3 Matchups to Watch in Patriots' Week 1 Game vs. Dolphins
The Patriots-Dolphins divisional rivalry has been one-sided over the last decade or so, especially when the two teams faced off in Foxboro.
New England’s 10-game home winning streak against Miami came to a sudden end Week 17 last year, however, when Ryan Fitzpatrick and company came to town and stole a 27-24 win. That loss cost the Patriots a first-round bye and wound up being Tom Brady’s last regular season game with the team.
The Sunday afternoon matchup between the two teams will be the start of the post-Brady era for New England, marking the biggest shift in the rivalry since 2000. But even with the future Hall of Famer gone, there are plenty of notable head-to-head bouts that could decide the winner.
PatriotMaven is breaking down the three most important matchups before every game all season long, starting with Sunday’s game against the Dolphins.
N’Keal Harry vs. Byron Jones
It would be an understatement to say Harry’s rookie season was a disappointment.
After missing the first nine games due to injury, the first-round pick recorded just 12 catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns over his last seven appearances. Harry racked up over 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns from scrimmage in his three-year career at Arizona State, but that dynamism and consistency was not on display in Foxboro last season.
With Brady and Mohammed Sanu gone, however, Harry will have to take on a completely new role in the Patriots’ offense in 2020 – a campaign that will start with him getting matched up with former Pro Bowler Byron Jones.
The former Dallas Cowboy has only picked off two passes in his five NFL seasons, but Jones is still a top-level cornerback, shown in the five-year, $82.5 million contract he signed this past offseason.
Jones is dealing with a hamstring injury, so even if he does take the field Sunday, he might not be at 100%. Harry has a four-inch height advantage on him, so if Harry’s jump-ball abilities and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ creative playcalling are up to par, the Patriots could exploit Jones’ shortcomings and win this matchup.
If that doesn’t happen, Jones could very well shut down Harry and make him a non-factor in the passing game in Cam Newton’s Patriots debut, severely limiting New England’s offense in its first post-Brady season-opener.
Stephon Gilmore vs. DeVante Parker
Gilmore won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2019, and rightfully so. He led the NFL in interceptions and passes defended, and he helped establish the Patriots’ pass defense as one of the best the league has seen since Seattle’s Legion of Boom.
But that all went out the window in Week 17.
Parker torched Gilmore for 137 yards on eight catches and helped the Dolphins pull off the major upset to end the regular season last year. After four years of failing to meet his first-round expectations, Parker posted his first 1,000-yard season in 2019. Most of his damage was done from Week 11 on, when he racked up five touchdowns and 104.7 receiving yards per game.
The Gilmore-Parker matchup will be the deciding factor in how successful the Dolphins’ air attack is Sunday. Between Devin and Jason McCourty, J.C. Jackson and Jonathan Jones, the Patriots’ secondary is otherwise easily equipped to take on the rest of Miami’s inexperienced pass-catchers.
But Parker has the potential to break the game wide open – as seen in Week 17 last year – meaning the Patriots’ success on the defensive side of the ball is very much reliant on Gilmore’s ability to stop him.
Austin Jackson vs. Chase Winovich
The Dolphins’ offensive line was one of the worst in the NFL last season. Their unit was ranked 32nd in the league in run blocking and 27th in pass blocking according to Football Outsiders, and they allowed a tied-for-league-high 58 sacks.
To Miami’s credit, it did try its best to remedy those weaknesses in the offseason.
The biggest addition the Dolphins made to their offensive line was drafting former USC left tackle Austin Jackson with the 18th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Jackson was First Team All-Pac-12 in 2019, and his 6-foot-5, 322-pound frame gives him great size right off the bat.
For as high as Jackson’s ceiling is, though, he is still a raw prospect.
In his first NFL start, Jackson will be facing off against a Patriots pass rush that recorded the seventh-most sacks in the league in 2019. Linebackers Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins and Kyle Van Noy are gone – Hightower for coronavirus-related reasons and the other two because of free agency – but there are still solid veterans who will be giving Jackson trouble.
Winovich is the Patriots’ top edge rusher returning in 2020, with his 5.5 sacks and 10 quarterback hits last year demonstrating his high-level ability to get into the backfield even as a rookie. 1.5 of those sacks came against the Dolphins in Week 2, and his snap count should only go up this season.
He won’t be the only one attacking Jackson on Sunday, but Winovich is arguably the most dynamic and elusive, making him a difficult matchup for a rookie tackle. Jackson has the tools to shut Winovich down, and doing so would give Fitzpatrick ample time to pick apart the Patriots over the middle of the field.
