It’s safe to say that Brian Flores was a lot more popular around New England at this time last year.
The Dolphins head coach piloted his team to an unexpected win over his former employers on Sunday afternoon. That loss along with Kansas City’s win over the Chargers pushes the Patriots down to the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs. They’ll be at home against either the Titans, Steelers or Raiders next weekend and then on the road against the Chiefs if they win.
It looked like the Patriots would escape with a win when James White took a screen pass 13 yards for a touchdown to put New England in front for the first time all day with just under four minutes to play. The Dolphins moved 75 yards in just over three minutes, however, and Ryan Fitzpatrick hit tight end Mike Gesicki for the winning score with 24 seconds left to play.
DeVante Parker had several catches on that drive and finished the day with eight catches for 137 yards. It’s a fitting cap to his best professional season and one of many things the Dolphins will hope to build on in Flores’s second season at the helm.
Fitzpatrick ended the day 28-of-41 for 320 yards and the struggles in pass coverage will be a talking point alongside the familiar conversations about the New England offense. It looked better in the second half on Sunday, but a slow start left them constantly playing catchup against Miami. When they did catch them, the defense let the Dolphins back into the game and that’s not a winning formula in the postseason.
The Dolphins end the year 5-11, which is far better than many predicted they’d do this season and the way they got the fifth win will send them into the offseason with the kind of optimism that rarely accompanies such a record.