Patriots' Playoff Hopes Die With Loss To Dolphins
The New England Patriots will not make the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.
With hopes of a postseason appearance on the line, and the chance to spoil the Miami Dolphins' chances of making the playoffs, the Patriots (6-8) lost to Miami (9-5) 22-12 in Week 15.
Despite it being a close one with mental errors occurring by both teams throughout the 60 minutes of game play, the Brian Flores-led squad showed everyone that the Buffalo Bills aren't the only team rising in the AFC East.
Pitching a shutout in the first half which gave the Patriots a 6-0 lead at halftime, New England defense couldn't contain rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins' rushing attack. Undrafted rookie running back Salvon Ahmed had a career day against the Patriots, carrying the rock 21 times for 114 yards and one touchdown. Miami's backfield accumulated 242 total yards on the ground, which was a season high. Tagovailoa completed 20-of-26 passes for 145 yards, two rushing touchdowns and an interception. The poor performance by New England's defense seemed to begin right after reigning Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore exited the game in the second quarter after suffering a non-contact leg injury.
To make matters worse, New England's offense was its usual self; they failed to score a touchdown, struggled to move the football through the air, but were efficient on the ground. Unfortunately, trailing from behind put a damper on a very efficient day by Sony Michel, who started in place of injured second-year back Damien Harris. Michel carried the football 10 times for 74 yards.
"Yeah, well, it's obviously a disappointing day for us," Bill Belichick said after the game. "We didn't do anything really well enough to win the game. We just didn't coach well enough. Didn't ... Missed opportunities and Miami was just better than we were today. That's the bottom line. We all ... Just came up short. To win these games, we got to do a better job. I got to do a better job and collectively as a staff and a team, we've got to perform better than this."
The loss to the Dolphins means that the Patriots will fail to make the playoffs for the first time since 2008. New England's loss also means that they will finish with a regular season record at or below .500 for the first time since 2000 (the Patriots went 5-11 that year, which was Bill Belichick's first season as New England's head coach).
Even worse - Miami's chances of making the playoffs have gotten stronger with win over the six-time Super Bowl champions. They sit still as the seventh seed in the AFC with two games remaining in the regular season.
With two games remaining on their schedule - against the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, respectively - the evaluation process should fully begin for the Patriots coaching staff. Now that they know a definitive date as to when their season will end, it's time to play some of their younger players more often, that way they can fully comprehend what they have on the roster as they begin the pre-draft process in January.
