Hyde10: McDaniel and Tua play smart, small ball; defense’s big stops — 10 thoughts on Dolphins’ win at Patriots

For much of the game, it looked like it would be a comfortable Miami Dolphins win in Foxborough. But even as uncomfortable as it became in the end, the Dolphins’ 24-17 win against New England puts them at 2-0 after opening road wins on opposite coasts.

Here’s 10 thoughts on the game:

1. Play of the day:  New England tight end Mike Gesicki makes a catch on fourth-and-4 with under a minute to play. As he’s being stopped laterals to New England guard Cole Strange, who bulls forward and is ruled to have got the first down at the Miami 29. Replay says no. It’s inches short. And that’s how the game ends. NBC then spent five minutes dissecting the play.

2. Bill Belichick had a simple plan: Take away the big play, especially from Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill (five catches, 40 yards). The Patriots played a three-man shell in the secondary to start to prevent the deep plays. No wonder: The Dolphins had a league-high 23 plays of 10 or more yards in the opening week and eight players of 20 or more yards. But there seemed an underlying idea to Belichick’s scheme: Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa wouldn’t be patient in playing small ball. So what kind of game did McDaniel call and Tua play? A balanced game. Six runs and six passes on the opening, 81-yard drive for a field goal. Six runs and five passes on the second, 73-yard TD drive. That’s how they played the game, too. Raheem Mostert ended up running 18 times for 121 yards and a 43-yard touchdown. The balanced bottom-line: Tagovailoa threw 30 times (completing 21 for 249 yards), the Dolphins ran 30 times. So maybe both things worked as each hoped: Belichick took away the big play but the Dolphins showed a patient mindset.

3. This is the week Vic Fangio’s defense stepped up to save everyone else. It isn’t a finished product. But it saved a lot of others. It saved the special teams after a blocked field goal gave the Patriots the ball at their 47. Xavien Howard’s interception ended that Patriots threat. It saved the offense after Tagovailoa’s interception could’ve been a turning point and the defense had a quick three-and-out performance. It also saved some uncertain thinking when a missed 55-yard field goal attempt gave the Patriots the ball at their 45 to go for the win with more than two minutes left. That ended with the failed lateral attempt. Conclusion: The Patriots offense don’t have anyone that scares you and this defense made sure no one did.

4. Stat of the game II: New England hadn’t started a season 0-2 since 2001. And Bill Belichick remains 19 wins behind Don Shula’s all-time record of 347.

5. Second-guess of the day (even wins have to have one): After Tagovailoa bobbled a snap and the Dolphins had a fourth down at the Patriots 37, they either had a punt or 55-yard field goal attempt. They led 24-17 with 2:19 left. A field goal ends the game. A missed field goal, as happened, gave the Patriots the ball at their 45. Considering Sanders was four-for-12 over the last two years on attempts over 50 yards, wouldn’t a punt be in order? Kudos for aggressiveness. But it put the defense in a spot with the game on the line.

6. It’s always interesting to see which players benefit from a new scheme, and the early leader in Fangio’s defense is Andrew Van Ginkel. He was a role player special teams player his first years. Now? On Sunday with Jaelan Phillips out (back), Van Ginkel expanded his new roles from inside linebacker to include edge rusher. He was a disruptor in the game with seven tackles, a tackle for loss and three quarterback hits. He had a fourth-quarter sack and came so close to hitting Jones in a fumble that the Dolphins challenged the call that Jones’ arm was moving forward when he lost the ball. Old-time Dolphins fans and new-time listeners might see a little of Kim Bokamper in Van Ginkel. Big guy. Versatile. And he seems to be just what Fangio wants.

7. Terron Armstrong can take his time healing, right? Kendall Lamm is the good surprise of the season at left tackle and the offensive line is doing its good job through two games. In the opener, Tagovailoa was hit twice and not sacked. In the first half Sunday, he wasn’t touched before being sacked for the first time this year early in the third quarter. Sure, some of that is the quick release of Tua and the play designs of McDaniel. But the line gets its due here. For all the questions right to the edge of this season, it’s been nothing but answers. When Raheem Mostert ran up the middle 43 yards for a touchdown to make it 24-10, center Connor Williams and guard Robert Hunt should’ve co-spiked the ball. They opened a hole so wide Mostert wasn’t even touched. McDaniel said before the season he had more linemen than any other year in his career. Maybe it wasn’t coachtalk. Maybe he was right?

8. Has anyone sent a player sprinting so he’s at full speed coming off the edge to block a field goal like the Patriots did with Brendan Schooler in the third quarter? A tip of the cap to a new, schematic idea. Of course, it’s also time to wonder if the Dolphins’ special teams are going to be a problem again this year. In the opener, it was a missed extra point that set the win on a platter for the Chargers to take (they didn’t). On Sunday, it was Schooler’s inventive sprint to block a third-quarter field goal that would’ve made it 20-3. Instead, the Patriots had the ball at the Dolphins 49. Special teams, again, we saved as that Patriots possession ended with Howard’s interception.

9. Quick hits:

* Couldn’t NBC have given everyone a view of Patriots owner Robert Kraft & Son in their stadium suite in the fourth quarter just as the networks always showed when in their championship years?

*The Jets will challenge for the top pick in the draft, which would get them the franchise quarterback they thought they had.

*Josh Allen was the good Josh Allen on Sunday, the one he wasn’t against the New York Jets in the opener and the one that makes Buffalo a contender. It wasn’t so much his stats (31-37, 274 yards, three TDs) as the fact he didn’t try to force the game. Yeah, and he only ran three times (for 7 yards).

*A little ha-ha by the Patriots in passing to former Dolphins Mike Gesicki (five yards ) and Devante Parker (four yards) on the game-opening plays.

10. Next week: Broncos at Dolphins. This is the home opener for the Dolphins and they’ll be favored as much as they might be all year. Denver is 0-2 after losses to Las Vegas (17-16) in the opener and to Washington (35-33) on Sunday. Considering neither of those opponents are contending for anything this year, it’s fair to say neither is Sean Payton in his first year in Denver.