles Clay, but Miami tacks on three more points after a 46-yard drive.
Brady and company will have 30 seconds to make something happen, or head into halftime down by two touchdowns.
2nd Quarter, 3:43 -- Dolphins 14, Patriots 3: The Pats get on the board thanks to a Stephen Gostkowski 34-yard field goal, but they probably shouldn't even have those three points.
New England was bailed out by a phantom pass interference call on Miami, on a play that Brady forced the ball to triple-covered Gronk downfield.
The call put the Pats at the Miami 33, and they picked up another first down on the way, but Brandon Bolden tripped over Logan Mankins on a third-and-two run and lost a yard, setting up the Gostkowski kick.
The Patriots have picked up just 60 yards on 23 plays, and Brady has just 25 passing yards.
2nd Quarter, 7:16: Sebastian Vollmer just went down on the field, and it was pretty obvious he was in a lot of pain given the amount of yelling he did into the ground.
He was rolled up on on a Ridley run, as Miami defensive tackle Randy Starks fell on his right leg. That leg placed in an air-cast, and Vollmer was carted off the field. The Pats announced shortly after that he would not return in this one.
The Patriots offensive line has been so-so at best this season, and losing Vollmer will put a lot of pressure on Marcus Cannon.
If it wasn't already, this could be a long day for Tom Brady.
2nd Quarter, 9:35: We have a Stevan Ridley sighting!
The back gets the first two carries of this drive, picking up four yards on first down and seven yards on second. So Ridley has as many first downs on two carries as the Pats offense had in the entire first quarter.
2nd Quarter, 9:55 -- Dolphins 14, Patriots 0: The Miami offense is doing whatever they want against the Patriots defense right now.
Tannehill drove his Dolphins 58 yards down the field, and capped it all off with another touchdown pass, this one to running back Donald Thomas. With Miami set up at the Pats' five-yard line, Tannehill faked a handoff and found Thomas over the middle for a five-yard score to give the Phins a 14-0 lead.
Miami is now 6-for-9 on third down, and also picked up a big fourth-and-one conversion on a 15-yard run by Thomas.
The Dolphins already have 127 yards of offense and 10 first downs, compared to the Patriots' 17-yards and one first down.
2nd Quarter, 14:28 -- Dolphins 7, Patriots 0: Not a good start to the second quarter, as Brady gets sacked by Jared Oderick.
He went down hard, and then got a knee to the face by Oderick, who followed up his sack with the Pee Wee Herman dance.
Stevan Ridley was not used at all in the first quarter, with Blount picking up four yards on four carries and Bolden rushing for 10 yards on two carries.
End of 1st -- Dolphins 7, Patriots 0: The first 15 minutes are in the books with the Pats trailing by a touchdown.
They did just pick up their first first down of the game on a nice short pass to Danny Amendola. The Pats needed a yard, and he got them three on his first catch of the game.
But the Pats will face another third down when the second quarter gets underway.
They picked up just 24 yards on offense in the first quarter. Ugly stuff by the Patriots.
1st Quarter, 1:40 -- Dolphins 7, Patriots 0: The Dolphins put together a pretty decent drive, but the Patriots defense finally make a stop on third down.
Miami got into New England territory after converting a pair of third downs, giving them a 5-for-5 start on third down, but the Patriots secondary came up with a stop on third-and-five as Tannehill went looking for Rishard Matthews over the middle. Both Steve Gregory and Cole were there to knock down the pass and force a Miami punt.
The Pats will now take over on their own 11-yard line.
One injury note, as Miami receiver Brandon Gibson left with a knee injury.
1st Quarter, 5:30 -- Dolphins 7, Patriots 0: Pats go three-and-out on their seconds offensive drive, and some boos rain down at Gillette.
Blount got carries on first and second down, gaining four yards but then losing two. On third down, Brady felt the pressure and threw it away looking for a double-covered Gronkowski on the sidelines.
1st Quarter, 6:32 -- Dolphins 7, Patriots 0: 10 plays after the Brady pick, the Dolphins find the end zone and have an early 7-0 lead.
After Miami got inside the 10, the Patriots stopped them on first and second-and-goal, but on third-and-goal Brandon Gibson broke away from Marquice Cole in the end zone and caught a four-yard touchdown pass from Tannehill.
Gibson was actually open twice on the play, and Tannehill bought himself a few extra seconds with a scramble. Cole overran Gibson going to the corner of the end zone, and now the Dolphins have an early 7-0 lead.
That's what happens when a special-teamer is relied on in the end zone.
1st Quarter, 11:59: Well, the Patriots first offensive possession didn't last long.
On just the second play of the drive, Brady was picked off by Dimitri Patterson as he looked for Rob Gronkowski. Patterson made a great play to get in front of Gronk, thought he pass was a little behind the tight end. That's now four straight games that Brady has thrown a pick.
The Dolphins start at the New England 40.
1st Quarter, 13:00: Very good first series by the Patriots defense, as they hit a pair of Miami running backs for losses on first and second down.
Chris Jones got to Lamar Miller for a 2-yard loss on first down, and then Brandon Spikes followed that up by getting to Marcus Thigpen for a 1-yard loss. On third down, Tannehill went to Brian Hartline, who picked up just six yards before being stopped by Alfonzo Dennard.
1:02 p.m.: The Patriots won opening toss and defer to the second half. The Dolphins will receive ball to open the game.
12:30 p.m.: Given the way last week's game against the New York Jets ended, you know the Patriots will be extra hungry to pull out a win against another divisional foe this afternoon.
The Patriots welcome the 3-3 Miami Dolphins to Gillette Stadium for their fourth AFC East battle of the season, and you know how important Bill Belichick views divisional matchups.
Tom Brady, who is 10-1 against the Phins at Gillette, will have Danny Amendola and Rob Gronkowski on the field for the first time this season, as Amendola is active after missing last week's loss to the Jets with a concussion. So Brady will have almost his full arsenal of weapons on the field, minus Shane Vereen, and maybe that will lead to some better production from the offense.
Expect better timing from Gronkowski in his second week back, as he caught just eight of the 17 passes that went his way against New York.
One thing to continue to watch is Brady's throwing hand, as a photo of him with his middle and ring finger tapped together surfaced on Saturday. Brady was seen flexing his finger last week on the sidelines, so it's something worth watching in this one. But according to those watching him warm up, Brady is paying no attention to the finger and delivering sharp and crisp passes.
On defense the Patriots will be without star corner Aqib Talib (hip) for the second week, so it will be up to Alfonzo Dennard, Kyle Arrington and rookie Logan Ryan to shut down the Miami passing game. Ryan had some good plays last week against the Jets, and we'll see if he can keep that going.
The key to the defense will be to get to Ryan Tannehill, who has been sacked 26 times so far this season. All that pressure has led to seven turnovers in his last three games -- all Miami losses. Defense end Andre Carter, who had 10 sacks for the Patriots in 2011, is active for this one, and should make his season debut for the Patriots.
It's a beautiful day for football at Gillette Stadium, and we'll bring you all the updates before, during and after this one!
Tune in to Patriots-Dolphins at 1 p.m. on Sunday on 98.5 The Sports Hub and WBZ-TV — the flagship stations of the New England Patriots. After the game, tune in to Patriots 5th Quarter on WBZ and three full hours of postgame coverage on 98.5 The Sports Hub!
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