MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins clinched a third-straight losing season for the once-powerful Patriots.

The Patriots fell to 3-9 on the season in a game defined by a second-quarter scoring surge by a Dolphins’ offense that put up 24 points in 15 minutes of play.

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“I thought we gave up too many big plays defensively,” head coach Jerod Mayo said. “Did a better job in the run game. Gave up too many big plays tackling, scheme, whatever you want to call it. Just overall execution defensively just wasn’t good enough.”

Mayo blamed the coverage breakdowns that led to Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa going 29-of-40 for 317 yards with four touchdowns and no turnovers on “a lack of communication.”

“It wasn’t a secret. They used motion and shifts and things like that to stress the communication,” Mayo said. “And we just weren’t on the same page.”

Patriots safety Kyle Dugger struggled in Sunday’s loss. He was in the middle of the defense that lost track of running back Devon Achane on two touchdowns in the first half and tight end Jonnu Smith on a third.

Cornerback Jonathan Jones, who won two Super Bowls and appeared in a third with the Patriots doesn’t believe players are fully focused.

“I think it’s guys locking in, a lack of focus at this point,” Jones said. “Because it’s nothing that we don’t go through during the week that comes up on Sunday, so it just kind of comes out to just locking in and being prepared.”

Dugger agreed, saying, “I wouldn’t really put it on other guys. As a unit, we weren’t focused all the way. There was definitely truth to that.”

Defensive tackle Davon Godchaux responded to Jones’ comment by saying, “We can’t have that, though. I’m with Jonathan. Jonathan’s a veteran. I have all the respect for him. And we just can’t have it.”

The secondary allowed wide receiver Jaylen Waddle go off for eight catches on nine targets for 144 yards with a touchdown and Smith to catch nine passes for 87 yards with a touchdown. Cornerback Christian Gonzalez helped limit Tyreek Hill to five catches on six targets for 48 yards.

No one would blame the communication breakdowns on the Patriots’ coaching staff.

Even Mayo said, “once those guys cross the white lines, there’s nothing I can do for them. There’s nothing any coach can do for them once they cross the white line.”

“It’s my job to continue to prepare not only them but our coaches to go out there and play better football.”

Added Jones: “I couldn’t blame it on coaching at all. I think at some point we just have to execute and lock in. Whatever’s called, lock in and execute.”

Coaches may be preparing players for the situations they’re going to face, but it’s also their responsibility to dress players who are fully committed and to make sure they’re locked in for a game.

If players aren’t fully focused now, then things could get even uglier with nothing to play for late in the season.

The Patriots clearly won’t be making a playoff run, and many players on this team won’t be building blocks in the future if the team can rebuild under head coach Jerod Mayo.

Jones has a message for players potentially packing it in.

“Look in the mirror and see what you want this season to be for yourself,” Jones said. “It doesn’t stop here. Hopefully, guys want to further their career and how you handle adversity, how you handle these next few weeks is going to say a lot about you as a player, a lot about you as a person and who you want on your team when things aren’t going right.”

Defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale believes players have to play for pride.

“We can’t go out like this. At the end of the day, we just gotta keep on coming in and building, keep fighting every week to give us the best chance to win,” he said.

Mayo, Ekuale and defensive tackle Davon Godchaux all were happy with the way the Patriots stopped the run on defense.

The Dolphins ran the ball 24 times for just 65 yards. Achane scored two touchdowns as a receiver but carried the ball just 10 times for 32 yards. The Dolphins’ speedy running backs had just one carry over 10 yards.

“Run defense, we did a pretty good job just had some struggles in the back end,” Godchaux said of his secondary. “We’ll look at the film, but we knew coming in today that we were going to stop the run. We knew we were going to have to make them one dimensional and pass the ball, which we did. It still didn’t really work out for us. …

“Same old story. Coming to Miami, losing. Tua’s 7-0 against us someone was telling me. Gotta give credit to them. We didn’t play a good football game. I thought the second-half defense played a lot better. Second quarter, we gave up 24 points. I don’t even know what was going on. I know the back end had some miscommunication going on, but we’ll take a look at it. It’s pretty frustrating. Coming in, just put it aside for me, playing here years ago, but it’s just really embarrassing.”

The Patriots are 1-3 in divisional games now. Their final two in-division games come against the first-place Bills in Weeks 16 and 18.