MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Harold Landry knew.
Digging in next to defensive tackle Milton Williams before Miami’s final offensive play Sunday, Landry saw the ball snap and then a blur. That blur was Williams, who had fired off the line a split-second before any other lineman. At that point, Landry figured he had Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa dead to rights.
“He beat me off the ball,” said Landry, the Patriots’ captain and top edge rusher. “I knew something good was about to happen for him. And once he smoked the (offensive) guard, I knew it was gonna be a sack.”
Sure enough, Tagovailoa went down, and the Patriots had a win.
Williams dropped Tagovailoa on fourth-and-12 to end Miami’s hopes of a game-winning drive in the final minute of the Patriots’ thrilling 33-27 win. It was Williams’ second sack of the game, a topsy-turvy affair that had the Patriots defense struggling to keep up for most of the afternoon. But the Pats ultimately shut the Dolphins offense out in the fourth quarter, forcing a punt, intercepting Tagovailoa once and sacking him four times.
“The whole game they did a good job of making sure that getting the ball out of Tua’s hands quick and we just kept going,” Williams said. “We were talking on the sidelines (about) just keep rushing, keep rushing and just executing.”
Williams led all players with two sacks, while Landry, edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson and inside linebacker Robert Spillane each had one. The Patriots recorded just one pressure in the first half and had a single sack through three quarters, but broke through with enough persistence and a little luck.
Before Williams’ sack, Dolphins running back De’Von Achane stepped half a foot out of bounds on an apparent 44-yard touchdown reception down the left sideline. However, the play was called back to the Patriots’ 26-yard line with 1:09 left. Miami melted down from there with a false start penalty, a delay of game, an incompletion, short pass and two sacks.
“Luckily, he stepped out. That would’ve been bad. Just next play,” Williams said of Achane’s catch-and-run. “Something bad happened, you got to move on. In this league, they’re not going to stop, and they’re not going to wait on you or nothing. They’re not going to feel sorry for you. You got to go to the next play.
“We messed up that play, go to the next play and make sure you’re in a position where you’re supposed to be and execute, and we did that.”
