Dolphins Upend New England in Season Opener
The battle of Alabama quarterbacks came down to defenses making big plays, and it was the Miami Dolphins who came up with the biggest and the latest to secure an opening-day victory at New England.
Cornerback Xavien Howard forced and recovered a fumble inside the Miami 10-yard line with 3:31 left in the fourth quarter and the Dolphins held on for 17-16 victory at Gillette Stadium.
The Dolphins takeaway came after Tua Tagovailoa threw his first interception of the season when he threw the ball downfield to avoid a sack and was picked off by cornerback Jonathan Jones.
The turnover gave the Patriots the ball at midfield and they moved the ball to a first-and-10 from the Miami 11 before Damien Harris fumbled.
Tagovailoa ran for a touchdown and passed for another, a 3-yard connection with former Alabama teammate Jaylen Waddle to give Miami a 17-10 lead early in the third quarter.
New England quarterback Mac Jones, who succeeded Tagovailoa at Alabama, passed for 281 yards and one touchdown, but couldn't help the Patriots do better than scoring one touchdown on four trips inside the 20.
Tagovailoa finished 16-for-27 for 202 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
The Dolphins were able to win despite New England having significant advantages in total yards (393-258), time of possession (36:43-23:17) and third-down conversions (11-16 to 4-11).
The Dolphins offense couldn't have gotten to a better start, putting together a magnificent opening drive.
It covered 80 yards in 10 plays and ended with Tagovailoa's 3-yard touchdown run when the New England defense bit on a fake handoff and gave the quarterback an uncontested path to the end zone.
The fun began with a 17-yard completion from Tua to Waddle and the drive also featured an 18-yard completion to running back Salvon Ahmed out of the backfield.
The Dolphins had an important to a big lead early after Zach Sieler recovered a fumble by rookie Rhamondre Stevenson that was caused by safety Eric Rowe around midfield, but a third-down sack ended the drive.
New England scored the next 10 points, first on a 27-yard field goal by Folk that was followed by a touchdown pass from Jones to wide receiver Nelson Agholor.
The Dolphins tied the score on the final play of the first half when Jason Sanders kicked a 48-yard field goal to cap a drive that began with a 36-yard completion from Tua to Waddle.
The Dolphins had another brilliant drive to start the second half, going 75 yards in nine plays.
The big play on the drive was a 30-yard completion on an early third-and-8. The drive also featured a 15-yard run by Myles Gaskin.
After taking that 17-10 lead, the Dolphins turned to their defense, which did a lot of bending but didn't break.
And the result was a big victory that left the Dolphins as the only AFC East team with a 1-0 record after the Bills and Jets lost during the 1 p.m. games.
