Patriots’ First-Half Barrage Sinks Dolphins to New Depths

Once again, Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins were defenseless.

The New England Patriots rebounded from two straight defeats to rout Miami, 34-7, Sunday and send the Dolphins (1-4) reeling to their worst five-game start since Shula became coach in 1970.

“We have to face reality,” Shula said. “We’re on the bottom looking up. Our defense continued to make big mistakes. They were not getting reckless or challenging the other team’s offense.

“This is the lowest this football team has ever been. This is the lowest any team I’ve ever coached has ever been.”

The Patriots (3-2) battered the young and wounded Miami defense by scoring on five of six possessions in the first half and piling up a 27-0 halftime lead.

Miami’s Dan Marino, who threw an NFL career-high four interceptions a week earlier in a 31-16 loss to San Francisco, had three more passes intercepted against the Patriots.

“You have to be pretty proud of yourself when you go out and play a team like Miami with Marino back there throwing and (Mark) Duper and (Mark) Clayton running around, and you’re able to shut them off,” Patriot cornerback Raymond Clayborn said.

Patriots quarterback Tony Eason threw touchdown passes of 2 yards to Willie Scott and 38 yards to Irving Fryar before suffering bruised and possibly fractured ribs in the final minute of the first half when he was sacked by Mack Moore. Additional X-rays will be taken today to determine his playing status for next Sunday’s game with the New York Jets.

Steve Grogan replaced him and continued the onslaught with a 27-yard scoring pass to Stanley Morgan that made it 34-0 with 13:30 left.

“We were making the plays and making the catches,” Grogan said. “Tony’s just been playing extremely well.”

The Dolphins entered the game with the AFC’s worst defense and used rookie starters at defensive end and linebacker. Linebacker Hugh Green and nose tackle Mike Charles were sidelined with knee injuries.

Miami avoided its first shutout since 1982 on Marino’s four-yard scoring pass to Lorenzo Hampton with 11:09 remaining.

“We’ll probably never see a Dolphin team play like this again, at least in my career,” said Brian Holloway, New England’s All-Pro tackle.

The Patriots blew 10-point leads in losing their previous two games to Seattle and Denver, but didn’t give Miami a hint of a comeback.

New England’s Tony Franklin kicked field goals of 31 and 21 yards in the first half, and Craig James scored on a seven-yard run with five minutes left in the half. Miami ran just 22 plays in the first half.

“The difference was that in the second half we played at the same level of emotion as we did in the first half,” Clayborn said. “We’ve already been giving enough early Christmas presents.”

Eason completed 12 of 16 passes for 161 yards. He set regular-season team records of five consecutive games and 150 consecutive passes without an interception.

The Patriots outgained the Dolphins 276 yards to 62 in the first half, and 429 to 251 for the game. Marino completed 13 of 23 passes for 167 yards.