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Give Him 5: Brown Leads Upset Win

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 22, 2008

Updated: 09/22/2008 12:11 am

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.

"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. "You've got a bitter taste in your mouth. The only way to get rid of that bitterness is to come in and work hard. You get bitter and you get better."

Mia-Brown 2 run (Carpenter kick), 2:29.

Second Quarter

NE-FG Gostkowski 37, 11:31.

Mia-Brown 15 run (Carpenter kick), 8:19.

NE-FG Gostkowski 44, 4:54.

Mia-Brown 5 run (Carpenter kick), :59.

Third Quarter

Mia-Fasano 19 pass from Brown (Carpenter kick), 5:46.

NE-Gaffney 5 pass from Cassel (Gostkowski kick), 3:20.

Fourth Quarter

Mia-Brown 62 run (Carpenter kick), 14:49.

Mia-FG Carpenter 39, 6:08.

A-68,756.

RUSHING-Miami, Brown 17-113, Williams 16-98, Cobbs 3-5. New England, Morris 9-27, Jordan 6-22, Welker 1-19, Faulk 1-6, Cassel 3-5.

PASSING-Miami, Pennington 17-20-0-226, Brown 1-1-0-19. New England, Cassel 19-31-1-131, O'Connell 3-4-0-25.

RECEIVING-Miami, Ginn Jr. 5-49, Camarillo 4-60, Fasano 3-66, Williams 2-21, Martin 1-21, Wilford 1-15, Brown 1-9, Bess 1-4. New England, Welker 6-55, Gaffney 6-51, Moss 4-25, Faulk 2-6, Aiken 1-9, Watson 1-6, D.Thomas 1-4, Morris 1-0.

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