The Dolphins fell to 1-6 Sunday with a narrow loss to last year's conference champion, the New England Patriots. The Dolphins went toe-to-toe with one of the NFL's juggernauts, taking a 10-point lead to the halftime break, but ultimately came up short in a 24-19 loss.
Miami showed its muscle on third down on both sides of the ball and saw rookies play their highest collective snap count of the season.
1. Chop 'em down
Coming into Week 8, nobody in the NFL had a better pressure rate than Miami's edge Chop Robinson (23.4 percent). He was at it again with eight more pressures against New England, taking his league-best pressure rate up to 26.6 percent this season.
Pressures are a valuable metric because, over time, they tend to lead to sacks. That was the case Sunday for Robinson, who registered a pair of sacks, a career high. The performance doubles Robinson's sack for the season to 4.0.
Miami made life tough on the New England offense in the first half. Taking a 13-3 lead heading into the break, the Dolphins held the Patriots to just 1-for-5 on third downs, the first stop coming in the red zone with Robinson playing a key role in coverage.
Per Next Gen Stats, the Dolphins pressured Patriots quarterback Drake Maye a season-high 57.1 percent of the time in the opening half but did it by sending only one blitz at the third-year quarterback. Head Coach Jeff Hafley was able to cook up a variety of looks to confuse last year's MVP runner-up for the first 30 minutes of the ball game.
Maye would find his rhythm, however, completing 16-for-20 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns in the game. The touchdowns came via a pair of 40-plus-yard passes in the second half.
Inside linebacker Jacob Rodriguez added a forced fumble, recovered by cornerback Juju Brents. Edge Josh Uche picked up the third sack of the game for Miami, also a third down stop in the first half.
2. Money Down Malik
The Dolphins converted seven of the 14 third down opportunities Sunday, with all but one of the conversions coming via the quarterback. Willis went seven-for-10 with 54 yards and a touchdown on third down and had a quarterback sneak to move the chains in the third quarter.
Willis' third down prowess has been on display all season. Despite facing one of the highest average-yards-to-gain figures in the NFL this season, Miami is converting on 42.7 percent of their third down opportunities, ninth best in the NFL.
Willis now has a pair of touchdown throws in each of the last two games. He found wide receiver Malik Washington for a 1-yard score late in the first half to cap a 12-play drive that left only eight seconds on the second quarter game clock. In the fourth quarter, Willis found rookie wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. for the second touchdown of his career.
On the day, Willis finished 21-for-32 with 211 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
3. Rookie experience
The Dolphins played 60 snaps on defense in Sunday's loss to New England. Four players went the distance, playing all 60 downs, three of which were rookies.
Safety Michael Taaffe continues to find the football and make plays. He made a pair of tackles on Maye short of the sticks on third down.
Cornerback Chris Johnson and Rodriguez also played all 60 snaps.
Miami's rookie wide receiver trio logged their highest collective snap counts of the season. Caleb Douglas (56), Chris Bell (44) and Coleman Jr. (17) were on the field a combined 127 snaps, producing a combined 10 receptions for 120 yards and a touchdown.
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