Ronnie Brown, who sustained a devastating knee injury against the Patriots last season (at a time when he was leading the NFL in rushing yards, total yards and average per carry) is back with a vengeance. On Sunday, he absolutely destroyed the New England Patriots. By the time the game was over, Ronnie had carried 17 times for 113 yards (a 6.7-yard average). He had his name on all 5 Fins’ touchdowns, leading to an impressive 38-13 win in Foxboro. Not only did he run for 4 TDs (a team record), but he also threw for another. He had touchdown runs of 2, 5, 15 and 62 yards. His 9-yard touchdown pass on a rollout could not have been more on target if he walked up to Anthony Fasano and placed it directly into his hands.
The Fins are definitely an enigma. In the season opening loss to the Jets, they managed to keep it close despite not playing all that well and still had a chance to win it at the end. Last week in Arizona they were flat-out embarrassed. This week, when the football world gave them no chance against a 2-0 Brady-less Patriots’ team, they played hard, made few mistakes and took it to the Patriots, ending their 21-game regular season winning streak (not to mention the Fins’ 12-game losing streak on the road). Coincidentally, the Fins were also the last team to beat the Patriots in the regular season, beating them 21-0 on December 10, 2006.
A new and very imaginative Dolphins’ offensive formation played a key role in this victory. Ronnie Brown was the lone person in the backfield with Ricky Williams and Chad Pennington both lining up wide. The first time they ran the formation, Ricky went in motion and Ronnie faked the handoff before taking it up the middle for a 2-yard run that made the score 7-0. The formation was used again 4 more times and continued to work as the Fins mixed up the plays they ran from that formation. It was the formation used when Ronnie threw his touchdown pass. The unusual formation seemed to confuse the Patriots and sparked the Dolphins’ offense.
Complimenting Ronnie in the backfield was Ricky Williams who ran 16 times for 98 yards on the day (a 6.1-yard average). Leading the offense was veteran QB Chad Pennington who started off completing only 1 of 3 for 6 yards before getting hot. He didn’t miss another pass in the first half and only missed 1 pass in the second half. He finished 17 of 20 (85.0%) for 226 yards, which gave him an impressive 113.8 QB rating for the day.
Meanwhile, the defense did not give up a long completion for the first time this season and also effectively stopped the run (limiting the Pats’ to 79 yards rushing). The Patriots were forced to play catch-up, but fill-in QB Matt Cassel was unable to get the Patriots close in the second half. The only scare came after the Pats made it 28-13 in the third quarter on a touchdown following an 81-yard kick return by Ellis Hobbs that had the Pats starting at the Miami 23-yard line.
Sunday’s defensive star was big-mouth Joey Porter who last week told the disbelieving football world that the Fins were going to beat the Pats. Joey put his effort where his mouth was as he got 3 of the Dolphins’ 4 sacks on the day. And he visibly took delight in doing so. The defense also forced two turnovers, an interception and a fumble. In reality it was 3 turnovers, but the zebras took an interception away when they flagged Vonnie Holliday for roughing the passer. It was a flagrantly bad call as Holliday actually hit Cassel while he was still in the act of throwing. The interception that wasn’t was clearly caused by the hit which came before the ball left Cassel’s hand. A tough call to say the least, especially since Holliday neither hit Cassel on the head, nor used his own helmet to hit Cassel. It was a hard hit for sure, but this is the NFL, not flag football!
The stats were as one-sided as the final score would suggest. Miami outgained New England 461-216. Perhaps most telling was the 216-79 differential for the respective running games. The only negative for the Fins in this great win was their special teams which gave up a number of big kickoff returns. That is something that will have to be corrected.
All in all, it was an incredible day for the Fins in Foxboro. The boys in aqua and orange did not look like the same team that got embarrassed so badly in Arizona just last week. Now, with the bye week upon us, they will get to take some well-earned time off. Let’s hope that when they return from the upcoming bye week, the same team that pummeled the Pats shows up against the Chargers. And let’s hope that Ronnie again comes back with a vengeance.
