FOXBORO -- All good things must come to an end. But they don't usually come to an end against bad teams, like the Miami Dolphins.

The Dolphins came into Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon having lost 20 of their previous 21 games. The Patriots came in with an NFL-record, regular-season winning streak of 21 in a row. Yet the Dolphins came away with a decisive, authoritative, shocking -- and also shockingly easy -- 31-13 victory.

Compared to Miami's win over New England, the United States winning the Ryder Cup, after a couple of years of lopsided losses to Team Europe, seems like a lock.

How to explain it?

Well, here's what Pats coach Bill Belichick had to say: "We didn't move the ball on offense and couldn't stop them on defense. I don't what else there is to say."

There's isn't much, really.

Unless you want to toss a few bouquets Ronnie Brown's way.

Looking like a combination of the legendary Jimmy Brown and Cosmo Iacavazzi -- a star in Princeton's single-wing offensive alignment of the '60s -- with a touch of a left-handed Dan Marino thrown in, Ronnie ran roughshod over the dazed and confused New England defense.

Not only did he rack up a franchise-record four rushing touchdowns -- a feat that not even Dolphins legend Larry Csonka, a Hall of Famer, ever accomplished -- but he also threw for a TD, rolling to his left in the third quarter and lofting a 19-yard scoring pass to tight end Anthony Fasano on a play that was as embarrassing to the Patriots as it was baffling.

It was a Brown-out in New England on Sunday afternoon -- one that left the Patriots red-faced.

In a rarity for a Belichick-coached team, the Pats looked totally and woefully unprepared for Brown's unanticipated antics -- particularly when he lined up a few yards behind center Samson Satele and took a direct snap, reminiscent of an old, single-wing back.

Six times the ball was snapped directly to Brown, and the results were astounding. Four times he ran. On three of those runs, he scored touchdowns: a 2-yarder in the first quarter, a 5-yarder in the second and a game-clinching, 62-yard breakaway in the third.

Twice, he handed the ball to Ricky Williams, who ran for gains of 3 and 21 yards.

Once, Brown threw the ball -- the TD toss to Fasano.

Not once were the Patriots able to make a defensive adjustment to stop him.

Bill Parcells didn't make the trip up from Miami, where he's now in charge of football operations, but you could almost hear the Big Tuna chuckling as his former defensive assistant fumed in Foxboro.

"We had trouble with a lot of things," Belichick said. "That was one of them. We had trouble with new stuff. We had trouble with old stuff."

Suddenly, with 13 games to play, the Patriots look like a team in trouble.

Because, if they can lose like that to the Dolphins -- in Foxboro, no less -- they can lose to anybody.

Or everybody.

"Miami played a real good game," Belichick said. "They outplayed us and outcoached us."

Right. Right. And right again.

"What happened today," said Belichick, "is reflective of the way they played, and the way we played."

Will it happen again?

It'll be two weeks before we find out. Two long, agonizing, aggravating weeks for Belichick and the suddenly-suspect Pats.

While it was the defense that was most disappointing, questions abound about inexperienced quarterback Matt Cassel.

No one expects him to be Tom Brady. What is expected of him is that he "manage" the game, as he did last Sunday against the Jets, in what was his first start since high school.

Against Miami, Cassel managed to lose a game to a team that had won just one of its previous 21 -- a team that, in its first two games this season, including a 31-10 trouncing last Sunday in Arizona, had allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete more than 72 percent of their pass attempts.

Cassel, however, completed just 19 of 31. Although he did throw for a touchdown -- albeit after Miami had opened up a commanding 28-6 lead -- he also threw an interception, lost a fumble while scrambling out of the pocket under pressure and was sacked three times.

Not only is Cassel obviously no Brady, he wasn't even Chad Pennington on Sunday.

Cast aside by the Jets when they signed Brett Favre, Pennington completed 17 of 20 passes against the Pats, for 226 yards.

"They really came in and handed it to us in our house," said Pats wide receiver Randy Moss, who caught four passes, but for only 25 yards. His longest reception gained just seven yards.

Those are disappointing -- and potentially frustrating -- numbers. A year ago, Brady threw 23 of his NFL-record 50 touchdown passes to Moss, who broke Jerry Rice's record for TD catches in a season. So far this season, Moss has just one TD catch among his 12 receptions -- he caught 98 passes last year -- and has gained just 163 yards, an average of just over 54 per game. He averaged more than 93 yards a game last year.

Nine times in 2007, Moss had more than 100 receiving yards, topped by 183 in the season opener against the Jets. He scored in 13 of 16 games. Eight times, he scored multiple touchdowns, highlighted by a stellar, four-score performance against the Bills in Buffalo.

"This being our first loss, it definitely hurts," Moss said. "What makes it worse is that it was in the division, so that's really painful. But we have to stay upbeat. I look forward to the upcoming games. We'll see what happens."

The Patriots have to hope what happened Sunday was an aberration.

Because it certainly was atrocious.