Patriots Journal: Gordon makes an impact in his Pats' debut

FOXBORO — It didn’t take long for Josh Gordon to make his presence felt.

The wide receiver made his Patriots' debut on Sunday and although he played limited snaps (18), the recently acquired 27-year-old helped the offense in their 38-7 win over Miami. Gordon caught two of two passes for 32 yards. Both catches came on third down to move the chains.

After the game, Gordon said he hoped to make the most out of this experience. [...]

FOXBORO — It didn’t take long for Josh Gordon to make his presence felt.

The wide receiver made his Patriots' debut on Sunday and although he played limited snaps (18), the recently acquired 27-year-old helped the offense in their 38-7 win over Miami. Gordon caught two of two passes for 32 yards. Both catches came on third down to move the chains.

After the game, Gordon said he hoped to make the most out of this experience.

“I have no doubt I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity,” Gordon said. “I'm more than blessed. I'm extremely grateful to be put in this scenario. I think the only thing right for me to do is take full advantage of it. I'm loving it, I'm enjoying it, the guys here are great, it's a real home environment and I feel as comfortable as ever here. It's awesome.”

Over the last two weeks, mystery surrounded Gordon. He didn’t talk to the media and his teammates were mum about the Patriots' recent trade acquisition. After sitting out the Detroit game due to his hamstring injury, he was limited last week. Not only did he play on Sunday, but Gordon started.

Gordon played six of 14 snaps on the Patriots opening series. After struggling over the last three weeks on third down, Gordon came up big. His first catch was on a third-and-6 at 7:29 of the first. Tom Brady hit the receiver for a 13-yard gain.

“He’s put in a lot of work. A lot of time trying to understand where to line up and what to do,” Brady said. “He came up with some big plays today. Kind of got us going in certain areas… it was great to have him out there.”

Gordon impacted the game even when he wasn’t being targeted. He drew an illegal contact penalty on a third-and-7, at 13:25 of the second, to move the chains. In fact, his presence on the field was enough to draw so much attention that it freed up other players.

Gordon's second reception came on a third-and-3, at 4:02 of the third quarter. He caught a Brady pass and immediately broke two tackles.

“I mean, it's awesome, just period, catching a pass from Tom at any point in time,” Gordon said. “He's been rooting for me, and it's been awesome to have his support and his love, as well as the rest of the teammates and staff here. You know, Tom's a passionate guy and I love that, and I love the game of football and I think we're going to mesh just fine.”

Dynamite Dorsett

Receiver Phillip Dorsett didn’t downplay the significance of the Patriots’ 38-7 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday that kept them from finishing September with a losing record for the first time since 2001 (not that things didn’t turn out OK that super season).

“It felt great, we needed this one and everybody knew that,” Dorsett said.

Dorsett had four receptions for 55 yards, a touchdown and two additional first downs one week after failing to catch a pass in a loss to the Detroit Lions.

The fourth-year pro, who’s in his second season with the Patriots, was dynamite in the second quarter with receptions of 13, 13 and 9 yards, the latter for a touchdown in which he reached out to corral the ball in the left corner of the end zone before flipping forward to make it 23-0.

“We caught the play and I knew it was going to be one-on-one backside,” Dorsett said. “It was a route I’m very familiar with, that I like to run. I kind of knew he was coming and when I saw the ball I just made my best effort to catch it.”

As for the flip, “It wasn’t planned. I just tried to secure the ball and my body just reacted.”

Unlike in Detroit, Dorsett displayed excellent chemistry with quarterback Tom Brady. That was especially true on a couple of comeback routes.

“It’s a timing thing,” Dorsett said. “Obviously it depends on what kind of coverage you get, but mostly it’s a timing thing and that’s something that we work on all the time in practice. We practice really hard and we try to build the chemistry in practice so we can show it on the field.”

Defensive comeback

The reviews were negative after the Patriots’ defense got knocked around the past two weeks in losses to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions. There was nothing of the sort at Gillette Stadium.

“We did everything we talked about doing this week,” safety Duron Harmon said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage, the secondary played well and it helped us get the ball back to our offense.”

The Patriots allowed 172 yards, 11 first downs — two by penalty — and a meaningless touchdown with 2:42 to play.

The Dolphins were 3 for 11 on third down (27 percent) after the Jaguars and Lions combined to go 17 for 28 (61 percent). Defensive linemen Adam Butler and John Simon had sacks after the Patriots had one quarterback takedown the last two weeks.

Linebacker Kyle Van Noy recovered a fumble and rookie cornerback J.C. Jackson had an interception. That’s one turnover shy of the three the Patriots had the previous two games.

“We knew we were going to have a few opportunities to take the ball away,” defensive end Trey Flowers said. “So when they presented themselves we knew we had to take advantage of them and that’s what we did.”

The return of Flowers and safety Patrick Chung after missing last week with concussions certainly didn’t hurt when it came to stopping the run as the Patriots allowed 3.1 yards a rush after coming in with a 4.7 average.

Three with injuries

The Patriots won’t have much time to enjoy Sunday’s big win. After all, they’re next contest is Thursday night game against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Patriots' team health might be a concern as the team saw three players leave Sunday's game with injuries — Rob Gronkowski, Adam Butler and Elandon Roberts.

After being limited last week with an ankle injury, Gronk left the game with another ankle injury. He caught four of seven passes for 44 yards. At 9:51 of the third, his final catch was his 491st reception, which set a new franchise record for a tight end breaking Ben Coates previous mark. Unfortunately, it was also his last. Gronk then went to sideline where a team trainer worked on the lower half of his right leg. Eventually, the tight end left for the locker room and didn’t return.

Butler was injured at 9:16 of the fourth quarter with a leg injury. The second-year defensive tackle had a solid game, finishing with a sack and pass deflection before departing. After the game, Butler said he was OK.

"I got leg whipped,” Butler said. “I'll see the trainers and see what they have to say about it."

Roberts was injured at 3:28 of the fourth, an apparent lower body injury. The middle linebacker didn’t talk after the game and was walking very gingerly as he excited the locker room. His availability is especially important, with Ja’Whaun Bentley done for the season.