If your birth year starts with a 2, you probably don’t remember this game. Even sans Tom Brady, this was *never* supposed to happen. If you remember the Bills dismantling the Vikings in 2018 and how huge that was, this game was bigger.

In each of their past 20 games, the Dolphins were 1-19 while the Pats were 19-1. Miami was coming off not only a season in which they went 1-15 and fired HC Cam Cameron, but were sitting at 0-2 in 2008 and had just gotten mollywhopped by the Cardinals. They looked like they were headed for yet another bad season. New England came in having gone 16-0 the previous year and still looking like a juggernaut. Despite losing Brady, they beat the Chiefs in Week 1 and the new look Favre-led Jets in Week 2. The Pats were nearly two TD favorites against these Dolphins and Miami smoked them in Foxborough.

The Fins didn’t just win, it was never close. Miami forced multiple turnovers and racked up 4 TDs with the wildcat, of which the Patriot defense had no answer. Miami raced to a 28-6 lead, then answered a Pats TD with a long TD run by Ronnie Brown from the wildcat. These Belichick defenses were excellent and for seemingly the first time, they looked lost and confused. They were reacting instead of anticipating and the Dolphins “ran through their ass like shit through a tin horn.” Joey Porter wrecked the Patriots offense, routinely creating pressure and sacking Cassell multiple times. Porter had guaranteed a win during the week and delivered.

There are few moments in NFL history that compare to this 25-point drubbing. This is one of the best wins in Dolphin history and sparked the use of the option at the NFL level. If you played Madden 2010/2011, you remember how broken the wildcat was there too.

 

Note: this was also the first game in which current Viking HC Kevin O’Connell played, filing in for Cassell late in the 4^(th).

[HIGHLIGHT] For three plays, the Dolphins defense turns into the 1977 Falcons. On the following drive, Miami introduces the football world to the wildcat (2008).