Week 1: AFC East Review

Time to take a big sigh of relief Dolphins fans. That's right. How good does it feel to win on a Sunday? Very good. But before we get to the Dolphins game, lets take a look at what happened elsewhere in the AFC East

New England Patriots v Buffalo Bills

Week 1 saw a hotly contested game between the Patriots and the Bills. It looked for a while that the new-look Bills would pull of a huge upset during Doug Marone's first game in charge. Rookie quarterback EJ Manuel had a respectable showing, completing 18 of 27 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns. But never discount the Patriots. Who decided to bring the house down? You guessed it, Mr. Tom Brady baby! In all too familiar circumstances Brady engineered the game-winning 49 yard, 12-play drive to finish the game 23-21 for the Patriots. Sadly for the Bills, they are now 1-19 in their last twenty showings against the Patriots.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers v New York Jets

Elsewhere in the AFC East the New York Jets recorded a huge win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yes, you heard that right. The New York Jets won. The Jets' Nick Folks kicked the game-winning 48-yard field goal with two seconds remaining after Lavone David's personal foul gifted the Jets an improbable victory over the Bucs. With only 34 seconds left, Rian Lindell kicked what should have been the game-winning 37-yard field goal. Sadly for the Bucs, the game didn't end there! With the Jets 17-15 in the final few seconds of the game, rookie quarterback Geno Smith scrambled for ten yards, and was shoved out of bounds by David. The 15-yard penalty gave the Jets the football at the Buccaneers' 30-yard line and set up the winning field goal by Folk giving the jets a 18-17 win over their Floridian neighbors. Smith did himself no harm with his new team, going for a respectable 24 of 38 passes for 256 yards and a touchdown. Don't expect Mark Sanchez back in a Jets uniform anytime soon.

Miami Dolphins v Cleveland Browns

Lets get the bragging rights out of the way first. In my recent preview and prediction article, I suggested the game would finish 24-10 in favor of the Dolphins. Just so turned out, I wasn't too far off as Miami saw off their opponents with a 23-10 win. In our first game of the season, the defense decided to turn up the heat early. They recorded six sacks and three interceptions on the day, enabling the Dolphins to overcome some sloppy play in the early stages to win their opener. During the first Dolphins possession, Gibson dropped a pass through the middle in what could have been a big gain. But luckily for the offense, second year quarterback Brandon Weeden threw three first-half interceptions, picked off by the ever-improving Dimitri Patterson (2) and Nolan Carroll (1).

In the end, Ryan Tannehill finished 24 of 38 for 272 yards, one touchdown and one interception, while Weeden finished the game with 26 of 53 passes for 289 yards and one touchdown. There's a long way to go, but Tannehill is clearly improving.

Cameron Wake finished the game with 2.5 of the Dolphins' six sacks.

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