OVERTIME
Patriots 27
Dolphins 24
FOXBORO – All the snow in December in New England had a better shot of melting down in 4:49 before a Dolphins team that was up by 11 points. And incredibly, all of Ricky Williams’ 185 yards of sweat only turned into another puddle of Miami’s tears.
Somebody had to be looking out for the Jets, when Miami, ahead by eight with third-and-three at the Patriot 10 and five minutes remaining, threw the ball incomplete into the end zone when a give to Williams would have taken another minute off the clock. That angel, wearing the horns in South Florida, was Miami coach Dave Wannstedt.
Just before Olindo Mare kicked the chip shot, set up by Brock Marion’s tip interception, that appeared to put a playoff spot away, was the best place to start explaining how Miami laid a red carpet of shame towards the Jets’ AFC East throne.
The Dolphins blew a playoff spot, 27-24 in overtime, after blowing the defending Super Bowl champions around all day, and boarded their plane holding about as much hope of being rescued by Green Bay as Zach Thomas held pride in his team’s performance.
“If we get in,” said the linebacker said before learning the Dolphins didn’t, “we don’t deserve it.
“All I hear is how much talent we have. That’s garbage. [A record of] 9-7, that’s terrible.”
This year, it didn’t take every ounce of the Dolphins’ strength for a passing team to get to December to die. This time, it took every cell of their coach’s brain to freeze up. After Williams had run for two touchdowns and 120 yards at the half, the Patriots slowed him with an extra man in the box. But with a genuine clock-eater finally on their side, the Dolphins’ inexplicably refused him the ball, and even took the aggression out of their defense.
With too much time left to play so soft, they left Tom Brady, playing with an injured hand, nickel-and-dime his way towards an arguable pass interference call on Jamar Fletcher, who was engaging in a mutual light shove-off with David Givens.
The penalty put the ball on the three, from where Brady hit Troy Brown in the back of the end zone. Christian Fauria leaped for the 2-point conversion pass that put New England down only eight with all its timeouts and 2:46 remaining.
On the kickoff, Dolphins deep man Travis Minor, not deep enough when an onside kick was not a must, hesitated to pick up the ball when it went over his head. He finally got to the ball and Miami started at the four. From there, quarterback Jay Fiedler unsuccessfully dinked three passes, forcing the burning of no New England time outs before Mark Royals shanked a punt out of bounds at the Miami 31. Time of possession: 31 seconds.
“We needed first downs, needed points,” said Wannstedt. “And we were going into the wind.”
The excuse was as limp as the flags atop the goal posts. The Patriots required not a single first down to set up Adam Vinatieri’s tying field goal. Then, when Mare put the overtime kickoff out of bounds, New England only needed to make one play, a 20-yard diving sideline catch by Kevin Faulk outside Derrick Rodgers, to set up Vinatieri’s 35-yard game-winning field goal.
“I’m not going to complain about a garbage [interference] call,” said Thomas. “They were struggling, just like us, but at the end they made plays.”
The Patriots, who missed their own chance to kill off the Jets a week ago, ended up making those plays for nothing, but still didn’t wind up as empty as Miami.
“This is as low as it gets,” said Dolphin LT Mark Dixon. “For whatever reason, we wait for something to happen wrong and don’t respond.
“It happens late in the year. It happens on the road. We’re famous for it. And we did it again.”