Time to hit the road

Maybe the Patriots shouldn't play any more home games this season. The first two haven't gone particularly well.
Week 1: Tommy Boy suffers season-ending knee injury.
Week 3: Pats get smoked by lowly Dolphins.

The next one might not be any better. The possibly very good Broncos come to town on Oct. 20.

From their mouths to our blog

Post-game quotes:
Randy Moss: "Their expectations were to come in here and put it to us. ... You could see, the way the Dolphins performed out there, they just wanted it more than we did."

Bill Belichick: "There's not too much to say. Miami played a good football game. They did everything a lot better than we did. They dominated on offense and defense. I thought we were competitive in the kicking game, but that was about it."

Joey Porter: "We came out here to win. It's not really about me. You really don't realize how good Tom Brady is until he's not out there. It's like a different team with Tom leaving. Not taking anything away from Matt Cassel, but those are some tough shoes to fill."

That's all, folks

It's time for me to go listen to Belichick talk about what a good football team Miami is and how they made a few more plays today than the Patriots did. I’ll be back in a bit with some lame post-game quotes before I hustle out of here to get home in time for the Packers-Cowboys game.

Hooray for Kevin O'Connell

Can't tell if the few Patriots fans left at Gillette were cheering Kevin O'Connell, or the fact that it wasn't Matt Cassel who came onto the field for the Patriots with 6 minutes left in the game. Maybe a bit of both.

Let's remember the past

It looks as though the Dolphins are going to win this one - not to mention give the Patriots a little something extra for last year's 52-7 whuppin - so let's take this opportunity to remember what it was like to be awesome.

Tickets to today's game ... CHEAP!

If you find a scalper and want to get into today's game, there should be plenty of seats available. The catwalk at Gillette looks like the Running of the Bulls.

Ronnie Brown is a beast

Ronnie Brown just scored on a 62-yard run. It was his fourth TD of the game, which is a Dolphins record. He is straight up destroying the Pats.

Who will Bill Belichick bring in?

Matt Cassel has been awful today. He's 16 for 24 for 112 yards. I really believed he could manage the game and let the defense do the dirty work, but I'm starting to wonder if that's true or not. He's astonishingly inaccurate. So this begs the question: Who does Belichick call on Monday morning? Culpepper? Testaverde? FLUTIE!?!?

Ryder update

The Americans lead 6 of the 12 matches, while two are all square. This is getting good.

Hooray for punts!

The Patriots fans finally found something to cheer about. Chris Hanson just pinned the Dolphins at the 1-yard line with a very nice punt.
The joy was short-lived, however, as an illegal touching penalty (the dirtiest sounding penalty in football) forces New England to punt it again.
On the second try, Hanson's punt was downed at the 20. No one cheered.

Just because Josh is a hater

The old college try

The Patriots just got scored on, again, by Ronnie Brown. Only this time, the Dolphins decided to switch it up and run a college play, with Brown taking the snap and running straight in. I thought the reason those plays don't work in the pros is because NFL defenses are too good. Most of them probably are.
Good call starting Brown on your fantasy team, Scotty. He's torching your beloved Pats, and apparently the fans here in Foxboro aren't too pleased. When was the last time this team got booed at home?

Good effort, Ellis

Ellis Hobbs just got lit up by Ronnie Brown on the goal line. Isn't it supposed to be the defensive player who hits the running back? Brown's not exactly known as a punishing runner, but Hobbs looked like he just got hit by an Evander Holyfield uppercut.
14-3 Dolphins.

Give it to Ricky!

Ricky Williams needs to get the ball more. I have no real interest in him other than he's on one of my fantasy teams and in our Daily News league, commissioned by Scott Barrett, we have 22 running backs and 21 wide receivers in play on each team. Hence, I am forced to root for a guy who no one in a normal league should have on their fantasy team.

Great day for sports

Not only are the Patriots going to improve to 3-0, but the Ryder Cup champion will be crowned and it's the last day the Yankees will play in Yankee Stadium. While I'm nowhere near being a Yankees fan, I was lucky enough to attend a game there, and the place is just awesome. It's hard to imagine it was built so long ago.

As far as the Ryder Cup, the Americans lead 9-7 entering today's singles matches. Of the nine matches happening right now, the U.S. leads four of them and four are all square. U.S.A! U.S.A!

Take down the banner

Really, do the Patriots need to put up a 16-0 banner? Sure, it was a great feat, one that one other team in NFL history has accomplished. But the job wasn't completed, and putting up a banner only makes every Patriots fan realize that it was a failed mission.

IN THE GRASP?!?!?!

I know another quarterback who was in the grasp much worse and yet it was never called. His name was Eli Manning.

We're underway

In a sure sign of what's to come, both offenses went three and out in their first possessions.
Gotta love the Matt Cassel era. Feel the excitement.

Where's Jim Nantz?

I know that this is not a high-profile game, but it's still the Patriots, meaning it derseves better announcers than Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots. At the very least, send along one of the Gumbels.

3-0, here we come

To say the Dolphins have a chance at winning this game is like saying there will be October baseball played at Yankee Stadium this season. Talent-wise, this game is a total mismatch position by position, including quarterback, where Matt Cassel is only going to get more confident. The Pats have a bye week next week, and the 49ers in Week 5. By the time they travel to San Diego for a showdown with the Chargers (and keep in mind, back-to-back road trips to the West Coast isn't going to be easy), the offense will be clicking in a Brady-esque manner. (OK, maybe not that well, but well enough).

Live from Foxboro

Good day, everyone. Your favorite Newport Daily News sportswriter is coming to you live from the cushy press box at lovely Gillette Stadium. I'll be here for the next several hours to rant and rave about the Patriots, their ridiculously easy schedule, their adequate QB, and plenty of other stuff.
And I'll soon be joined on the blog by sports editor Scott Barrett and perhaps executive editor Sheila Mullowney (Go Bills!).
So stay tuned and throw in your two cents at will as we watch the Patriots win another unexciting game against a poor opponent.