The good, the bad, and the ugly from the regular-season finale.<\/b>
\nThe good, the bad, and the ugly from the regular-season finale.
The Patriots turned in a clean, turnover-free performance in their regular-season finale.
They overcame a sluggish first half and eventually dominated the Dolphins during the latter half of the game, snagging a 38-10 home victory at Gillette Stadium and securing the No. 2 seed in the AFC.
Miami mustered one early touchdown drive with rookie Quinn Ewers at the helm starting in place of Tua Tagovailoa. The Patriots shut down Miami\u2019s run game and enjoyed a strong performance of their own on the ground.
It wasn\u2019t the flashiest win of the Patriots\u2019 season, but they were able to do enough to get the victory and cap a 14-3 regular-season.
Here\u2019s a look at who stood out and struggled. Stock Up
Rhamondre Stevenson
Stevenson carried his December success over into January, starting the New Year off with a three-touchdown performance. It took him just seven carries to reach a game-high 131 rushing yards. He had more rushing yards than the Dolphins had net passing yards. He set the tone early with a 56-yard run on the opening drive. He had two scores on the ground and one touchdown catch.
Drake Maye
This was a steady performance from Maye to close out the regular season. New England got the bulk of its points on the ground, but Maye was decisive and accurate when he had to be. He made plays with his legs, he took care of the football, and he was able to spend the final quarter of the game on the bench after the Patriots built a commanding lead.
Christian Barmore
Barmore had a productive day, getting home for a sack and a tackle for loss. He had a pair of quarterback hits. He and Milton Williams were able to get into the backfield and make plays. The sack was Barmore\u2019s second of the season.
Jack Gibbens
Gibbens teamed up with Christian Gonzalez to force a fumble in the second quarter with the Patriots up by one score.
He nearly had another takeaway in the second half, dropping a potential interception that went straight into his hands. Nonetheless, the linebacker found multiple ways to impact the game. He finished with five tackles and a pair of pass breakups.
The offensive line
The Patriots offensive line gave up zero sacks on Sunday. Both Maye and Josh Dobbs had ample time to throw. Stevenson helped out in the run game by making would-be tacklers miss in the backfield on his long run in the first quarter, but they found success fairly consistently as the team averaged 7.1 yards per carry. Stock Flat
TreVeyon Henderson
Overall, this was a good game for Henderson with a pair of touchdowns on the ground. His longest run went for 14 yards, so he wasn\u2019t his usual home run hitting self, but when the Patriots needed to punch the ball into the end zone he delivered on more than one occasion. He had almost twice as many carries as Stevenson with a little more than a third of the yards that Stevenson had.
Stefon Diggs
Diggs became the Patriots\u2019 first 1,000 yard receiver sine Julian Edelman in 2019. He caught all three of his targets. He didn\u2019t rack up a ton of yards after the catch. His three catches for 43 yards were solid, but ultimately below average in terms of his usual production this season. Stock Down
Vederian Lowe\/Brenden Jaimes
I\u2019m not exactly sure on whose fault this was, so I\u2019m including both players. Zach Sieler was lined up between Lowe and Jaimes, and he got through them to block a 38-yard field-goal attempt from Andy Borregales. Lowe stumbled forward and appeared to whiff on his attempt to block another player. Jaimes had both arms outstretched, trying to block two Dolphins at once. The miscues resulted in a blocked kick during a one-score game with less than two minutes to go before halftime. It could have hurt more in a closer game.
Kayshon Boutte
The Patriots played a really solid game across the board. It should also be noted that this is Boutte\u2019s first game back after suffering a concussion against the Jets.
With that said, Patriots\u2019 receivers caught 17 of their 20 targets collectively on Sunday and two of the three missed targets were to Boutte.
After a hot start to the season, Boutte has cooled off significantly in recent weeks. He hasn\u2019t had more than 40 receiving yards in a game since Oct. 26. He has one touchdown since then.
Overall, the Patriots had much more good than bad on Sunday, and Boutte coming back to play is a good thing. But, his production has slowed down and it has been noticeable.<\/p>\n