‘Orchestration of the Patriots defense’ leaves Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel amazed

The Patriots will face off against McDaniel’s high-powered offense this week.

The upcoming Week 2 game between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins will see two of the best units in football go at each other in a primetime setting.

In one corner, you have a stout Patriots defense; in the other, an explosive Dolphins offense. Time will tell who will reign supreme, but the challenge will be a big one for both teams.

For New England, a lot will ride on its defense’s ability to slow Miami down. The Patriots offense, after all, remains a work in progress and has yet to show that it can compete in a shootout against one of the most talented teams in football.

Luckily, that very same defense appears to be well-equipped for a task like that. Just ask Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.

“It is amazing to me, and I hope one day I can even sniff this,” McDaniel told reporters this week. “It’s amazing that the orchestration of the defense is so consistent — so fundamentally consistent and sound, restrained, very, very detailed. And the leader of the ship was on at the same job when we were all like, ‘What’s an iPod?’”

Despite being early in his career as an NFL head coach, McDaniel has already enjoyed some success. In his first year leading the Dolphins, he guided them to a 9-8 record and a spot in the playoffs — all despite starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missing four games.

With Tagovailoa now back and healthy, the potent offense that the coach build is now looking like a fully-operational battle station. Look no further than Week 1, when it gained 536 yards and managed to score 36 points in a win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

And yet, McDaniel seems well aware that an entirely different beast awaits him and his team at Gillette Stadium on Sunday night: a Bill Belichick-led defense that successfully held another top-tier offense in check in Week 1.

“The coolest part of what they do is it’s not because they’re entitled. It’s because they work at stuff, you can really see it,” McDaniel said. “They have very strong and consistent technique and fundamentals. You can tell that from the top down — and all the coaches on the defensive side — that it’s not negotiable. And that they work together.

“I think they are unique in what they do, and that’s a testament from the Xs and Os standpoint to one of the founding fathers of this generation of football.”