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FOXBORO - There's nothing more galling than having to admit that Joey Porter was right.

The mouthy Miami Dolphins' linebacker guaranteed a victory over the New England Patriots last week, and he even had a little something to do with ensuring the outcome, sacking Matt Cassel twice and forcing a fumble from him during the 38-13 rout before a stunned-silent Gillette Stadium gathering Sunday.

"The big thing is that we came out with a win. It's not really about me," said Porter, who did a good job of making it all about him during the week.

But Porter would be the first to admit that he had to step out of the spotlight Sunday in favor of a teammate on offense, running back Ronnie Brown.

Brown had one of those "do-it-all" performances to stop the Patriots' 21-game regular-season winning streak, rushing for 113 yards on 17 carries, scoring four touchdowns and producing another score through the air from the same formation as a shotgun quarterback. "We had trouble with a lot of things, and that was one of them," said Patriots' coach Bill Belichick,

a master of understatement. "We had trouble with their new stuff, we had trouble with their old stuff, and we just didn't play very well on defense. We didn't coach very well and we didn't play very well across the board."

"They did it a little bit at Arkansas last year," Brown said of the day's signature play, "and Coach (Tony Sparano) thought it might work. We had some success today and hopefully it's something we can build on."

Brown, in his fourth season out of Auburn, had six opportunities to run the gimmick play, in which he would set up deep in shotgun formation and Ricky Williams would split left, going in motion before the snap. The results spoke for themselves.

The first came on second-and-goal from the Patriots' 2 with 2:32 left in the first quarter, resulting in a touchdown run off right guard.

The second, with 4:49 left in the second quarter from the Miami 23, resulted in a 3-yard gain for Ricky Williams on an inside handoff - and it could have been more if Williams hadn't fallen.

The third turned into a 28-yard gain for Williams to the Patriots' 17 five plays later, on the first play after the two-minute warning.

The fourth turned into a touchdown run three plays after that, from the Patriots' 5.

The fifth, starting with 5:51 left in the third quarter, came from the Patriots' 19 and resulted in a touchdown pass.

And on the first play of the fourth quarter, Brown ran the play again for a 62-yard burst off left guard and another touchdown. In total, the direct snap play netted 100 rushing yards on five carries and one 19-yard TD pass. For the Patriots' defense, its lack of recognition of the gimmick and failure to adjust at halftime after seeing it four times was spectacularly embarrassing.

"We prepared for a lot of things, so many that I can't really put a finger on if we thought he would be doing that or not," Patriots' defensive end Ty Warren said. "They threw a couple of wrinkles in there and that's to be expected. It's early on in the season and people have a lot more in their game plan to come up with. They did and they did a good job executing."

The Dolphins' gimmickry wasn't all the Patriots couldn't handle.

Cassel (19-31, 131 yards, three sacks, one TD, one interception) was harried by Miami's constant blitzing. Falling behind quickly, the Patriots were forced to abandon the run and try to go the comeback route via the air, putting Cassel squarely in the Dolphins' crosshairs.

"They did a good job of stopping us once we got into the red zone and we didn't take advantage of the opportunity they gave us," Cassel said.

Their first red-zone penetration came during their second possession, and was sidetracked when, on second-and-goal at the 12, Cassel seemingly eluded a tackle in the backfield by defensive end Phillip Merling and rolled into the end zone - only to have the play whistled dead for the "in the grasp" notion that Cassel's progress had been halted at the Miami 16. Cassel seemed to have his feet churning throughout the alleged tackle, however.

On the next play, Cassel was intercepted by Randy Starks on a screen pass over the middle.

Other drives ended unsatisfyingly with field goals. They drove 56 yards on 13 plays to start the second quarter, but had to settle for a 37-yarder by Stephen Gostkowski. The next ended in a 44-yarder, and those two field goals didn't do much to make up the lost ground to Miami's three first-half scores, including a more traditional 15-yard run by Brown with 8:19 left in the half.

Cassel managed to put a TD on the board after falling behind 28-6. His 5-yard pass to Jabar Gaffney, made possible by an 81-yard kickoff return by Ellis Hobbs (six for 237 yards, a team record), cut the deficit to 28-13 with 3:20 left in the third quarter, but the Patriots would not see the Miami end zone again.

They would see the back of Brown's jersey one more time, on the 62-yarder to start the fourth quarter.

"We had no idea that they were going to come out and run those kinds of plays," said Patriots' safety Rodney Harrison, a rare admission that the Patriots were caught flatfooted in their preparation by an opponent.

Almost forgotten in the fuss over Brown was a solid quarterbacking performance by ex-Jet Chad Pennington - 17-20, 226 yards, 113.8 passer rating, a nice bonus tacked onto the 216 rushing yards posted by the Miami offense.

"They outplayed us, outcoached us and certainly dominated us on offense and defense," Belichick said. "We were competitive in the kicking game, but that was about it. Obviously they deserved to win. They did everything out there better than we did."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.