Patriots Actually Blew Golden Opportunity On Dolphins Kneeldown

You probably missed it, but the Patriots’ chances to win Sunday night didn’t end when Cole Strange’s miraculous fourth-down conversion got overturned.

ESPN’s Mike Reiss on Tuesday pointed out that Tua Tagovailoa fumbled the snap on the Miami Dolphins’ first of two kneeldowns in the final minute. But New England’s front seven was resigned to defeat and didn’t notice the ball was on the ground until it was too late. The Patriots lost at home by a final score of 24-17.

Take a look:

This was a small detail, but something Patriots players discussed in meetings yesterday, per DL coach DeMarcus Covington:

Tua fumbled the first kneeldown, and while a recovery is a longshot, this is why hitting the center on kneeldowns and playing to the end is critical. pic.twitter.com/UgjkSMjDgs

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) September 19, 2023

Reiss asked D-line coach DeMarcus Covington about the play during a Tuesday morning video call. Covington acknowledged the Patriots blew a golden opportunity.

“We should execute that better, knowing that they’re gonna knee it down, but there’s always that one-in-a-million time where the quarterback’s gonna do exactly what he did,” Covington said. “So, for us, we normally would hit the center to mess up that exchange. Which, (the Dolphins) messed it up themselves.

“So, that’s why you continue to play every snap … even if they’re kneeling it down.”

Covington said it’s a tricky situation to coach, as some might consider it poor sportsmanship to go all-out on kneeldowns. But he reiterated that anything can happen while citing Tagovailoa’s fumbled snap on a third-down play the previous drive.

“And I know it becomes a big issue of, you know, ‘Alright, the game’s over’ — or something like that,” Covington said. “But again, those one-in-a-million snaps just like that happen right there. It can be the difference of us getting the ball.

” … For us, we gotta continue to finish those, even in those kneel situations, even though we might seem like a sore loser because we’re doing that. That’s not the case. I would say the case is we gotta finish every play because that could happen, just exactly what he did on the kneel-down situation, fumbling the ball..”

Is this another example of the typically buttoned-up Patriots getting sloppy on the margins? Perhaps, but their players did what nearly everyone does in similar situations.

But you can be sure of one thing: It won’t happen again.

“We learned from that,” Covington said.