Opening day of the Miami Dolphins’ 57th season on Sunday was supposed to be the grand unveiling of a revamped, new and improved offense led by a completely new running game and a new superstar receiver in Tyreek Hill — so fast he calls himself “the Cheetah.”
The offense didn’t do much, alas. It certainly didn’t entirely rise up to the hype, at least not at first
And there wasn’t a Dolphins fan complaining inside Hard Rock Stadium as the full crowd of 65,786 left happy.
That’s because Miami’s own overlooked defense stole the show early and shaped this NFL football result, accounting for the biggest plays in a tidy and impressive 20-7 victory over the AFC East rival New England Patriots.
The offense predictably had gotten the pregame introductions. The defense, fittingly, earned most of the applause during the game.
“This is still a defensive team unless you hear otherwise,” said new coach Mike McDaniel in the afterglow of his first win as a head coach at any level.
“The momentum setters for us,” quarterback Tua Tagovailoa called the defensive showing.
McDaniel’s gray Dolphins T-shirt was dark and sopping wet, thanks to a postgame Gatorade bath.
“Ice cold, courtesy Christian Wilkins,” he said. “It was a very, very cool moment.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Dolphins’ historic 17-0 Perfect Season of 1972, and the 2022 iteration of South Florida’s flagship pro sports franchise unfurled just about perfectly.
We almost referred to the “nemesis” Patriots, but the Dolphins seem to have finally shed that old albatross. The win was Miami’s fourth in a row over the Pats, the Fins’ longest win streak in the series since 1999-2001. And it was the eighth home win in the past 10 meetings with this opponent. It also was Miami’s seventh straight home win overall — the club’s longest such streak since 2001-02.
Oh, and the result meant McDaniel had begun his head-coaching career 1-0 by beating Bill Belichick, who has won six Super Bowl championships as a head coach and might be the best to ever hold the job.
The genius Belichick had his Patriots here since Tuesday to better acclimate to the Miami heat. But it wasn’t the temperature or humidity that beat the Patriots. It was the Dolphins. All over the field.
Miami’s defense was the unit that hardly changed since last season, the part of the team nobody was talking about while the offense was making all of the offseason headlines.
But there was Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard ending the Pats’ game-opening drive with an end-zone deflection that safety Jevon Holland intercepted and returned 31 yards, leading to an eventual field goal and 3-0 lead. DeVante Parker, the former Dolphins receiver, had leaped for the touchdown catch before Howard had ther plans.
Later it was Miami safety Brandon Jones who stripped Pats quarterback Mac Jones of the football on a sack, and bounced perfectly to linebacker Melvin Ingram for a 2-yard fumble-return touchdown and 10-0 lead.
Miami’s defense had three takeaways on the day.
When it was finally time for the offense to cross the goalline, it happened on Tagoavailao’s 42-yard pass play to Jaylen Waddle just 18 seconds before halftime to make it 17-0. Hill might be the new receiving star in town — and he had eight catches for 94 yards in his debut — but it was last year’s rookie sensation doing his penguin-like “Waddle dance” in the end-zone.
The TD came on a fourth-down gamble, eschewing a long field goal try.
“Mike has the utmost confidence in us,” said Tagovailoa. “I love it.”
As for Hill, just says Tagovailoa is enjoying his new toy.
“It’s not easy covering that guy!” said the QB, smiling.
Together Hill and Waddle helped Tagovailoa complete 23 of 33 passes for 270 yards and one TD with no interceptions in a promising start to a crucial third season for him.
New England would not avert the shutout until late in the third quarter. Miami quickly countered with a 49-yard field goal.
It was not a flaw-free start, no. Almost nothing about the NFL has been perfect since 1972.
McDaniel was hired from San Francisco as a run-game guru, and Miami signed Chase Edmonds and Raheem Mostert to lead the new ground attack. But the Fins never got much going when not passing, totaling only 65 yards on the ground on 21 carries. And Tagovailoa was sacked three times.
A Dolfan dwelling on the negatives in a fairly dominant home win over a division rival might be looking a bit too hard for imperfection. Still, it was one win, and the atmosphere in the postgame lockerroom did not make more of the victory than it was.
“It was not a satisfied celebration,” said McDaniel. “There is a lot of frustration, including me, with things in the game we really left out there.”
The Dolphins have begun what is the most rugged first month of the season for any team. After the rival Pats, Miami next travels to Baltimore, which has been a nemesis lately, then welcomes Super Bowl betting favorite Buffalo, and then travels to Cincinnati, which reached the Super Bowl last season.
An opening home loss, with what’s immediately ahead, would have heaped instant pressure on the Dolphins, a pressure that didn’t go away on Sunday.
For now, though, Miami enjoys the tailwind of an impressive opening win to nourish all of the hype and all of the hope — for a week, at least.
