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The Miami Dolphins, coming off a win, entered their Week 8 matchup with the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday as underdogs, and they proved why, as they left with a 24-19 loss.
The loss was Miami's sixth of the season, as they're now 1-6 through eight weeks and are just one game ahead of the winless Los Angeles Chargers for the worst record in the NFL this year.
As we continue to work through this result, let's hand out some credit and criticism to the Dolphins' studs and duds from their Week 8 loss to the Patriots.
Robinson has been getting pressure somewhat consistently this year, but it hasn't turned into a ton of sacks for the former first-round pick. That changed on Sunday, as he took down Drake Maye twice in the loss, once to end the first half and once on the first drive out of the break. The Dolphins need more of that.
Jonah Savaiinaea had a tough time against the Patriots, especially early on, as defensive lineman Corey Durden was eating him alive. The unit, as a whole, is partially responsible for Willis' five sacks as well as the lackluster day for Miami on the ground. Hopefully, things will look more cohesive if Kadyn Proctor can return for Week 9 from his concussion.
Rodriguez finished the day with the second-most tackles for Miami's defense, with eight, and Jordyn Brooks had 11. However, the rookie made this list for his forced fumble that led to the Dolphins' first points of the game. The peanut punch is what Rodriguez perfected at Texas Tech, and if he can do it successfully in Miami, the defense will benefit greatly.
As previously mentioned, the Dolphins had a tough game on the ground, especially for a rushing attack that's consistently gone over 100 yards this season. Gordon, being Miami's leading back, got most of the work and was fairly inefficient, rushing for just 69 yards on 3.6 yards per attempt. Even that was aided by an 11-yard run on the final drive, when New England was fine with giving up anything on the ground to kill the clock.
Johnson was fine coverage for the most part, but the first-round pick had one of the worst plays of the game while rushing the passer. On fourth-and-4, the Dolphins sent Johnson on a blindside blitz. He had Maye dead to rights, but he seemed to just fall to the ground instead of trying to hit the quarterback.
Luckily, the fourth-down conversion didn't lead to any points, but this was a rough look.