Clyde Christensen’s in his first season with the Dolphins but after spending 14 seasons on the Colts coaching staff, he is as well-versed in playing the Patriots as anyone on the Miami staff.
One thing he looks forward to Sunday? Sunshine.
“This is the first time I’ve gone up there in September,” Christensen told Miami reporters this week. “The sun checks out on November 1 and never comes back. I’ve been up [there] in December and January mostly, so I’m looking forward to hopefully [seeing] the sun out there.”
The initial question had to do with why it’s so hard to beat the Patriots in New England.
Miami hasn’t won in New England since 2008 when Matt Cassel was in for an injured Tom Brady. Prior to that, it was 2006 when Nick Saban was head coach.
The last time Christensen coached in New England. It was a cool, rainy night in January of 2015. The AFC Championship Game in which the Colts got demolished and circumstances arose to again remove Tom Brady from the field.
Christensen’s answer? Two-fold. “A) They are a good football team. B) It’s hard to win any game on the road, and they’re really good. All of a sudden you go up there and a lot of times it’s the elements. They’re just a good team. They’re hard to beat. It’s hard to beat any team on the road and especially one of the upper-echelon teams. I haven’t felt there has been anything mystical or anything. If you go up there and you take care of business, you have a chance and the ball moves. If you don’t, it doesn’t. Nothing special.”
New England Patriots
Having coached against the Patriots defense so many times, he knows that there’s no way to definitively know what’s coming for his offense.
“They’re a game-plan defense,” he explained. “They’re going to game plan you. If their game plan is to play Cover 2, they’ll play it, and it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, and they’re going to go with it. They do a great job that way that you go into the game and you better have a good system, because you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get.”
The current Miami system under new head coach Adam Gase is still being absorbed in Miami. Last week, playing in Seattle, the Dolphins gained 64 yards on 20 carries on the ground and 186 through the air. Ryan Tannehill was sacked five times.
The Patriots don’t have the same reputation as the Seattle defense and probably aren’t quite as talented, but New England only allowed one non-turnover-related touchdown drive to the Cardinals last week. Miami is probably going to have some tough sledding even if the Patriots don’t have Dont'a Hightower in the mix.
Christensen noted the Patriots penchant that’s developed in recent years of sending either Hightower or Jamie Collins on either delayed blitzes or when they have no coverage responsibilities.
“They like to get those ‘backers on your backs, but where they come from and which of those two big ‘backers are coming, you don’t know,” said Christensen. “You have to play ball and the system has to take care of some things and you have to be able to adjust, which I think is their game plan. You’re not 100 percent sure you’re preparing for what they’re going to do, because you don’t know what they’re going to do. You just prepare to play football – play a good football team – and now you have to adjust on the sideline and your system has to take care of some of those things.”
How well the Miami system is currently equipped to deal with the Patriots will be interesting to see play out.
Gase appears to have the makings of a good, young head coach. He’s gotten a lot out of varied quarterbacks in his career. If he can reach Tannehill and get him to elevate to his potential, the Dolphins will be able to “take care” of things with more regularity. Maybe even in New England.