Snap Judgments: Week 3

Ronnie Brown (5 total TDs) is the Dolphin in club history to rush for 4 TDs in one game. AP

PHILADELPHIA -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take in the Keystone State's smash-mouth showdown between the Steelers and Eagles at The Linc ...

• In honor of Ronnie Brown and the Dolphins' story-of-the-day upset of the suddenly not-so-scary Patriots, we're calling for nothing but direct-snap judgments today. Direct snaps got the job done for Miami against New England, so that's plenty good enough for us.

** Want to get a real-life sense for just how long it has been since the Patriots lost a non-playoff game? Consider that when New England last lost in the regular season, Sarah Palin was six days removed from being the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. The GOP vice-presidential candidate was sworn in as the governor of Alaska on Dec. 4, 2006, and the Patriots on Dec. 10 of that year lost 21-0 at Miami, in Week 14 of the season.

New England pretty much went on to bigger and better things from there, winning their next 21 regular season games, an NFL record. Come to think of it, you could say the same thing about Palin.

** I promise I'll never doubt Joey Porter again. What did he know about Matt Cassel that the rest of us didn't, and when did he know it? That was the Cassel we watched all throughout the preseason, not the one who looked capable of nicely holding things together for the Tom Brady-less Pats this season. Perhaps we were all a bit hasty on that call.

** Miami's Brown could play another 20 years in the NFL and never have a better game than he did Sunday. A team-record four rushing touchdowns on just 17 carries (113 yards), with a pretty 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Anthony Fasano on a roll-out halfback option play. He was the best player on the field, times 10, and looked like the kid who dominates in Pop Warner League, making all the other parents crazy with envy.

** If you're wondering what it looks like when New England's Bill Belichick gets badly out-coached, this might be Exhibit A. The Dolphins called six direct snaps to Brown, and those bits of trickery resulted in four touchdowns, proving the Patriots had absolutely no answer for Miami. Other than what the Giants defensive line did to the Pats' pass protection in the Super Bowl, when's the last time we saw New England at a complete loss to counter an opponent's moves?

** Okay, I'll say it. Miami has itself a quarterback controversy. Do you play Chad Pennington in the Dolphins' next game, at home against San Diego, or just line Brown up the backfield and direct snap everything to him? I'm kidding. I think.

** In all seriousness, it's in this kind of game where the Patriots are going to miss Brady most of all. New England might do pretty well playing from ahead with Cassel in game-management mode (see last week against the Jets), but let the Patriots fall behind as they did against the Dolphins, and it's probably not going to be pretty (see Sunday, from mid-second quarter on).

Cassel and this offense simply lack the explosiveness to erase a significant lead. New England still seemingly doesn't have much confidence in its running game; and against the Dolphins, the lack of a deep passing game -- like the one that Brady orchestrated last year -- was a killer. No Patriots receiver had a catch for longer than Wes Welker's 21-yard catch, and Randy Moss was almost a complete non-factor with four receptions for 25 yards, with a long of seven. When the Patriots don't stretch the field, they probably don't win.

** Maybe the bigger concern in the wake of the debacle against the Dolphins? Brady doesn't play defense, so how exactly did Miami shred New England's veteran-laden unit for 461 yards of offense, 23 first downs, an 8.1 average gain per play and five touchdowns? The Dolphins, a team that finished just 15 games behind the Patriots in the AFC East last season, just beat the defending AFC champions on their own home field. Badly.

That's closing the gap ... and darn quickly.

** I predict it's going to be a very long bye week for the humbled Patriots, with no extra days off awarded to the players by Belichick. For New England, that Week 5 trip to San Francisco cannot come soon enough.

• For a while there on Sunday, Week 3 looked like one of those You-Don't-Know-Anything Days in the NFL. I was watching as three very bad teams went on the road and were having their way with some clubs I thought were playoff material.

The Dolphins were dismantling the Patriots in Foxboro, the Raiders were stunning the Bills in Orchard Park, and the bumbling Bengals were actually giving the defending Super Bowl champion Giants all they wanted in East Rutherford.

But you know the rest of the story. The Raiders and Bengals eventually woke up and realized where they were, with only the Dolphins finishing the road upset they had started.