Why the Dolphins Will Win, Why They Will Lose, and What's Actually Going to Happen

The Miami Dolphins will open the regular season against the New England Patriots looking for a second consecutive victory at Gillette Stadium

The most unusual 2020 regular season will kick off for the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium against the New England Patriots.

It's not right to call it a rematch of the 2019 season finale because both teams have undergone some significant changes, and on top of that the circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have created more intrigue than usual.

Here are different ways this game could play out:

The Dolphins will win because ...

-- The new-and-improved defense will find a way to shut down Cam Newton.

-- Newton will be out of sync with a receiving corps that offers little outside of Julian Edelman.

-- The Dolphins will force Newton into some turnovers.

-- Ryan Fitzpatrick will have another productive game throwing the ball the way he did last December.

-- DeVante Parker again will be a major factor and beat Stephon Gilmore like he did last December.

-- The Dolphins will run the ball just well enough to take pressure off Fitzpatrick, who will gain some valuable yardage with scrambles.

-- The Patriots kicker, whoever it turns out to be, will miss a key field attempt.

-- Jakeem Grant will return a kickoff for a touchdown.

The Dolphins will lose because ...

-- Newton will hurt the Dolphins with his scrambling the way he did in that Monday night game in Carolina a couple of years back

-- Newton will have success in the passing game with short passes to Edelman and running back James White.

-- The Dolphins won't be able to apply pressure on Newton because of the Patriots' experienced and talented offensive line.

-- The New England defense will come up with enough games and twists up front to confuse a Dolphins offensive line that will be starting two rookies.

-- Fitzpatrick will be hurried into some mistakes.

-- Gilmore will contain Parker the way he wasn't able to do last December.

-- The Dolphins running game issues of 2019 will resurface and Jordan Howard and Matt Breida won't be able to get going.

What actually will happen ...

Season openers always are tough to predict because the preseason can only offer so much of a clue as to what teams will look like at the starting regular season. With no preseason games to use as a gauge, this becomes even more of a guessing game.

There are exceptions, of course, such as the Kansas City Chiefs offense, which everybody knew was going to be good.

In this case, does anybody really know what Newton will be able to do in his first year in New England? Not really, though we suspect he'll be good.

The Dolphins also are a major mystery team because of all the upgrades they made over the offseason, but what they did at the end of last year means nothing now.

There will be no fans at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, so the Patriots' home-field advantage obviously will be somewhat diminished.

The Dolphins haven't won back-to-back games at New England since 1999-2000, and that second win came when Miami's offensive coordinator was Chan Gailey. Yes, that Chan Gailey.

Can the Dolphins make it happen again? Absolutely they can?

Will it happen?

This game is really hard to predict, but we'll go with ...

Patriots 20, Dolphins 16.