Defensive/Special Teams Thoughts Before Week 15 Patriots Game

The Miami Dolphins defense will face an entirely different challenge this week against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium.

One week after facing the top passing offense in the NFL, the Dolphins will be going against a team that's much better at running the ball than passing it.

The Patriots will go into the game ranked only 29th in passing offense but fifth in the league in rushing yards per game.

New England rushed for only 107 yards in its 24-6 loss against the Los Angeles Rams in the Week 14 Thursday night game, but has seven games with 150 or more rushing yards.

The first of those, of course, came against the Dolphins in Week 1 when the Patriots rushed for 217 yards on their way to a 21-11 victory.

Clearly, job one for the Dolphins defense Sunday will be containing that Patriots ground game and forcing New England's erratic passing game to produce.

"I think we are comfortable with where we’re at and we’ve got to make strides to get better each time we take the field," linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. "They are really, really good. Their O-line is amazing. (Offensive Line Coach) Cole Popovich does a really good job getting those guys ready to go. That rookie (Michael Onwenu) is playing really well and (Jermaine) Eluemunor is playing well. The backs, Damien Harris is playing really well. Sony (Michel)’s still got juice, obviously James White is just all around amazing. Then you’ve got Cam Newton who still runs the ball really well. He’s doing a lot of things well. They do a good job. You can splash in the receivers too. They all run the ball pretty well too when they get the ball on sweeps and different things like that. (Head coach) Bill (Belichick) has them playing hard and he’s a really good coach and they are doing a really good job running the ball.”

Yes, there's some pregame hyperbole here, but there's no question that what should concern the Dolphins defense in this matchup is the New England running game.

-- The good news from the Dolphins standpoint is that the run defense has been a lot better in recent weeks. The Dolphins didn't allow more than 94 rushing yards in any of their past three games while holding each opponent under 4 yards per attempt. Against Kansas City, the Dolphins held rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire to only 32 yards on 16 attempt, the only blip on the rush defense's performance being the 32-yard touchdown by Tyreek Hill off a jet sweep.

--OK, it's fair to point out that the two opponents before the Chiefs were the lowly Jets and Bengals, but then we also need to mention the absence of Christian Wilkins the last time the Dolphins had a bad game with their run defense, which was the Denver game Nov. 22.

-- The Patriots might have wide receiver Julian Edelman back for this game after he returned to practice this week, and that's clearly another element that would make their offense more worrisome.

-- Bill Belichick's decision to stick with Cam Newton as his starting quarterback after the loss against the Rams and the poor showing by the offense should not have been seen as good news by the Dolphins or their fans. On the contrary, Newton is a lot more problematic for the Dolphins defense than Jarrett Stidham would be because Stidham wouldn't be expected to do much against the Miami secondary. Newton, on the other hand, can hurt the Dolphins with his running ability.

-- We've sung the praises of safety Eric Rowe all season — and with good reason — for his coverage (last week notwithstanding because Travis Kelce is a problem for everybody), so it's only fair to acknowledge that Nik Needham has been on a par when it comes to coverage. In fact, Needham's opponent passer rating when targeted (per pro-football-reference.com) is 72.7 through 13 games, even better than Rowe's 78.7. After some shaky outings early in the season, Needham has been outstanding in coverage over the past couple of months.

-- It would be great to see Xavien Howard get a pick for a sixth consecutive game, though he likely won't get that many opportunities against New England. Newton attempted fewer than 20 passes each of the past three games.

-- Jason Sanders is still having an amazing season, but his Pro Bowl chances took a bit of a hit last weekend after he had his second miss of 2020 and Justin Tucker won the Monday night Baltimore-Cleveland game with a 55-yard field goal. Fan voting for the Pro Bowl ended Thursday, and players and coaches were scheduled to vote Friday. That means that Sanders can't do anything else to help his candidacy. Sanders is 30-for-32 on field goal attempts this season and 30-for-30 on extra points, while Tucker is 22-for-24 on field goals and 39-for-40 on extra points. Tucker, though, has the advantage of his reputation as the best kicker in the NFL. The fan voting leader has been Rodrigo Blankenship of the Colts, and he's 27-for-30 on field goals and 35-for-37 on extra points. It says here it will be either Tucker or Sanders who gets the nod as the AFC Pro Bowl kicker.

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