FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Fans booed the Patriots. Many left early. The record winning streak of their favorite team was ending with a stunning domination by the lowly Dolphins.
Ronnie Brown scored a team-record four touchdowns rushing and threw for another — with four of the scores coming on direct snaps to the running back — as Miami shocked New England 38-13 Sunday.
“It’s brutal, man, brutal,” Patriots defensive end Ty Warren said.
The loss ended the Patriots’ NFL mark of 21 straight regular-season wins that began after a 21-0 loss to the Dolphins on Dec. 10, 2006, in which Tom Brady, now sidelined for the season with a knee injury, was sacked four times. It also ended New England’s chance for a second straight unbeaten regular season.
The Dolphins, who lost their first 13 games last year and finished 1-15, won for just the second time in 22 games. It was the first victory for new coach Tony Sparano, and it was a stunner.
“That was fun. It was obviously a pretty emotional deal,” he said. “They executed the game plan on both sides of the ball to perfection.”
The Patriots kept getting fooled by the same trickery: six direct snaps resulting in four touchdowns after the Dolphins didn’t use the play in their other two games.
“When they get settled, they’re pretty fundamentally sound as a defense,” said Brown, who scored on runs of 2, 15, 5 and 62 yards. “So we wanted to give them something to adjust to.”
The Patriots never did.
“I don’t know why in the world we couldn’t stop that play. They just came in and beat our butts,” safety Rodney Harrison said.
The Patriots didn’t have Brady to lead a winning comeback as he’s done 28 times in the fourth quarter. They had to rely on Matt Cassel and an offense missing running back Laurence Maroney with a shoulder injury, and that was far from enough.
Brown gained 113 yards on 17 carries, and the Dolphins outgained the Patriots 461 yards to 216 in both teams’ last game before their bye week.
Miami’s Chad Pennington went 17-for-20 for 226 yards. Cassel completed 19-of-31 passes for 131 yards with one touchdown, one interception and a lost fumble. He was sacked three times.
“You really don’t realize how good Tom Brady is until he’s not out there,” Miami linebacker Joey Porter said. “Not taking anything away from Matt Cassel, but those are tough shoes to fill.”
