Patriots Beat the Dolphins, Laid Foundation for Their 2020 Season

Cam Newton showed off his dual-threat ability all day against the Dolphins. (Photo: SportingNews.com/Getty Images)

There's barely been a season in my lifetime that's consisted of more uncertainty for the Patriots at its onset than this one. Even when I developed a likely Week 1 roster, in spite of it being largely accurate, there were more question marks from top to bottom than I've ever witnessed.

With all that being said, the Patriots were in full control at the line of scrimmage throughout nearly the entire duration of their season opener, a 21-11 win over Miami. Still, it was far from a conventional performance for them.

Roster Recap/Updates

Let's start with the roster. Like I said, not much of its formation shocked me, but there were a few inclusions and omissions worth noting – including ones that I missed and may have misled you on.

Since this announcement, four more players have been added to IR: NT Beau Allen, RB Damien Harris, OT Yodny Cajuste, and WR Gunner Olszewski. They'll all be back before too much time passes, though – as allowed by a loophole in this season's rulebook.

As always, The Patriots also signed their practice squad players, but they are allowed to carry 16 members this season. Among that group were RB JJ Taylor and LB Cassh Maluia – who were promoted to the 53-man roster ahead of Week 1 – along with DT Xavier Williams and kicker Nick Folk, who were active as beneficiaries from a new rule that allows two practice squad players to suit up on game day.

Without getting too much deeper into the weeds of the rules, I can assure you that you'll see a lot more roster movement this season. For example, even though Folk was temporarily promoted, he will revert back to the practice squad unless New England chooses to keep him active for another week; but they can only do so twice before he is granted free agency, meaning the next time will be the final time the Patriots can do so before offering him a more lucrative contract and cutting ties with another player.

Week 1 Personnel

That sets the stage pretty well for Week 1, although it wasn't the final oddity that took place prior to kickoff. Three of the Patriots' game-day inactives were particularly notable.

Aside from personal allegiances to third-round rookie Dalton Keene (who was dealing with an injury), deactivating second-rounder Josh Uche seemed rather surprising, and Jarrett Stidham was obviously the talk of (most of) the offseason for New England.

The others didn't impact the game plan a ton, but Uche did drastically. I'll discuss it in more depth shortly, but it meant playing safeties on the second level of the defense – which is something Patrick Chung had done a fair bit in the past, but it was a rare task for other defensive backs, especially young ones.

Cam Newton and the Running Game

The performance that has drawn headlines was that of the offense as a whole, but particularly Cam Newton. As much as I want to say I've never seen a Patriots offense look like it did on Sunday – which is true – I'm honestly not sure if I've ever seen any NFL offense look like that. The entire game plan Josh McDaniels drew up was short passing, zone read, and power runs; yet the Dolphins had very little answer for it.

I need to qualify this. Yes, Newton has always been as run-dominant as any of his contemporaries, but it's usually complimented with a moderate volume of pass attempts and some deep shots downfield. Not on Sunday; Newton completed 15 out of only 19 passes for 155 yards, and the longest passing play by far was a 25-yarder to tight end Ryan Izzo. He also didn't throw a single off-target pass all game, which runs counter to the notion of him being an inaccurate passer.

Newton carried the rock a team-high 15 times for 75 yards and two touchdowns. However, to only say he led the team buries the lede, in my opinion. The Patriots ran the ball 42 times – on only 63 snaps – for 217 yards and three scores. The only performance like that they've had in recent memory was the AFC Championship two seasons ago against the Chiefs, but they ran nearly 100 plays in that game.

The nature of those runs was astounding, and national media members like Dan Orlovsky of ESPN took notice. Few things get me as fired up in a quirky way as a pulling lineman, but it's usually a guard or center; the Patriots were pulling tackles, too.

The Rest of the Offense

Here's what the overall offensive snap totals looked like.

Photo via Mike Reiss on Twitter

You can pretty much ignore the two columns on the right; those are special teams snaps and percentage of reps taken. The middle two columns are the same thing for offensive plays.

I figured Izzo would get more tight end reps than anyone else this week, but I wasn't expecting him to get nearly all of them. Damiere Byrd as the leading wideout – in terms of snap count, not production – was equally surprising.

Easing Julian Edelman into the season is never a bad thing, though, and he was still productive. He and N'Keal Harry were the team's co-leaders in receptions (five), and Edelman paced the unit in yards (57, plus a 23-yard run). Harry had a costly fumble through the end zone that resulted in a turnover and wasted drive, but he looked as comfortable as he's been in the offense since he was drafted.

Per usual, the top three running backs were pretty even – in this case, almost identical. Sony Michel led the way in terms of carries (10 for 37 yards and a touchdown) while James White had the most total yards (52, with 30 coming through the air). Taylor cut into their time a bit, but a chunk of that was once the game's outcome was decided.

The only interesting point about the offensive line reps, aside from the core four starters never leaving the field, was the split – albeit an uneven one – between Jermaine Eluemunor and Michael Onwenu at right tackle. It appeared to be a scripted rotation, but both seemed solid, which is significant considering they're both converted guards.

The Ever-Evolving Defense

The defensive splits were even more interesting. The starting nose tackle, top four linebackers, and strong safety (and captain of the secondary) from last season are all gone for one reason or another – some left the organization, and others are sitting out.

Photo via Mike Reiss on Twitter

I won't ever go crazy over defensive stats like tackles or sacks. They're often predicated upon being in the right place at the right time – and in many cases, teams stay away from top opposing defenders, giving them less opportunities to accrue volume stats, or double-team them at the line of scrimmage.

However, if you want to discuss those types of stats, Jeff Howe constructed a nice weekly thread. Chase Winovich and Deatrich Wise Jr. had the most objectively-dominant outings up front, and Derek Rivers also chipped in with a sack.

Additionally, the Patriots came away with three interceptions off Ryan Fitzpatrick. Stephon Gilmore got the first, newcomer Adrian Phillips hauled in the second of the opening half, and J.C. Jackson essentially sealed the game with one of his own. All of them were results of solid pressure on the quarterback, but coverage on the back end was nonetheless strong.

What generally matters more to me – at least in terms of what's numerically measurable – is how much players stay on the field, especially for New England. It's a direct correlation to how much they're trusted; the Belichicks won't let underperforming, undisciplined players stay in the game.

First-year starting inside linebacker Ja'Whaun Bentley was among the leaders, garnering 82 percent of reps. Equally shocking, his lone backup (Brandon Copeland) barely played on defense. The cornerback trio trailing Gilmore were each on the field about three-fourths of the time, and Winovich and Joejuan Williams saw big play-time bumps from their rookie seasons.

What is Belichick Thinking?

The most perplexing thing to me – other than Adam Butler substantially out-snapping Lawrence Guy, who I view as their top defensive lineman – is the overall division of reps by position group.

Here's an outline I crafted to help illustrate that point.

Often, positional designations are subjective, but these ones are arguably more precise than calling Winovich a DE, for example – he's a true EDGE defender; his "position" is simply dependent on whether you define the system as a 3-4 or a 4-3.

Piecing Together Patrick Chung's Position

The overall point of the above chart is to highlight the heavy use of defensive backs. As I said before, rookie Josh Uche – an inside linebacker – was a healthy scratch. That won't last long, and I'm not entirely sure why it happened – although Belichick always takes rookies slowly – but it proves that the Patriots can be incredibly multiple, even if it means running a base defense with six DBs.

Phillips didn't have a great training camp, but you wouldn't know it based on his team-high nine tackles and an interception. I'm somewhat surprised he saw more time than Terrence Brooks, the lone returning player at strong safety who played much last year, but Phillips is the more talented player; knowledge of the system was my bigger concern, and also the reason why Kyle Dugger didn't play much. There will likely be situations where Brooks, Williams, and Dugger get more play – especially later in the season, in the case of Williams and Dugger – but it'll be dependent upon the personnel on the opposing offense.

The use of Williams in defending tight end Mike Gesicki also caught my eye. Perhaps you heard the reports, but that's the role Aqib Talib recently revealed that Belichick had offered him a contract to fill prior to the veteran announcing is retirement. Williams looked great there – it allowed him to be a pseudo-corner against a big, less shifty receiver whose size and speed he could match up with – but that likely won't work as well against true in-line, dual threat tight ends.

The "Teams" Unit

Special teams is very much a work in progress. Ryan Bailey didn't have a great game (39.7 yards per punt, albeit with a long of 55 and each landing inside the 20 yard line), Folk missed his only field goal attempt (although he converted on all three of his extra points), and the only kick or punt return was muffed by Damiere Byrd.

The eventual return of Gunner Olszewski will help, and the coverage units were fine as always, but the special teams as a whole were not where they needed to be, and they may not be until Olszewski – and perhaps Damien Harris – return.

On to Seattle

Overall, the opening performance was a strong one, and essentially all the Patriots could've asked for. They'll look to carry that momentum into Seattle for a Sunday Night Football showdown against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. All things considered, it's as friendly of an environment as CenturyLink Field will ever be this year, but it's still a formidable opponent, coming off a 38-25 win over the Falcons.

Will we see the same game plan on each side of the ball against Pete Carroll's squad, or will Belichick pull another rabbit out of his hat, as he's done for so many years? And what might the strategy be for guarding wideouts Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf? Only time will tell.