The Miami Dolphins defense saves the day with an ugly win at Gillette Stadium

The Miami Dolphins found their ground game at the right time, their defense made a stop when it needed to, but they didn't break through The Dolphins defeated the New England Patriots 15-10.

“This is a character-building victory. We did a lot wrong,” defensive lineman Calais Campbell said. “It was a great game, especially in the first half, but we didn’t flinch.”

The loss ended a three-game losing streak for Miami. The Dolphins (2-3) also earned their first division win, which happened to be on the road.

Miami has a bye next week.

Miami rushed for 193 yards on a ground-and-pound attempt to take pressure off quarterback Tyler Huntley. Huntley had a decent game as he went 18 of 31 for 194 yards and an interception.

“It's my second week, we have a bye, we're going back to the lab,” Huntley said. “We’re going to come out and be ready to shoot. We’ll take a step up and be ready.”

New England scored its only touchdown after an interception in the first quarter when Rhamondre Stevenson scored from 33 yards out. New England would score a field goal but would not cross the goal line the rest of the way.

“Some weeks you have to step up and win the line of scrimmage and do it again and again,” head coach Mike McDaniel said. “We challenged each other to win a game like this. We didn’t have any particularly explosive plays, but we hung in there and ended up winning the game on a 17-play drive.”

Fullback Alec Ingold scored the decisive touchdown for Miami from three yards out with 4:24 left in the game.

“It was cool to end a 17-play drive like that. This was something we desperately needed. It was the guard center guard and I went straight in. To see a 17-play drive in the fourth quarter when we needed it was cool to get the organization the way we really needed it.”

Technically it was a 15-play drive, but there were two other plays where the Dolphins were called for holding.

Ingold was also a blocking machine all afternoon, as rookie Jaylen Wright had a career game with 86 yards and Raheem Mostert returned from a pectoral injury to pace the Dolphins with 80 yards.

“It was a complete team victory,” said Ingold. “It was a sloppy win, but when you get this win we are working towards something good. We are fighting to find the silver lining and right the ship.”

The Dolphins were able to play the great ground game without speedy running back De'Von Achane, who left the game in the first quarter with a concussion.

Ingold's touchdown was the only time Miami reached the end zone all afternoon. They missed converting two points, but got three field goals from Jason Sanders to get the rest of their points.

Miami also left at least six points on the field as Sanders hit one of his attempts off the left post. On another attempt, Blake Ferguson rolled a snap that defending champion Jake Bailey couldn't parry in time. Sanders picked the ball up from the ground and was tackled for a 9-yard loss.

“You have a few things that don’t go the way you want them to. You hit a post and you have a snap that you would like to have back,” McDaniel said. “But we’ll learn from it and it’s a lot easier when you’re in the win column.”

Bailey also had a punt blocked in the first half. It wasn't a particularly good first half for the special teams.

“You could have put the blocked punt in there, but I had every belief that it would be corrected,” McDaniel said. “It’s very important to work on it and fix it.”