Four Bold Predictions For Patriots’ Must-Win Game Vs. Dolphins

The Patriots won’t have many more opportunities like the one that will be presented at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

Could they actually win a game?

New England sure hopes so, as the schedule only gets worse moving forward with matchups against the Houston Texans and New York Jets on the horizon. The Miami Dolphins are coming to town banged up and trending in a bad direction — with Tua Tagovailoa and Jaelan Phillips both on injured reserve — so the time is now to get right.

The Patriots have a legit opportunity to find themselves in the win column Sunday, but they’ll probably need a few of these bold predictions to come true in order to make that happen:

LIMITING MIAMI’S ATHLETES
Miami couldn’t get much of anything done last week, totaling just 184 yards of offense against the equally as bad Tennessee Titans.

Tyler Huntley struggled mightily to get the ball to his receivers, with Jaylen Waddle (36) and Tyreek Hill (22) combining for their least amount of receiving yards in a game since becoming teammates in 2022. De’Von Achane looked like a completely different player than what we’ve come to expect of him, while Raheem Mostert is coming off a chest injury that will leave him limited at best.

The Patriots got thrashed last week against the San Francisco 49ers, but the return of Anfernee Jennings should have a positive impact on their run defense. Christian Gonzalez was tremendous in his lone matchup against Hill last season, so with a major question mark at quarterback we feel comfortable predicting another long day for Miami’s offense.

Prediction: Achane, Mostert, Hill and Waddle each finish with less than 60 scrimmage yards.

TRIUMPH IN TURNOVER TILT
The Patriots are 1-2-1 in the turnover battle this season with their lone win coming in Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Dolphins haven’t been bad about giving the ball away, but their even turnover differential suggests they aren’t doing a great job of taking it away defensively.

If Jacoby Brissett can avoid one bad mistake, New England should be alright.

Prediction: New England wins the turnover battle.

THREE-HEADED MONSTER
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo has admitted to considering more reps for Antonio Gibson this week, with Rhamondre Stevenson fumbling in his fourth consecutive game Sunday. New England needs to run the ball to be successful, though, so why not install a wrinkle to help them do that?

Drake Maye’s athleticism is the one thing that can’t be argued, and certainly doesn’t need to be developed, so give him a shot at showing off. The Patriots don’t want him standing in the pocket and getting drilled, but what about letting him run a few RPOs to try and take advantage of a depleted defense? Just teach the kid how to slide.

Prediction: The Patriots install a Drake Maye package.

PATS PULL IT OUT
The Patriots should win this game, which is something we don’t expect to be saying too many more times this season. Huntley can’t beat you, or you might as well pack it up and start looking at potential coaching replacements on both sides of the ball.

Prediction: The Patriots beat the Dolphins.