The New England Patriots are looking to finally get on track, while the Miami Dolphins are looking to strengthen their already considerable grip on the AFC East. If the Patriots win, they’ll be back within striking distance of Miami and all will be well. If they lose, then there’s a real chance the Dolphins will have a 3-game lead in the division after a mere four games. Here’s everything you need to know about the game. Pregame Show Early Games Rooting Guide High Import Bills @ Packers: The Patriots want the Bills to lose for pretty obvious divisional reasons. Jets @ Jaguars: The Patriots want the Jaguars to win right now. Winning the division is always the most important step for New England. Low Import Texans @ Colts: The Patriots play both teams- the Colts are next on the schedule on Thursday Night- so there isn’t much of a desire for either team to win, but they want this to be a super physical and exhausting game. A bird-in-the-hand situation suggests they want the Texans to win for the “strength of victory” tiebreaker that New England knows they have. Eagles @ Titans: The Patriots eventually play the Titans so they’ll want Tennessee to win for “strength of schedule.” Bengals @ Falcons: Because the Patriots don’t face the Bengals, go NFC team. Lions @ Cowboys: The Patriots lost to the Lions, but they want Detroit to win for “strength of schedule” purposes. No Import Buccaneers @ Bears: This game doesn’t really matter for the Patriots. Patriots Game Details Date: Sunday, September 30, 2018 Kickoff: 1:00 p.m. ET Location: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro MA SB Nation affiliate: The Phinsider TV: CBS, with Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Rich Gannon (color commentary), and Steve Tasker (sideline reporter): Live Updates Pregame updates: There’s a “good chance” that Josh Gordon will play! Take a look at the Patriots’ inactives: TE Jacob Hollister OL Ted Karras OL Cole Croston DE Keionta Davis DE Derek Rivers DE Geneo Grissom CB Eric Rowe Please click here for additional analysis and the Dolphins’ inactive players. Q1 The Dolphins received the ball to start the game and opened up the game with a 22-yard pass to Kenny Stills. That was the only first down of the drive as the Patriots forced Miami to punt from midfield. The Patriots started from the 24-yard line and a big defensive holding call by Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard on third down set the wheels in motion for Sony Michel and the Patriots offense. Michel gained 36 yards on the next three plays before the Patriots reached the red zone. Tom Brady found Josh Gordon for 13 yards on 3rd and 6 to get to the Dolphins 3-yard line, but Miami made a goal line stand and forced Stephen Gostkowski to kick a 20-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. CBS noted that this was the Patriots first lead in 9 quarters of football. The New England defense almost forced a three-and-out but a ticky-tacky defensive holding call against Jonathan Jones gave the Dolphins a new set of downs. The Patriots forced another third down and held strong, forcing another punt. Cyrus Jones made a nice return back to the 35-yard line. Tom Brady misread the Dolphins defense as Phillip Dorsett was running an in-route as Bobby McCain dropped off from his coverage of Chris Hogan and intercepted the pass. Brady’s stats over the past five quarters: 17 of 33 (51.15%) for 163 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions. Passer Rating: 50.4 Q2 The Patriots forced a three-and-out against the Dolphins defense as they’re putting together their best day in a long time. Tom Brady and company responded with a huge 55-yard touchdown pass to Cordarrelle Patterson and a 10-0 lead. Feel free to laugh at the above entry. Patterson is the 70th unique receiver to catch a touchdown pass from Tom Brady, tying Vinny Testaverde for the most in NFL history. ALERT: THE PATRIOTS HAVE FORCED BACK-TO-BACK THREE-AND-OUTS! The Patriots were unable to respond with the good field position, but a bad snap and handle by Ryan Tannehill allowed Kyle Van Noy to recover the football on the 20-yard line for great field position. James White took the very first play of the drive 20 yards on the ground for a touchdown and a 17-0 lead. The New England defense forced yet another three-and-out! That is three three-and-outs and a fumble recovery on the past four drives. Kyle Van Noy was outstanding on the edge on this drive, while Jonathan Jones is having an incredibly strong day in coverage. The Patriots used up the rest of the time in the first half as Sony Michel flexed on the final drive of the half. Tom Brady and company converted three third downs before Brady found Phillip Dorsett for an acrobatic 9-yard touchdown and a 24-0 lead. TUCK & ROLL DORSETT pic.twitter.com/Ne6UnNeHEl — Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) September 30, 2018 Oh, the Patriots get the ball after the half, too. Q3 New England and Miami traded three-and-outs to start the second half. Tom Brady and company responded with a 9 play, 59-yard drive that ate up 5 minutes of the clock and resulted in a huge third down moonshot of a pass from Brady to James White. White has 84 total yards and 2 touchdowns today as he’s become the engine of the offense. Since I made fun of Brady’s statline: 15/22 (68.2%) for 176 yards and 3 touchdowns. Passer rating: 131.8 J.C. Jackson intercepted Ryan Tannehill on his next drive to set the Patriots up on their own 10-yard line. Q4 Sony Michel recorded the first 100-yard game of his career as the Patriots marched down the field to the and Michel punched in a 10-yard scamper for a 38-0 win. Michel has 112 yards on the day. John Simon recorded a big third down sack of Ryan Tannehill to force another punt. Cyrus Jones returned it to the 43-yard line. Brady found Chris Hogan to get the ball to the 28-yard line of the Dolphins (why is Brady still in the game?) but then Brady threw a dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb interception to Minkah Fitzpatrick as he was about to be sacked. This is the second time today that Brady decided to throw an interception instead of eating the sack. Get Brady out of the game. And in garbage time, Frank Gore rumbled down the field and Brock Osweiler threw him a touchdown pass to narrow the lead to 38-7. Brian Hoyer kneeled out the clock.<doc-sep>The Miami Dolphins will visit the New England Patriots on Sunday, with the South Florida franchise looking for their first 4-0 start to a season since 1995. Dan Marino, Bernie Parmalee, and Irving Fryar were the top quarterback, running back, and receiver for the Dolphins that season, with Don Shula as the head coach. Yeah, it has been a minute. If Miami can come away with a win this week, they will extend their lead over the Patriots - who were the presumed AFC East champions prior to the start of the season - to three games, plus hold the head-to-head tie break (at least until the two teams meet again in Week 14). If the Patriots win, they end a two-game losing streak, avoid their first three-game losing streak since a four-game streak in 2002, and climb to within a game of the Dolphins in the division. You can catch all of the coverage right here in our StoryStream collection. We will link to everything that happens throughout the week below, giving you one place to keep with all things Dolphins at Patriots. You can also subscribe to the StoryStream, while will then send you an notice on FaceBook that a new story has been added to the collection. It is a great way to make sure you do not miss a single piece of news or breakdown for another Patriots Week!<doc-sep>The Dolphins might not play a bigger game than this one all season and they’ll have the majority of their lineup intact when they visit the Patriots this afternoon. The biggest question marks coming in were safety Reshad Jones and receiver DeVante Parker. Jones was out with a shoulder injury last game and, despite practicing all week, will miss this one as well. Parker made his return from a broken finger last week, but sustained a quadriceps injury in practice Thursday or Friday. He’s out, too. Coming into the game, Miami already ruled out linebacker Chase Allen (foot), defensive end Andre Branch (knee) and tight end A.J. Derby (foot). Derby’s injury means they’ll go with just two tight ends, both rookies, in Mike Gesicki and Durham Smythe. The team did not activate practice squad tight end Nick O’Leary, but can use backup offensive tackle Sam Young there in blocking situations and there’s no shortage of receivers on this roster. Here are the Dolphins’ seven inactives for this afternoon: QB David Fales QB Luke Falk TE A.J. Derby WR DeVante Parker DE Andre Branch LB Chase Allen S Reshad Jones Here are some other notes on Miami’s lineup: -- Defensive tackle Davon Godchaux was on the injury report with an ankle injury, but fully practiced all week and will play. -- Young injured his shoulder in practice this week and was listed as questionable for New England, but is healthy enough to play if needed. -- The Dolphins are listing rookie Minkah Fitzpatrick as the starter in Jones’ place. They also have second-year safety Maurice Smith and special teams ace Walt Aikens. -- Brock Osweiler remains the No. 2 quarterback after beating out Fales for the job in the preseason. He has yet to appear in a game, though. -- Adam Gase continues to list Frank Gore and Kenyan Drake as co-starters at running back, and the Dolphins have opened every game with both of them on the field.<doc-sep>
The New England Patriots rarely lose back-to-back games. Back-to-back-to-back losses? That’s almost unheard of in these parts. The Patriots, who are coming off losses to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions that dropped them to 1-2 on the young season, have not lost three consecutive games since 2002 — Tom Brady’s second season as a starter and Bill Belichick’s third as Patriots head coach. They’ll look to extend that streak Sunday when they welcome the 3-0 Miami Dolphins to Gillette Stadium. Ahead of that game, we took a look back at the few times since 2002 the Patriots have suffered back-to-back defeats to see how they typically respond in this situation. A clear trend emerged: After the Pats lose two straight, they tend to win big the following week. 2015 The losses: The Patriots lost back-to-back in Weeks 12 and 13: at the Denver Broncos 30-24 in overtime to halt their bid for an undefeated season (the Chris Harper muffed punt game) and at home against the Philadelphia Eagles 35-28 (the Nate Ebner drop kick game). The response: New England waxed the Texans 27-6 in Houston in Week 14, then easily dispatched the Tennessee Titans at home 33-16. The momentum wouldn’t last, though. The Patriots proceeded to drop both of their final two regular-season games (the Matthew Slater coin toss game against the New York Jets and the Steven Jackson game in Miami) to lose home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs. As a result, their rematch with Peyton Manning’s Broncos in the AFC Championship Game was held in Denver. The Patriots lost 20-18, and the Broncos went on to win Super Bowl 50. 2012 The losses: This was the last time the Patriots began a season 1-2. After beating up on the Titans in Week 1, they suffered a stunning 20-18 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals after Stephen Gostkowski missed a potential game-winning field goal, then lost 31-30 to the Baltimore Ravens on “Monday Night Football” in a game best remembered for the ineptitude of the replacement refs. The response: The Patriots beat down the Buffalo Bills 52-28 in Week 4, the first of 10 wins in 12 games to close out the regular season. They breezed past the Houston Texans 41-28 in the divisional round before losing again to the Ravens, this time by a final of 28-13 at home in the AFC title game.