The Miami Dolphins will take on the New England Patriots in Week 1 of the 2020 NFL season.
The Patriots will have a new quarterback this season with Tom Brady departing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now, Cam Newton has been given the reins in New England.
Miami head coach Brian Flores, who used to be on the Patriots’ coaching staff, explained how the Dolphins are preparing to face Newton.
“In New England obviously (dual-threat quarterback) hasn’t been the case,” Flores said on a video conference call Wednesday. “Maybe a game here or there, but we’ll just kind of refer to mobile quarterback rules. We want to keep him in the pocket.
“Obviously Cam is very explosive. He’s a very accomplished and established player in the league. He’s made a lot of plays with his legs, with his arms, and we want to keep him in the pocket. We want to limit those plays. At the same time, he’s going to create them one way or another. That’s kind of been his M.O. over the course of his career. This will be a great challenge.”
Flores preached that the Dolphins will need to stay fundamentally sound to slow down the former MVP.
“In a lot of ways you can drive yourself crazy going back to [Tim] Tebow. Going back to Carolina,” Flores said. “We’ve watched a lot of film on him but at the end of the day it comes back to, when you haven’t seen a team play a game or preseason…at the end of the day we’ve gotta follow our rules. We’ve gotta read our keys. We’ve gotta believe in our fundamentals and technique.”
The Dolphins will look to get the season started on the right foot after a 5-11 campaign in 2019.
