The first 30 minutes against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday were a struggle for the New England Patriots. Despite entering the Week 8 game off some extra rest and with a superior record, the team of head coach Mike Vrabel stumbled out of the gates and found itself trailing by 10 points at the half.
And yet, there was no need for panic or any drastic halftime adjustments. In fact, there was no need for any adjustment at all: the Patriots knew they didn’t have to do anything special to get back into the contest,
and they still ended up doing precisely that.
So, what was the main difference that allowed the score to turn from a 13-3 deficit to a 24-19 win? Just better execution across the board.
“Honestly, we just stopped hurting ourselves,” said wide receiver DeMario Douglas, who scored a 48-yard touchdown early in the fourth period. “We were killing ourselves in that first half. And I felt like when we got into this locker room, we knew it. We knew it, and we told ourselves, ‘Let’s settle down and take a breath and go out here and play our football, play our type of football game.’”
Patriots fans, join the game-day huddle!
Follow every snap and discuss every decision with fellow fans on the SB Nation app.
- Connect through our live game chat
- Browse with fewer ads
- Seamlessly move between communities
- Enjoy faster commenting and posting
Download the SB Nation app on iOS or Android.
“We just knew we had to lock in,” added running back Rhamondre Stevenson. “We were down in the second half, the offense really wasn’t staying on the field. I have to watch the film and things like that, but I think we were just more connected in the second half and made it work.
The numbers tell a clear story. After gaining only 97 yards on 25 plays in the first half, the team had 216 in the second. It also started finishing possessions, scoring three straight touchdowns to start pulling away in the third and fourth quarters.
The defense, meanwhile, was able to keep Miami’s offense in check both on the ground and through the air. Before a too-little-too-late touchdown drive in the late fourth quarter, the Dolphins gained only 61 yards in the second half.
“First half wasn’t us, just coming in and not being phased,” said cornerback Christian Gonzalez. “Plays aren’t always going to go your way. It’s a divisional game, regardless of records of other team or us, it’s always going to be a gritty game when you come and play on the road in the division. We were able to get in halftime, do what we had to do, make corrections, and go out and do what we did.”
“We just started to finish off drives,” added quarterback Drake Maye. “We hit some big ones which helped, and we had some catch-and-runs which were nice, and we started running football pretty well. It was nice to see that and then we started playing complementary football.”
Head coach Mike Vrabel put his team on track to doing so at the half.
He didn’t need any grand gestures or rallying cries to do so, though. All the reigning NFL Coach of the Year had to do was remind his players of their cultural principles and the message he had been preaching all year long.
“He was just saying, ‘Well, we wanted to get off to a fast start and we didn’t do that,’” said Maye. “He was saying to just band together, stick together, and kind of the same message we’ve had all year: go be the answer, don’t wait around for anybody else, go make it — you go make it. I think that was kind of the message everybody took in, and we just felt like we did that. It was good to see from those guys.”
