So the Patriots are headed to Miami to take on the Miami Dolphins for Monday Night Football. Who will come out on top in this division rivalry? The Dolphins have the home field advantage in this matchup, but will that be enough to drive the Dolphins to a victory.
The last time these two teams matched up they were in Foxborough, Mass where the Dolphins got blown out of the water. Patriots won that game by a score of 35-17, but wait because Jay Cutler wasn’t playing in that game instead, it was Jay’s backup Matt Moore. Matt threw 24 catches of 34 attempts totaling 215 yards. But Moore only threw 1 touchdown and 2 Interceptions.
So Moore didn’t do half bad against a rising Patriots defense minus the 2 Interceptions thrown. But Moore is back on the bench this week as Jay Cutler has made his return from I.R last week against the Broncos where he led his team to a 35-9 victory. Hold up Jay only threw 18/31 and a mere 2 of these were TD passes. So then that means that three of the touchdowns scored to get the 35 points were on the defense side of the ball.
Miami couldn’t even get a run game going against the Patriots the last time these two teams met. Only having a combined total of 67 yards between three running backs. This lack of run game against the Patriots could spell trouble for Miami, seeing that the Patriots defense has only gotten better in the weeks since there last meeting.
The Patriots have been looking a lot better since their Bye week. The defense is making plays as well as the offense. Tom Brady has made great strides toward bettering himself as well but has thrown one interception in each of the last two games.
Gronk is faced with a one-game suspension; it is likely however that Chris Hogan will play in Monday’s game, which would lighten the blow of not having Gronk out there working the secondary. Reports as say that Dion Lewis will play through illness in this week 14 match-up, if this is true it will add an element to the Patriots run game that the Dolphins may not know how to handle.
With the Patriots defense getting back on track and Malcolm Butler vowing that he’s ready to face off with the Dolphins, I think the Patriots will hold the Dolphins to a low amount of scoring.
Even though they are playing in Miami, Home field advantage won’t help when facing the Super Bowl Champs. Especially when this Patriots team is looking like the Champs they are. Looks to me like the Patriots are back on the hunt for maybe another Championship title. I think it’s a safe bet the Patriots will indeed be having sushi Monday night, winning over the Dolphins 37- 21.
Well, that does it for this look at the game, until Thursday night. Be safe and happy sporting everyone. Have a good week.