On It With Offit: Canned by the Tuna

ADAM OFFIT '09


Dolphins 38-Patriots 13

Frosted Flakes, Special K, or the Dunkin Donuts Bacon and Egg Sandwich. I don’t know what the Miami Dolphins team had for breakfast Sunday morning, but whatever it was, the Patriots need to get some of it in their cafeteria ASAP.

The last time the Patriots lost a regular season game against the Dolphins was December 10, 2006. Since then, the Dolphins have gone 1-20 and the Patriots, 23-2. Even with the abrupt and devastating season loss of reigning MVP (not just NFL, but life in general) Tom Brady, nobody predicted Miami to come out as fired up as they did on Sunday. Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington was nearly flawless with only 3 incompletions, while Ronnie Brown led the running game with 113 yards and four touchdowns. Brown had one run for 62 yards, which almost out gained the entire Patriots out-of-character-mediocrity rushing, of 67 yards, for the entire day.

Going into the season, many pundits thought Matt Cassel’s passing was so inaccurate that he couldn’t hit the side of a barn. That theory was proved itself when Cassel dumped the ball into the belly of linesman Randy Starks, Miami’s starting defensive end-weighing in at 305 pounds, standing 75 inches high. Along with his embarrassing interception, Cassel was sacked four times and led the Patriots offense to a miserable 28% 3rd down efficiency (4/14). It was a sad and ugly day all around at the Razor.

My MVP of the game: Not a lot of consistent performances by anyone in a white jersey on this particular Sunday. However, I was very pleased by the Special team efforts of Ellis Hobbs, who returned six kickoffs for 237 yards-an average of almost 40 yards per return. Hobbs also had two explosive run backs: a 50 yard return to open up the game and an 81 yard rumble to set up the patriots with good field position in the third quarter.

Up Next: Patriots head into the bye week at 2-1. The outcome can’t possibly be as bad as it was this week.