DeVante Parker, who bailed on the end-zone pick a couple weeks back, had the Jay Cutler’s first pass of the game clang off his hands incomplete. He made up for it later in the drive with a fourth-down reception/conversion.

Xavien Howard chased Brandin Cooks in coverage on the Patriots first third down of the game and came up with a terrific interception on an underthrown pass by Brady, giving Miami the ball at its own 40.

The Patriots managed just 2 yards of offense in the first quarter, the lowest total for the franchise in a first quarter since 2001.

The Patriots sent Devin McCourty on a rare safety blitz early in the second quarter and it paid off with a sack of Jay Cutler that led to a third-and-18 and a punt that put the Patriots in business at their own 48.

With Brady staring a blitz in the eyeballs, he flipped a pass out to the right on a wheel route to Dion Lewis who chased it down and hauled it in with one hand to pick up the first down.

Brandin Cooks drew a pass interference on corner Xavien Howard in the second quarter that put the ball at the threshold of the Dolphins end zone. Cooks looked like he initiated the contact with a hand to Howard’s grill but Howard never got his head around and drew the flag.

The Patriots made it through the first half without a completion to a wide receiver, although Brandin Cooks did draw the long pass interference.

Kenyan Drake ran to the grill of Patrick Chung, spun to his right, leaving Chung grasping at air and picked up a chink down inside the Patriots 10 early in the third quarter.

A mic’d up Bill Belichick two weeks ago was heard repeatedly pleading that his defense make sure it accounted for the Dolphins best wideout. On a night where things just weren’t going their way, Landry was left all by himself at the goal line for the touchdown that made it 27-10.

Jay Cutler, after a spectacular three quarters, threw it to Patriots defensive tackle Lawrence Guy on a screen inside his 10. And Guy dropped it.

A punt return by Reedy that got out to the New England 48 early in the fourth was wiped out by a pair of penalties that moved the Pats back to their 15 at a time when they could ill afford to lose it.

Jakeem Grant was open for a huge gain early in the fourth after having beaten Malcolm Butler but he was unable to snare the deep ball from Jay Cutler which would have made it 34-17.