This is the final week of the NFL’s regular season, and the final Throwback Thursday feature also. We are targeting September 21, 2008 for this week’s game, when 2 teams that are matched up in this season’s finale, the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots, took the field against each other. In 2008 the Patriots were in the middle of their dominant Tom Brady era, and came into the game riding a 21 game winning streak dating back to the previous season. Brady had been injured and knocked out for the season on opening day, however, but the Pats had still managed to win their first 2 games with Matt Cassel at the helm. Miami, on the other hand, entered the contest winless at 0-2.
Dolphin head coach Tony Sparano had a big surprise for Bill Belichick’s New England forces. He introduced a new formation, which the club named the “Wildcat”. It involved running back Ronnie Brown taking the snap from center and leading the charge on a rushing attack that caught New England unaware. The result was a dominating Miami performance. Brown scored the only touchdown of the first quarter on a 2 yard run, then sandwiched another pair of rushing TDs, of 15 and 5 yards, around a pair of Stephen Gostkowski field goals to give Miami a 21-6 halftime edge.
Brown unleashed another unexpected trick in this new Wildcat formation when he threw a 19 yard touchdown pass to Anthony Fasano in the third quarter. New England, with their defense spinning their wheels trying to slow down the Wildcat, got a little help from the other side of the ball when Cassel hit Jabar Gaffney for a 5 yard score. The Wildcat struck again to kill that momentum, as Brown scampered 62 yards to paydirt. Dan Carpenter tacked on a field goal to give the Dolphins a surprising but convincing 38-13 win. Brown’s banner day included 17 carries for 113 yards and the 4 touchdowns, in addition to the scoring pass. Miami’s other back, Ricky Williams, added 98 yards on 16 carries as the new Wildcat was successful for a total of 216 ground attack yards.
In the end both teams finished the season with 11-5 records. Miami won the AFC East title through tiebreakers, while the Patriots failed to qualify for the postseason.
Brown ready to chuck it for a 19 yard TD