The Miami Dolphins are hitting the road again, ready to take on the New England Patriots on New Year’s Day at Gillette Stadium, as Mike McDaniel’s team looks to improve their record to 9-7.
Miami enters this matchup as the seventh seed in the current AFC playoff picture. However, the Patriots are just behind them with a 7-8 record, and these two teams matchup in Week 17, so a win against them would not only be huge but could also give the Dolphins their first postseason berth since 2016.
Bill Belichick’s squad has been up-and-down all year with more valleys than peaks. The Matt Patricia experiment as offensive coordinator has not gone well, as quarterback Mac Jones has very clearly regressed in his second season. However, the thing keeping New England in contention this year has been their defense, which is solid.
Here’s how Miami and New England stack up statistically going into the weekend:
Scoring Offense
Dolphins: t-9th – 24.3 PPG
Patriots: 16th – 21.2 PPG
Passing Offense
Dolphins: 2nd – 274.9 passing YPG
Patriots: 21st – 208.6 passing YPG
Rushing Offense
Dolphins: 27th – 95.9 rushing YPG
Patriots: 22nd – 108.6 rushing YPG
Total Offense
Dolphins: 5th – 370.8 YPG
Patriots: 24th – 317.2 YPG
First Downs
Dolphins: t-14th – 20.3 first downs per game
Patriots: 29th – 16.9 first downs per game
Penalties
Dolphins: t-27th – 6.5 penalties per game
Patriots: 26th – 6.4 penalties per game
Turnover Margin
Dolphins: t-28th – (-5)
Patriots: t-6th – (+5)
Sacks Allowed
Dolphins: t-10th – 2.1 sacks per game
Patriots: t-19th – 2.5 sacks per game
Scoring Defense
Dolphins: 27th – 24.7 PPG
Patriots: 5th – 19.4 PPG
Passing Defense
Dolphins: 28th – 244.7 passing YPG
Patriots: 14th – 213.1 passing YPG
Rushing Defense
Dolphins: 10th – 109.1 rushing YPG
Patriots: 9th – 107.8 rushing YPG
Total Defense
Dolphins: 21st – 353.8 YPG
Patriots: 8th – 320.9 YPG
Sacks
Dolphins: t-12th – 2.5 sacks per game
Patriots: 2nd – 3.3 sacks per game
