This is surely not how the
Dolphins drew up this season, but then not much has gone according to script for Miami in five years. That was 2008, the last time the
Dolphins made the playoffs, when they slipped through an opening created by Brady's season-ending knee injury and won the division with Chad Pennington. Brady returned, of course, and the
Patriots haven't lost the division since.
They won't lose it this season, either, and conceivably not again until Brady retires. But while Brady and Co. have shown a remarkable ability to adapt to a series of critical injuries, the
Dolphins might have bested them on resilience this season. They have weathered a midseason slump and a crisis borne of bullying accusations and the league investigation that lingers on. And on Sunday, with their secondary battered and watching Brady move steadily down the field, the
Dolphins had a player who even the head coach admitted he didn't know very well, in the most critical positions -- breaking up one potential touchdown pass and
intercepting another -- to beat the
Patriots 24-20 and keep the
Dolphins (8-6) vying with the
Baltimore Ravens for the final
AFC wild-card spot.
"It was a fitting way for this team -- they've been through a lot -- to win this game," coach
Joe Philbin told reporters after the game.
That was a typically flat-lined reaction from Philbin, whose lack of emotion might frustrate those looking for a good sound bite but likely helped steady the
Dolphins through their tumult. The
Dolphins still don't know how the investigation into Richie Incognito's behavior will end, but they do know this much: It did not fracture the locker room; it did not distract the team; it did not send the season tumbling out of control.
On first down, from the
Dolphins' 19-yard line, Brady had gone to
Danny Amendola in the end zone, but Thomas broke the play up with one hand. On fourth down, with Thomas in man-to-man coverage on
Austin Collie, he simply intercepted it. Thomas was overwhelmed, he said, by all the thoughts of his improbable week, of his stunning career turn.
Put in the most difficult imaginable spot, Thomas had not buckled. Just like the team that signed him.
