This was a different kind of win, a rock-em’ sock-em’ win.

Throw out all the technical cover 3/ Tampa 2 mumbo jumbo that lots of media members like to repeat to make themselves sound like NFL coaches.

Take the New England Patriots’ wild 33-27 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday for what it was: A fight to the finish.

And the Patriots were ready to battle, because that’s the way their head coach wants his players to play.

“We’re not front runners,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. “And that’s a big thing in this league. When you play in the National Football League, you have to be willing to take some punches. And that’s OK. But you gotta give more than you take.”

And that’s what they did. They took the final punch the Dolphins had to give, Malik Washington’s punt return for a TD, and responded immediately with Antonio Gibson’s kickoff return to the house, with Vrabel running right beside him on the sideline.

New England then got a break when Dolphin De’Von Achane stepped out of bounds negating what was orginally thought to be a touchdown. They sealed things with linebacker Marte Mapu’s interception that led to a field goal.

And they left Miami with a win. The Tua Streak is now over.

“I think that we came in here ready for a fight,” Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs said, and added “That’s how the game is – you swing, they’re going to swing back, you have to keep swinging. At the end of the gme, we’ll see the chips lay but there’s no give-up on this team…I feel like we took a step this week…”

Not only did they do that, they very likely decimated the Dolphins for the foreseeable future. Miami has to go to Buffalo on Thursday night and that could be 0-3 staring Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier in the face. We’d be shocked if they both make it through the season. One of them may be gone in the next few weeks.

But not here, although we’d be shocked if Eliot Wolf was around next year after his near-entire 2024 draft has disappeared.

The way the league is now, especially early in the season, you’re going to get these crazy up-and-down, see-saw games that test a coach’s patience and his players’ mettle.

“I’m just excited for these guys,” Vrabel said. “I’m really excited that they could fight and compete, come on the road, be in a game, get off to a good start and not be front runners – everything we talked about.”

Vrabel wants his team to learn how to compete and compete they did. Much different than a week ago, when except for maybe one quarter the Patriots looked comatose.

“I think this does a lot for our identity and our character as a football team,” Mapu said, “being able to grind it out all the way to the end and ultimately do whatever we have to do to come out with a win.”

Mapu had a final key message:

“I think (the win) does a lot for us there,” he said, “but we got to keep winning.”

Tom King may be reached at X @Telegraph_TomK, or via email at tking@nashuatelegraph.com