It took the Dolphins a long time to find the end zone on Sunday, but they only needed one visit to secure a win in New England.
Fullback Alec Ingold rumbled three yards for a touchdown with just over four minutes left to play to put the Dolphins up 15-10. The Patriots were able to put together a drive inside the Miami 15-yard-line and it looked like wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk caught a touchdown with just over a minute to play, but replays showed he was out of bounds while trying to get his second foot in.
The Patriots, who had all three timeouts, then threw a pair of incompletions to hand the ball back to Miami with 55 seconds to play. The Patriots forced a punt after three run plays and then completed a couple of long throws, but they were over the middle of the field and time ran out after a catch by tight end Hunter Henry.
The Dolphins had a rough first half as they threw an interception, gave up a blocked punt, missed a field goal and had another Jason Sanders attempt aborted after a mishandled snap. Despite all those issues, they were only down 7-3 because the Patriots missed a short field goal of their own and routinely hamstrung themselves with penalties. That continued in the second half and New England was flagged 12 times for 104 yards over the course of the afternoon.
Miami’s comeback was fueled by the ground game. De’Von Achane left with a head injury in the first quarter, but Raheem Mostert and rookie Jaylen Wright picked up the slack. Mostert ran 16 times for 71 yards and Wright picked up 86 yards on 13 carries to pace the offensive attack for Miami. They had seven rushing attempts between them on the go-ahead scoring drive, but another Patriots penalty helped the cause.
Linebacker Christian Elliss was flagged for interfering with Mostert on a short pass on 3rd-and-13 and it was the kind of penalty that illustrated just how often the Patriots shot themselves in the foot on Sunday. Better teams could potentially overcome those kinds of mistakes, but the Patriots aren’t in that category and the late flurry wound up being too little and too late.
The Dolphins will have a bye in Week Six while the Patriots will try to snap their four-game losing streak at home against the Texans.