Dolphins shock Patriots behind Ronnie Brown's career day

Caught in a classic “letdown spot” after their big win against the Brett Favre led Jets last week, New England was brutalized at home by the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Miami running back Ronnie Brown had a career day, rushing for four TDs and throwing another as the usually hapless Dolphins pounded the usually dominant Patriots 38-13 as the Gillette Stadium crowd looked on in disbelief.

The game brought New England’s NFL record 21 game winning streak to an unceremonious end, and also saw the end of Miami’s 11 game road losing streak. It was an almost unfathomable result in a contest between a Patriots team that has hardly ever lost in the past few years and a Dolphins team that has hardly ever won. Miami lost their first 13 games last year and even with the win here have only won twice in their past 22 games.

Not surprisingly, Patriots fans didn’t really know how to react to the defeat, let alone the domination, by one of the NFL’s bottom feeders. They booed the home team mercilessly, but by the 4th quarter many had just succumbed to the resignation and left early. It was clearly an unfamiliar and difficult experience for fans of a team that had won 16 straight home games (last loss at home was a narrow 17-14 loss to the Jets on 11/12/06). The Patriots hadn’t lost at home by more than 2 TDs since a 40-21 loss to Indianapolis on Monday Night Football back in November 2005. It also marked the team’s worst loss at home since 2001.

Miami rolled out to a 21-6 halftime lead and the Patriots were really never competitive. They were repeatedly fooled by direct snaps to Brown—six direct snaps overall resulting in 4 Dolphin touchdowns. Brown’s stats for the game: 17 carries for 113 yards with 4 TDs, with a 19 yard TD pass off a direct snap for good measure. The Patriots rushing game, meanwhile, was virtually nonexistent with a total of 79 yards on the ground. Matt Cassell finished with 131 yards passing with a TD and interception.

All in all, the Patriots looked like a shell of a team and were dominated statistically as well as on the scoreboard. The Dolphins more than doubled New England in total yardage (461 to 216) including a 216 to 79 advantage on the ground. They also added 245 yards passing to New England’s 137, 23 first downs to 14 for the Patriots and easily won the time of possession battle.

Many of the Patriots fans were incensed by a quote earlier in the week from Miami defender Joey Porter, who suggested that “beating the Patriots without Tom Brady shouldn’t be that hard”. Porter was booed mercilessly by the Foxboro, MA crowd early in the game but quickly put his money where his mouth is by sacking Cassell on a first and goal play from the Jets 7 yard line. That was followed by another sack of Cassell on the following play and an interception on third down which set up the Dolphins first TD. Porter would get his 2nd sack of the game later in the first half.

New England has a much needed bye week on deck, which will allow the team to try and regroup tactically and heal physically. They’ll travel to San Francisco to play the 49ers on 10/5 and back to California the following week to meet the San Diego Chargers. Miami is also off next weekend before a home game against the Chargers on the following Sunday, with a trip to Houston for a matchup against the Texans on 10/12.