On Sunday, November 23, 2008, the New England Patriots went to Miami with their quarterback of one season, a backup who had not started a game since high school. Two months earlier the Miami Dolphins had beaten them 38-13 and ended a 21-game regular-season winning streak. This time the Patriots lost the lead three times, got it back each time, and won 48-28. Matt Cassel went over 400 passing yards for the second week in a row, Randy Moss caught three touchdown passes, and the Dolphins’ Wildcat offense, which had scored four touchdowns on six plays in September, gained 25 yards.
Two giveaways, two Miami touchdowns
New England took the opening kickoff, drove to the Miami 12 and settled for a 30-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski. Cassel then threw deep for Moss on second-and-10, and the pass was deflected and intercepted by Renaldo Hill, who returned it 17 yards to the New England 42. Four plays later, Chad Pennington hit Greg Camarillo with a 3-yard touchdown pass, and Miami led 7-3 with 5:29 left in the first quarter. A 29-yard pass to David Martin on the first of those plays did most of the work.
Cassel answered on the first play of the second quarter, running 8 yards up the middle for the touchdown that made it 10-7. Then the Patriots gave the ball away again: Sammy Morris was stripped at the Miami 27, and the Dolphins took over at their own 28. Pennington converted a third-and-10, a third-and-12 and a third-and-4 on a 12-play, 72-yard drive and finished it himself, scrambling left for a 7-yard touchdown with 5:16 to go before halftime. It was 14-10 Miami.
New England needed six plays to respond. Faulk caught passes of 11 and 7 yards, Jabar Gaffney made a 14-yard catch on second-and-3, and Cassel hit Moss on a short right-side route that Moss turned into a 25-yard touchdown with 2:24 left. The teams went to halftime with the Patriots ahead 17-14.
The Wildcat gets shut out
In the third week of the season, the Dolphins lined up running back Ronnie Brown at quarterback in the Wildcat and scored four touchdowns on six plays. Brown ran for four touchdowns himself and threw a fifth to Anthony Fasano, and Cassel threw for 131 yards with an interception and lost a fumble. Miami won 38-13. The Patriots had two months to prepare.
On November 23 the Dolphins snapped directly to Brown eight times on plays that counted, and the plays gained 25 yards in total. Brown’s longest run out of the formation was 9 yards, and two of the snaps went to Ricky Williams for a loss of 3 yards and a gain of 2. “Having some time to prepare for it definitely helped,” Bill Belichick said. Our snap guide explains why a snap to a player standing behind the line is legal.
| Time | Play | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1st quarter, 10:13 | Stephen Gostkowski kicks a 30-yard field goal | Patriots 3, Dolphins 0 |
| 1st quarter, 5:29 | Chad Pennington passes 3 yards to Greg Camarillo for a touchdown | Dolphins 7, Patriots 3 |
| 2nd quarter, 15:00 | Matt Cassel runs 8 yards for a touchdown | Patriots 10, Dolphins 7 |
| 2nd quarter, 5:16 | Pennington scrambles 7 yards for a touchdown | Dolphins 14, Patriots 10 |
| 2nd quarter, 2:24 | Cassel passes 25 yards to Randy Moss for a touchdown | Patriots 17, Dolphins 14 |
| 3rd quarter, 11:35 | Pennington passes 2 yards to Casey Cramer for a touchdown | Dolphins 21, Patriots 17 |
| 3rd quarter, 6:19 | Cassel passes 8 yards to Moss for a touchdown | Patriots 24, Dolphins 21 |
| 3rd quarter, 0:08 | Kevin Faulk runs 21 yards for a touchdown | Patriots 31, Dolphins 21 |
| 4th quarter, 13:19 | Pennington passes 13 yards to Ricky Williams for a touchdown | Patriots 31, Dolphins 28 |
| 4th quarter, 8:59 | Cassel passes 29 yards to Moss for a touchdown | Patriots 38, Dolphins 28 |
| 4th quarter, 7:12 | Gostkowski kicks a 30-yard field goal | Patriots 41, Dolphins 28 |
| 4th quarter, 0:40 | BenJarvus Green-Ellis runs 1 yard for a touchdown | Patriots 48, Dolphins 28 |
Six lead changes and a 64-yard catch
Miami opened the second half with its biggest plays of the day. Pennington threw 46 yards to Ted Ginn Jr. and 16 yards to Camarillo, and Brown and Williams carried the ball down to the 2-yard line. On third-and-2, Pennington found Casey Cramer for the touchdown, and the Dolphins led 21-17 after seven plays and 82 yards.
The Patriots used 11 plays and 78 yards to take the lead back. Cassel was sacked once on the way, but he completed passes of 15 yards to Wes Welker, 11 and 15 to Moss and 16 to Ben Watson, and threw the 8-yard touchdown to Moss on first-and-goal. It was the sixth and final lead change, and New England led 24-21 with 6:19 left in the third quarter.
Miami punted on its next drive, and with 52 seconds left in the quarter Cassel threw a short pass to Welker on second-and-8 from his own 15-yard line. Welker stayed in bounds along the left sideline and gained 64 yards, the longest catch of his career, to the Miami 21. Two plays later, with 8 seconds left in the quarter, Faulk ran up the middle for a 21-yard touchdown and a 31-21 lead.
The fourth quarter gets ugly
The Dolphins were not finished. Pennington hit Davone Bess for 36 yards on third-and-3, and Ricky Williams caught a 13-yard touchdown pass to cut it to 31-28 with 13:19 left. Moss answered with a 29-yard touchdown on a nine-play, 80-yard drive that included a 23-yard catch by Gaffney on third-and-10. Ginn muffed the ensuing kickoff and recovered it at the 20, and on the first play from scrimmage Pennington’s deep pass for Fasano was intercepted by Brandon Meriweather, who returned it 19 yards to the 18.
New England settled for a 30-yard field goal that made it 41-28. Miami linebacker Channing Crowder and Patriots tackle Matt Light were both ejected during the field-goal attempt after Crowder shoved Light and Light swung at his head, and the two disqualification penalties offset. Our offsetting penalties guide explains how the league handles fouls on both teams, and the unsportsmanlike conduct guide covers the rule behind the personal fouls that followed.
Miami turned the ball over on downs with 4:10 left, and the Patriots ran the clock out. Green-Ellis carried seven straight times for 20 yards and the final 1-yard touchdown with 40 seconds left. Two penalties on Miami linebacker Joey Porter, a 15-yard unnecessary roughness flag and a 9-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, moved the ball 24 yards closer to the end zone.
“We didn’t show much class at the end,” Dolphins defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday said. Coach Tony Sparano said, “It looked like a lack of poise. We did the things that young, immature teams do.” Belichick noted that it had been a division game and that “they got us the first time. At least we squared it up with them.”
By the numbers
| Patriots | Dolphins | |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterback | Matt Cassel, 30 of 43, 415 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception, plus an 8-yard touchdown run | Chad Pennington, 24 of 41 (including a spike), 341 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception, plus a 7-yard touchdown run |
| Top receivers | Randy Moss, 8 catches, 125 yards, 3 touchdowns; Wes Welker, 8 catches, 120 yards | Greg Camarillo, 6 catches, 75 yards, 1 touchdown; Ted Ginn Jr., 5 catches, 88 yards |
| Rushing leader | Kevin Faulk, 8 carries, 53 yards, 1 touchdown | Ronnie Brown, 10 carries, 37 yards |
| Sacks taken | 2 | 2 |
| Punts | 1 | 4 |
The Patriots punted once all day. Cassel became the first quarterback in team history with back-to-back 400-yard games, and the fifth in NFL history behind Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, Phil Simms and Billy Volek. The Patriots had 1,041 yards of offense in two games. “Matt is getting in the comfort zone,” Moss said. “He’s playing some hellified ball.” Cassel put it more simply: “When it all works together and works right, it’s easy for me.”
What came next
The Dolphins were 6-5 and the Patriots 7-4 after the game, one game behind the New York Jets in the AFC East. New England lost 33-10 at Pittsburgh in Week 13, then won its last four, beating Seattle 24-21, Oakland 49-26, Arizona 47-7 and Buffalo 13-0. Miami won its last five, beating St. Louis 16-12, Buffalo 16-3, San Francisco 14-9, Kansas City 38-31 and the Jets 24-17.
Both finished 11-5. Miami, which had won one game in 2007, took the division title and the No. 3 seed on a fourth tiebreaker, a better conference record than the Patriots, 8-4 to 7-5. Baltimore beat New England for the last wild-card spot on the same tiebreaker, and the Patriots missed the playoffs. They were the first 11-5 team to miss the postseason since the 1985 Denver Broncos. Cassel finished with 3,693 yards, 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and Pennington with 3,653 yards, 19 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
The two teams in 2026
The roles have flipped. The Patriots are 5-3 after beating Miami 24-19 on November 1, a game we recapped here, and the Dolphins are 1-6 with a win over the Jets in Week 7 as their only victory. New England hosts Green Bay on Sunday, November 8, and Miami hosts Detroit the same day. The teams meet again in the final week of the regular season, on Sunday, January 10, 2027, in New England.
The scoring plays, drive notes and player numbers above come from the official play-by-play and game data, with quotes from postgame interviews. 2026 records are through games of November 2, 2026.
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