This wasn't some fluke victory. Miami never trailed. It led, 21-6, at halftime, jumped out to a commanding 28-6 lead in the third quarter, and took all the suspense out of snapping the Patriots' NFL-record 21-game regular-season winning streak.
The Dolphins had handed the Patriots their previous regular-season loss, a 21-0 setback in Miami Dec. 10, 2006.
Riding running back Ronnie Brown (17 carries for 113 yards, four rushing touchdowns, and a 19-yard TD pass), who confounded the Patriots by lining up in the shotgun at quarterback, Miami rushed 36 times for 216 yards, its highest total since racking up 256 yards in an overtime loss to the Patriots in 2002, and had 461 net yards of offense, the most since 1999.
"It doesn't matter what a team did before. They have enough good players. If you just come out there and think you can just show up and beat someone, and they come in motivated, it isn't going to happen in this league," said defensive end Richard Seymour. "You have to be prepared, and I think they came in with a good game plan and they executed, and we really didn't have any answers for it."
While Miami (1-2) marched up and down the field, quarterback Matt Cassel - who was replaced by O'Connell with 6:05 left in the game - and the Patriots offense (216 yards) were stuck in neutral.
Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter, who backed up his trash talk with three sacks and a forced fumble, insulted Cassel (19 of 31 for 131 yards, one touchdown, one interception, one lost fumble) leading up to the game, but it was the quarterback's fans who verbally abused him yesterday, booing Cassel - and his teammates - as they headed off the field at halftime.
"It was bad from the jump and just kept spiraling down the whole game," said wide receiver Jabar Gaffney, who caught Cassel's lone touchdown pass, a 5-yarder with 3:20 left in the third quarter that pulled the Patriots within 28-13. "We never really got anything going."
