Dolphins try to keep AFC East road coming through Miami, but lose 27-17

(Because of travel plans this week’s live chat has been moved to 1 p.m. Tuesday. Join me then to discuss today’s loss to the Patriots and Sunday’s visit from Tampa Bay.) FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – As every Dolfan knows by now, Miami will take on the red-hot New England offense (94 points past two games) without NT Jason Ferguson and LB Channing Crowder. Talk about a perfect weather for football … 65 degrees, sunny and no wind. Dolphins’ open in dime package (DBs Nate Jones, Ty Culver in, DLs Kendall Langford, Paul Soliai out) against Tom Brady, who has nine TD passes in the past games. Vontae Davis’ interception against Randy Moss was a first-half highlight for Miami. Click the photo to see a gallery of game photos. (AP) First quarter – Vontae Davis is showing more and more why the Dolphins used the first-round pick on him. Davis blanketed Randy Moss, maybe the greatest deep threat in NFL history, and came up with a one-handed interception. Sick play by a 21-year-old whose confidence is growing by the week. – Here we go again with New England … was the arm moving forward or not? Sure looks like Chad Henne’s arm was moving when LB Tully Banta-Cain hit him and Adalius Thomas returned it for a TD. The officials agreed after a lengthy deliberation and a challenge (and Pats fall to 1-2 in “tuck rule” decisions, though a first down in the first quarter certainly isn’t of the magnitude of the Ray “Sugar Bear” Hamilton fiasco in the 1976 playoffs against Ken Stabler or the Brady’s tuck rule call against Oakland in the 2002 playoffs. During the hubbub, crowd finally wakes up a bit. This place is dead. – Dolphins’ K Dan Carpenter’s 52-yard FG was a career long. Previous best 50 yards last Dec. 7 against Buffalo in Toronto’s Rogers Centre. – All-world WR Randy Moss had to make a one-handed catch because he pushed off Vontae Davis with his other hand. Davis isn’t shying away in this matchup. – Speaking of confidence, Ted Ginn Jr., coming off two 100-yd TD returns, is running with noticeable confidence. Took kickoff four yards deep, returned it 37 yards. (Vegas over/under on KO ret yards was 22.5). – Back-to-back catches by Davone Bess and Anthony Fasano – arguably the two most disappointing Dolphins this season. – Wildcat gets off to inauspicious beginning in its return to Foxboro, a 3-yard loss by Ricky Williams, who slipped. Henne suffers 8-yard loss on sack on next play as solid drive implodes. – No Jason Ferguson, no run defense, has to be a little worrisome when you are relying that heavily on a 35-year-old nose tackle. – Dolphins might wish now they had more than 4 CBs after Will Allen’s injury. Jason Allen is in the game for Vontae Davis, who injured his quadricep on a long pass break-up against Moss in the end zone. The last time Allen faced NE Moss he caught 3 TDs and Allen broke his thumb. Two Dolphins (safeties Cam Worrell and Renaldo Hill) suffered ACL tears on one play against Moss in 2007. Second quarter – Jason Taylor matched up on Wes Welker is one the Dolphins need to avoid. Hold that thought, JT might be a better match-up than Jason Allen. Girbil Wilson nearly got to Brady on a safety blitz, but Brady always seems to know where to find Welker. – Ted Ginn Jr. last week, will it be Pat White this week? White has done nothing this season (13 snaps, 2 rush yards), then suddenly leads Miami on an 80-yard drive running out of the Wildcat (33-yard run) and the option (15-yard pitch to Ricky Williams for a TD). Gotta give the Dolphins’ coaches credit for changing up things on a dime. Miami had 12 rushing yards entering that drive. – Patriots’ third-down back Kevin Faulk seems to have the Dolphins’ number. Has 43 yards on five touches, including 29 yards on three touches on field-goal drive that made it 13-10. – Now, there’s the Pat White we have come to know so well, just chucking the ball in the direction of someone, nice change-of-pace or trigger of a gimmick play or two … not NFL-QB. – Vontae Davis (quad) back in the game, whistled for pass interference immediately on Sam Aiken. Four plays later, Davis could have picked up his second flag on Aiken, but Culver held him first. Davis could blanket Randy Moss, but can’t keep up with Aiken. Weird. – There were mixed feelings on a blog the other day about whether the Wes Welker trade was a

good one for Miami. Welker has six catches for 73 yards and is running circles around the Dolphins’ pass D. – A clock operator with an itchy trigger finger just cost the Dolphins three points and gave the Patriots a 16-10 lead. – For the third straight week, the Dolphins are trailing in the time of possession battle (17:31 to 11:33). – Tom Brady is 18-of-29 for 224. Chad Henne is 6-of-13 for 88 yards. It’s the most passing yards allowed by Miami this season during the first half … Brady is getting way too much time. Third quarter – Nice call on the Ronnie Brown-Joey Haynos TD hookup following a couple of runs out of the Wildcat by Brown that totaled one yard. Who’d have expected Joey Haynos to have more TDs (2) than Anthony Fasano (1) right now. That play capped a 16-play, 10-minute drive for the Dolphins. Wow. Ronnie now has two TD passes, both in Foxboro. – Guard Justin Smiley is everywhere out there, nailing Patriots defenders 10, 15 yards downfield on pulls. – WR Greg Camarillo gets open at will, catches everything and doesn’t fumble. The Dolphins finally involved him in the passing game a bit more (season-high 71 yards on five catches). – CB Davis was having a nice day against Randy Moss (what a stiff arm!), but leaving Davis one-on-one w/ no help against Moss is too risky. A three-play drive, with a 71-yard TD to Moss is sure tough to stomach after putting together a 10-minute drive to take the lead and seize the momentum of the game. – Fourth roughing the passer penalty on NE, tied for the NFL lead, negated a Patriots interception in Miami’s end of the field. The Dolphins capitalized and put together a decent drive, but screwed it up with a trick play out of the Wildcat on second and eight that led to an 11-yard sack of Henne. Then on third and 19, Miami tries a screen pass??? Fourth quarter – The Dolphins might not have the personnel to run the bubble screen. Davone Bess just isn’t elusive enough to make much of it. – LB Joey Porter talked all week long about his hate for the Patriots, Tom Brady’s preferential treatment and everything else. With 10 minutes to go, Porter has zero tackles. With a little more than a minute remaining in the game, the Patriots’ video board panned in on Porter and noted he had a goose egg today. Coaches have replaced Porter with Cam Wake to rush the passer. – Ted Ginn sighting. A 7-yard completion from Henne with 7 minutes to go is Ginn’s first of the season. Dolphins WRs have 10 catches for 99 yards, an improvement over last week, but not enough to get it done in an NFL passing game. Meanwhile, Randy Moss has six catches for 147 yards. And get this … Chris Chambers caught two TDs and 70 yards of passes today for Kansas City. – Brian Hartline has to come up with that pass from Henne on second and 10. It was one of Henne’s best throws of the day. – Michigan alum Henne pulled a Chris Webber calling a timeout he didn’t have. Henne’s youth and inexperience have shown often today. – The peaks and valleys of Ted Ginn Jr. continue. He had a chance to be the hero again, but didn’t come up with a catchable ball on fourth and 15 with 2:54 remaining. – Here are a few quick stats at game’s end: First downs: Miami 21, NE 22 Total yards: Miami 334, NE 432 TOP: Miami 31:08, NE 28:53. Third down conversions: Miami 9 of 17, NE 6 of 13 Passing: Henne 19 of 34 219, O TD, O INT, 2 sacks, Brady 25 of 37, 332, 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 sacks – Don’t kill the messenger here, folks, but Jets S Kerry Rhodes might say it best: “Miami just finds ways to stay in games! it baffles me but they do!” The Dolphins have been stagnant on offense other than two or three drives and the Patriots seem to be doing what they want on offense. Yet, the Patriots got a cheap FG and the Dolphins only lose by 7. But in the end, the Dolphins are now 3-5. The good news is Miami has three winnable games (vs. Tampa Bay, at Carolina, at Buffalo) coming up. The bad news is Tom Brady and the Patriots visit Miami on Dec. 6.

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Dolphins try to keep AFC East road coming through Miami, but lose 27-17

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