Dolphins-Patriots: A classic case of role reversal

With a win today, the undefeated Miami Dolphins, who haven’t won the AFC East since 2008, would put the 1-2 Patriots, who’ve won the division the past nine seasons, in a three-game hole.

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FOXBORO – Don’t bore Adam Gase with the facts.

“Don’t look at records right now,” Gase said early in the week. “It’s too early. Nobody cares. At the end of the day, nobody will give a (bleep) unless you win the last one.”

At the moment, the third-year head coach of the Miami Dolphins is concerned with the next one, today’s game with the Patriots at Gillette Stadium – a matchup that pits a 3-0 team against a 1-2 team in a classic case of role reversal for it’s the Dolphins, who last won the AFC East in 2008, who are unbeaten and the Patriots, who have won the division in each of the nine seasons since, who are struggling and in dire need of a win.

Those are the facts for which Gase has no use.

“We’ve played three games,” said Gase. “They’re always going to do the same things they always do. They get better every week. They have a really good coaching staff and they have a Hall of Fame quarterback. The records are irrelevant right now. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Irrelevant?

Head coach Bill Belichick and his staff, quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots’ cast might beg to differ regarding a start that is the team’s worst in six years, since it also stumbled out of the gates to a 1-2 start in 2012 (they rebounded to finish 12-4 and went to the AFC Championship Game that season before bowing, 28-13, to the Baltimore Ravens in Foxboro).

In the Dolphins, the Patriots will be facing a team that is 2-14 all-time at Gillette where it hasn’t mustered a win since Sept. 21, 2008, the day the late Tony Sparano unveiled the Wildcat formation, which put the ball in running back Ronnie Brown’s hands (four touchdowns rushing and another TD passing) and pummeled a Matt Cassel-quarterback squad – Brady, of course, was out for the year with the knee injury he’d suffered in the season opener – by a score of 38-13.

Of course, Belichick happens to think his streak of nine straight wins over the Dolphins at home is, well, irrelevant.

“I don’t think that any of (those past games) have anything to do with this week’s game. I don’t think that any of them matter,” said Belichick. “What matters is how the teams prepare and compete this week. I think that’s what it’ll come down to. I don’t think 2008 has anything to do with this game.”

If the past two weeks have any carryover effect on this game the Patriots are in big trouble for they have shown little life in suffering their first consecutive double-figure losses since the non-playoff team of 2002, dropping 31-20 and 26-10 decisions in woeful efforts at Jacksonville and Detroit, respectively.

Naturally, folks outside New England stand by with shovels ready to bury a Patriots dynasty that’s raised five Super Bowl championship banners since 2001 and missed the playoffs just twice since that season.

According to safety Devin McCourty, the Patriots' record is an accurate reflection of the performance they've turned in to this point in the season.

"We can't feel sorry for ourselves," said McCourty. "We're here because of what we performed. It's not like we came in and someone gave us a 1-2 record. This is what we went out there and what we deserve, so I think for us, it's got to (be) just put your head down and keep working and then you'll have an opportunity, like we'll have the opportunity Sunday to change it and go out there and get a win. That'll be up to us again so I think the key is just to work.

"We can't sit here and try to point fingers or do any of that. We just keep working and I think that's how you get it turned around and (start) playing better football."

"It's still in September, there's a lot of football left, but we'd love to be playing great right from the beginning," said Brady. "But obviously we haven't done that and we've got to figure out a way to get a win."