But they felt like they won the Super Bowl on Sunday. They ruined the Patriots’ postseason plans, knocking the Pats from the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye to a No. 3 seed and a date in the wild-card round next weekend. The Patriots have never reached the Super Bowl with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady without a first-round bye.
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“It’s awesome,” right tackle Jesse Davis said. “Let’s see how they can do coming from the ranks. It’s always fun to throw a wrench in the plans.”
Baker acknowledged that ruining the Patriots’ bye was special.
“That’s exactly what it means to us,” he said. “We came into somebody’s building, they were looking for the bye or whatever, and we ruined that. That definitely means a lot, and I’m definitely happy for this team.”
The win also was a nice accomplishment for Dolphins first-year coach Brian Flores, beating his former team in their building and wrecking their postseason plans. Flores did his best to stay measured and even-keeled in his press conference.
“Any win is a big win,” he said. “It’s not about me, really. It’s more about those players in there. They work extremely hard.”
But even Flores’s own players knew that the win meant more to their coach.
“He’s not going to say it, but we all know how much this game meant to him, and we gave everything we had,” Baker said. “Definitely happy for him, happy for the guys on this team, happy for the organization.”
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The Dolphins are led by a 37-year-old journeyman at quarterback (Ryan Fitzpatrick), and their roster is full of youngsters just trying to find their way in the NFL. But they were the better-prepared team on Sunday, thanks to several ex-Patriots now working for the Dolphins.
Cornerback Eric Rowe, who spent three seasons with the Patriots, delivered one of the biggest daggers of the day, intercepting Tom Brady in the second quarter and returning it 35 yards for a touchdown.
Rowe said the Dolphins were in zone coverage, and he knew to keep an eye on Julian Edelman.
“I knew from film study that when Brady doesn’t have his first option, he usually likes to go back to Edelman, kind of blindly throws it,” Rowe said. “So I’m going to just sit right here just in case. And he just turned and threw it, I was like, ‘Oh, there it is, boom,’ and just took it to the house.”
Rowe certainly enjoyed scoring a touchdown against his former team.
“I didn’t even know what to do, I was just so happy,” Rowe said. “I know that stadium gets loud and it gets rocking, but it was quiet. We just looked back at fans’ faces, they were just sick. They did not expect us to come out and play like this.”
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“A lot of people expected us to give up. Yeah, we had nothing to play for, but we played for each other.”
Flores and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, who was a Patriots coach from 2009-15, knew exactly how to contain the Patriots’ offense: Pressure Brady consistently, and drape Julian Edelman.
“[Brady] is an older guy, so we know he’s going to be standing in the spot. Just try to get him off the spot,” Baker said.
Brady was only sacked once but completed just 16 of 29 passes for 221 yards, while Edelman had three catches for 26 yards.
“We know obviously [Brady’s] one of the greatest, so we had to move him off his spot in the pocket, try to put pressure on him and the O-line,” Rowe said. “And stop 11 [Edelman]. That was the game plan.”
Dolphins offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo, who held the same position with the Patriots in 2014-15, also had the perfect game plan to slow down the Patriots’ pass rush.
Fitzpatrick threw for 320 yards, only took two sacks, and led three lengthy scoring drives, including a 75-yard, game-winning touchdown drive in the closing minutes.
Davis said the Dolphins bunched their three interior linemen together to prevent the Patriots’ pass rushers from running picks and stunts up front.
“We just kept the middle firm, tightened down a little bit so there wasn’t a lot of room, space between the guys, and allowed Fitz to step up,” Davis said. “We knew they were going to do speed-to-power on us, so we just kind of stayed tight and it kind of worked out.”
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The Dolphins were thrilled to hear the Patriots fans booing their team right before halftime. And the Dolphins were thrilled to end their season on the highest of notes.
“I think it means a lot for us, showing that we could do it — not on a Miami miracle, but on just coming out here and toughing it out,” Davis said. “And I know it wasn’t pretty, but we knew we didn’t have to play perfect to get a W, either.”
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin
"Happy" - Google News
December 30, 2019 at 06:39AM
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Dolphins happy to throw a wrench in Patriots’ plans - The Boston Globe
"Happy" - Google News
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