Nobody would have guessed ahead of Sunday’s game that the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots would be involved in a shoot out, if anything perhaps a close, low scoring game. Instead, Dolphin fans were treated to a back and forth shoot out Sunday that eventually saw the Dolphins fall short on fire power, losing to the Patriots 48-28.

The first 3 1/2 quarters of Sunday’s game were perhaps the most exciting quarters of football witnessed in Miami in recent memory. The game saw 6 lead changes by the middle of the 3rd quarter as the teams traded blows in an offensive onslaught. New England scored first on a 30 yd field goal in the 1st quarter to make it 3-0 and from there it was one lead change after another. Miami would go ahead 7-3 on a Chad Pennington TD pass to Greg Camarillo, but the Patriots would answer later with an 8 yd TD run from Matt Cassel to go ahead 10-7.

Pennington would answer with a TD scramble of his own to put Miami back in front 14-10, but just before the half Randy Moss caught a 25 yd TD pass from Cassel to take the lead at halftime 17-14. The back and forth would continue though as Miami answered right away in the 2nd half with another Pennington TD pass, this time to Casey Cramer to go up 21-17. Back to back New England touchdowns in the 3rd quarter though would bring an end to the lead changes, as the Patriots went up 31-21.

Miami would make one more run at the Patriots early in the 4th quarter when Pennington threw his 3rd TD pass of the day, this time to Ricky Williams, to close the gap to 31-28. From there however it was all Patriots as they would go on to score a TD, FG, and TD to win by a final score of 48-28.

The loss hurts the Dolphins playoff chances as they fall to 3rd in the AFC East. Barring a collapse of the New York Jets, the Dolphins have little to no chance of winning the division and it is even difficult to see how the Dolphins could climb into the Wild Card race at this point. That being said, the Dolphins have nothing to be ashamed of. The Patriots, like it or not Dolphin fans, are simply more talented than the Dolphins. Too much has changed since the last time these two teams have met. Matt Cassel almost has Patriot fans saying “Tom who?” and their defense is resurgent.

The Dolphins made a good showing of themselves and no matter how the team finishes the rest of the season, they should see nothing but positives out of the 2008 campaign. They went from 1 win last season, to 6 already this season and still have a chance to finish with a winning record. Given the lack of talent at some key positions on this team (WR!), they are proving they can compete nonetheless. Hold your heads high Dolphins, you’re doing just fine.