Brown Is Out, and Miami Gets the Version of New England That Keeps Losing on the Road

A.J. Brown has been ruled out for Sunday's game in Miami Gardens, joining TreVeyon Henderson on the inactive list for an AFC East road game the Patriots can ill afford to drop. Brown's ankle and knee issues had been building all week — he missed practice Thursday and Friday — so the ruling isn't a surprise. It still stings.

The Patriots elevated a former Dolphins wideout from the practice squad and added Lan Larison to the 53-man roster to shore up the backfield, but those are depth moves, not replacements for what Brown brings. DeMario Douglas and Hunter Henry remain the most reliable options in the passing game, and Drake Maye — 1,784 yards and 13 touchdowns through seven games — will have to manufacture something against a Dolphins defense that now gets to game-plan without accounting for Brown's size and range.

The road record is the context that makes this hurt more than it otherwise would. New England is 1-3 away from Gillette, and the offense has been noticeably less functional in hostile environments all season. Losing your most physically imposing receiver before kickoff in Miami is not the way to fix that.

Henderson's absence compounds it on the ground. Rhamondre Stevenson and Corey Kiner will carry the backfield load. The Patriots have enough pieces to be competitive. Whether they have enough to win their second road game of the year is a different question.