Two-Minute Drill

BIG SHOWS

1. Ellis Hobbs III — The man can return kicks. He finished with six returns for an average of 39.5 yards. Field position wasn't an issue in this one. Hobbs didn't get tested, partly because the Dolphins have limited weapons, but he can only play the guy put in front of him, and Hobbs did it well.

2. Stephen Gostkowski — Two for two on field goals. Good long kicks.

3. Chris Hanson — Netted 37.0 yards on three punts.

Note: Sorry folks, there just weren't many high points for the home team.

NO SHOWS

1. Adalius Thomas — Much of the Miami running game attacked the edge. Thomas' forte is setting that edge. He, like all four Pats linebackers, was eaten up most of the day.

2. Vince Wilfork — Gone is the middle of the line being pushed into the quarterback's face. Wilfork got shoved around inside, not just with combination blocks (two-man) but with single blocking from Samson Satele.

3. Rodney Harrison — When is a tackle not a truthful stat? Easy, when you give up an average of nine yards per on each. Harrison's hits, nearly all of the 12, came after big gains. Hey, he's the defensive captain in the secondary, a secondary which gave up 245 yards on 18-of-21 passing.

Note: So I won't be accused of holding a grudge against certain Patriots, we left Tedy Bruschi and James Sanders off the "No Shows." Like most of their teammates, who allowed Miami 38 points and 461 yards of offense, they were quite deserving.

Longo's Report Card

Offense

Line (F) — Miami stacked the line, much like the Giants did in Super Bowl XLII, with similar results. New England's front five was overwhelmed, surrendering four sacks and opening very little running room.

Backs (D) — The day started poorly, with Laurence Maroney scratched with an injury. The backs ran 16 times for 55 yards, not exactly groundbreaking stuff. The Dolphins smothered Kevin Faulk on third downs and the Pats converted just 4 of 15 for first downs.

QBs (D) — The ugly, inefficient side of Matt Cassel was evident with a 68.1 rating, an interception, a fumble and three sacks. Kevin O'Connell (3 of 4, 25 yards) isn't the answer yet.

Receivers (D) — Wes Welker is a professional, and Jabar Gaffney played well. Randy Moss is a highly-paid superstar (3 years, $27 million), who played with little interest and less intensity. Ben Watson and David Thomas were complete non-factors at tight end.

Defense

Line (C-) — The Miami offensive line, other than top pick Jake Long, is a bunch of average Joes. And they decimated New England's front three of All-Pro candidates. No pressure, little gap control equals 8.1 yards average on each Dolphin snap.

Linebackers (F) — Jerod Mayo led the horrid effort with eight solo tackles. Of course, the Dolphins averaged nine yards on those plays. Mike Vrabel, Adalius Thomas and Tedy Bruschi disappeared most of the day.

Secondary (F) — They looked slow. Snails have quicker reaction time than the two starting safeties, at least they did yesterday. At least Rodney Harrison tackles. The rest of them should use the bye week to work on their form. This group does a lot of leg diving and back-jumping, but not a lot of hitting.

Special Teams (B) — The kicking game remains strong, and Ellis Hobbs is a threat every kickoff he catches.

Coaching (D) — Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me all afternoon, shame on Bill Belichick's staff, which had no answers for your basic high school "spread sweep" or the counter option off it. Slide down against the unbalanced line, will you guys? The coaching was as bad this week as it was dominant a week ago. Now you know how Jets fans felt last week.

Filling the gap with completions

Although not exactly household names, Greg Camarillo (4 catches, 60 yards), Anthony Fasano (3 catches, 66 yards) and David Martin (1 catch, 21 yards), worked the middle of the field, repeatedly exploiting a weakness in the Pats' zone defense, right behind the linebackers and in front of the safeties.

Miami's play-action held the slow-reacting Pats linebackers from making deeper drops. Meanwhile, the safeties simply didn't adjust, until it was too late.

Over and over again, Chad Pennington lobbed throws over the backers and in front of the back line. It worked masterfully.

No one to blame but yourselves

The truth is, with Randy Moss loping through his routes and Wes Welker and Jabar Gaffney running 3-yard patterns, Matt Cassel didn't have many open targets. The blame lies on the Pats, who chose not to replace Donte Stallworth in the offseason.

The neutralizer, Joey Porter

You have to like a man who backs up his words.

Miami linebacker Joey Porter spouted off during the week that the Dolphins would win and he proved to be a genius.

Porter had plenty to do with the win, pounding Patriots QBs three times. More importantly, Porter was all over Kevin Faulk in crucial coverages.

Randy Starks' interception on a screen was a direct result of Porter's read and rap on Faulk, who was attempting to slip out into the open.

"In our hearts, we knew we were a better team than (the 0-2 record indicated)," said Porter. "Today we showed it."

Bye, y'all

Tied with Buffalo at 2-1, the Patriots head to the bye week before a crucial two-game West Coast swing with games at San Francisco and San Diego. The Pats return to Foxboro for a Sunday nighter, Oct. 20 vs. Denver.

Trickery wasn't the deciding factor

The media here went bonkers, mesmerized like Matt Cassel in the pocket, by a "gimmick" formation employed by Miami coach Tony Sparano.

Spread formations and unbalanced lines aside, the gimmicks didn't humiliate the AFC champion Patriots, 38-13.

"Competitively speaking, it stinks," said Richard Seymour. "We were a step behind and a step late all day. It felt like we were just reacting to what they were doing and really didn't have any answers."

Beating the traffic

The Gillette Stadium crowd is used to hitting the exits early. Nobody wants to sit on Route 1 for an hour.

Usually, they leave smiling, 24 straight times in fact. Yesterday, they blitzed the ramps just one play into the fourth quarter, after Ronnie Brown's 62-yard TD dash. It was strange.

Fighting mad

On Brown's 62-yard TD, Dolphins halfback Ricky Williams made a hustling/cheap play, slicing down Mike Vrabel by the knees on a block.

An infuriated Vrabel rolled over on Williams and went on the attack. He wasn't going to make the play and Williams' block looked like it had intent to injure, even if it was legal.

You can't blame Vrabel. Both players were flagged for dead-ball personal fouls, even though all Williams did was absorb Vrabel's onslaught.

It was kind of like referee Bill Carollo admitting that he didn't like the tenor of Williams block. In truth, it was legal.

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