At the end of a surprisingly tough divisional game against the Dolphins, the Patriots were leading 20-13 after a Dolphins field goal. With eight and a half minutes to go, Tom Brady and the offense took over on their own twenty and constructed a sixteen play, 77 yard drive that ended with a Steven Gostkowski field goal with just 1:10 remaining on the clock.

For so long the Patriots had been accused of being unable to grind a game out with their rushing attack when the defense knew what was coming at them.

After the game the Dolphins claimed that they felt ‘disrespected’ as the Patriots continued to run one similar play throughout the drive that they were unable to stop.

The Patriots success on this drive came from the fact they were patient with their play calls and did not try to force the big play, instead opting to pick it up in small chunks to help drain the clock.

The drive started off innocuously enough with Ridley going to the right end for only three yards before a completion to Aaron Hernandez gave them their first conversion of the drive. The completion to Hernandez came from a simple coverage mismatch as he was lined up against a linebacker who he could easily outrun. Stevan Ridley took over on the next three plays rushing for 22 yards all through a similar hole behind left guard Donald Thomas. As you can see in the photo below, the line did a great job giving Ridley a space to run through.

Both of the next two plays lead to first downs with the first coming off a typically big reception by Wes Welker on an out pattern. On the next play it was Ridley again, this time it was to the right side of the line and he was able to find plenty of space to cut back through as illustrated in the photo below. Early on in the game he had been shut out by the Dolphins but in the second half and on this drive in particular he found his mojo. The 11 yard gain was very important as it took the Patriots down into range for a field goal that would put them up by two scores.

[Photo 2]

A subsequent two yard scramble up the middle saw the Dolphins burn their first timeout with 4:15 on the clock, notable only because the Dolphins knew that they needed to slow down the Patriots offense and get a stop and have any hope of winning the game. On the next play Brandon Lloyd caught a 10 yard pass that took the Patriots inside the red zone. Quite how Lloyd got so far open may baffle some but thanks to the threat of Ridley, Miami was more worried about a run on that play instead of a pass. With Lloyd having been ignored for the entire game up until that point the coverage was looking to stop other receivers from burning them and Lloyd was able to make an athletic catch on the sideline.

On the next play Ridley was stopped for no gain before Shane Vereen picked up 8 yards forcing Miami to burn both of their remaining timeouts. New England was facing a third and two on the Dolphins 10 yard line with four minutes remaining, a conversion would allow them to take the clock inside the two minute warning and put them up by two more scores. Ridley came back in after a breather and picked up the two yards needed (only just) and give New England a chance to end the game on their terms. Two more runs from Ridley and a dive by Brady ended the drive on the Dolphins three yard line. With 1:10 on the clock, Steven Gostkowski kicked the field goal that put the game beyond the Dolphins reach.

16 plays, 77 yards, 7:18 drive. That is what appears in the NFL.com Gamebook as a summary of New England’s second to last possession of the game and it tells the story of how the Patriots closed out the Miami Dolphins. Twelve of the plays were runs and they were productive even when the Dolphins were expecting runs which is something they had not been able to do in the past furthering the growth of the Patriots run game in 2012.