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Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. Sean Payton and Drew Brees.

Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez?

The tie between the head coach and his quarterback is paramount in the NFL. The Ryan-Sanchez tandem needs to grow together now if the New York Jets want to win a Super Bowl anytime soon.

Ryan and Sanchez are the two most important people in the Jets' organization. If one is failing, both will fail.

Ryan is doing his part. In his first two years as head coach, he's led the Jets to back-to-back AFC title games despite inconsistent play from his starting quarterback.

This was expected to be the year Sanchez, in his third season, made the necessary strides to take the pressure off his head coach and other areas of the team. Instead, Sanchez has been inconsistent, and the Jets are 6-5 with their playoff hopes hanging by a thread.

"I think until he wins the whole thing, he's going to be criticized just like I'm going to be criticized until we win it," Ryan said this week. "That's fine. It comes with the territory."

Ryan needs Sanchez. Sanchez needs Ryan. There's no way around it.

The Jets and Ryan hedged their bets on Sanchez in 2009 when New York traded up to the No. 5 overall pick and made Sanchez its franchise quarterback. Ryan, also in his first season, started Sanchez right away. Including playoffs, Sanchez has made 48 starts and the pair is 29-19 (.604 percentage) together. Sanchez missed one game in his rookie season.


By comparison, Belichick and Brady are 32-13 (.711), McCarthy and Rodgers are 36-11 (.766) and Payton and Brees are 35-11 (.761). The numbers don't seem too far off. But consider that Brady, Rodgers and Brees are the most valuable players for their respective teams. Sanchez, for the most part, has been along for the ride while experiencing growing pains.

Ryan and the Jets will have a hard time winning a Super Bowl unless Sanchez becomes capable of carrying the team.

"I just don't think he's close to being good enough," said Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. "Every step of the way, the Jets had to do things in spite of their quarterback. It shows up all the time.

"But I think the best thing he does is play his best football when it matters most. That's shown in the playoffs, it's shown against the Patriots at times and it shows in the red zone. I think he has those qualities where he steps up and that's tremendous."

Jets fans are getting impatient. It was evident by their constant booing of Sanchez in last week's 28-24 victory over the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium.

Sanchez started last week's game by completing just 8 of 20 passes for 66 yards in the first half. But he woke up later in the game with a clutch, fourth-quarter touchdown drive that potentially saved New York's season. Sanchez was 7-for-9 for 65 yards and a touchdown on New York's final drive.

Ryan gushed about Sanchez after the game, calling him "The Sanchise" and "a stud." He saw a glimpse of what Sanchez could be if he were more consistent.

But, as Williamson mentioned, erratic play and inconsistency are hurting Sanchez the most. He is ranked 30th in Total Quarterback Rating (38.6), which is an indication of the type of season Sanchez is having.

The only starting quarterbacks with a lower QBR are Tim Tebow (34.6), Kevin Kolb (33.1), Sam Bradford (29.5), Curtis Painter (23.4) and Blaine Gabbert (20.2). Players like Tarvaris Jackson (39.0), Colt McCoy (44.4) and Rex Grossman (44.8) are all having better seasons than Sanchez, according to Total QBR.

Sanchez recently admitted he's not playing his best. Sanchez also knows the Jets are a veteran team built to win now and needs him to produce.

"I feel good, physically and mentally," Sanchez told ESPN Radio 1050 in New York on Tuesday. "I'm just so focused [because] I want this to go right, because I don't want to miss an opportunity like this, with this kind of talent and this kind of coaching.

"I'm usually -- 'bubbly' is not the word -- but I smile a lot more. We're short on time here, and there's no time to mess around or smile or even laugh, in my opinion."

Is Sanchez getting too much of the blame? To his credit, Sanchez has already set a career high in touchdowns (18) and is on pace to set new career highs in yards (2,513) and passer rating (80.9). Other areas of the team are failing, particularly on offense.

With the exception of last week, the offensive line has been terrible with run blocking and pass protection. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer probably is having his worst year calling plays. And Jets running backs Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson have disappeared for long stretches.

Leaks are springing up everywhere, but this is where franchise quarterbacks lift their teams. Brady, Rodgers and Brees all have kept their clubs in title contention despite injuries and weaknesses in other areas. At least Sanchez has New York's eighth-ranked defense on his sideline. That is a luxury Brady, Rodgers and Brees could only dream of.

"To say he's not going to be Aaron Rodgers is not to say he can't be successful," Williamson said. "But Sanchez has to be a complementary option, where they have the fantastic running game and the defense. He has to be Matt Cassel or Kyle Orton, and to me that’s not good enough for him, especially with the draft pick the Jets used."

Sanchez still has five games remaining to write his story of the 2011 season. The Jets are in must-win mode. If Sanchez gets them into the playoffs and makes another run, most will forget his uneven regular season. Ryan, more than anyone, hopes that is the case.

Bill Belichick is the great unifier.

For the first time in ESPN.com's individual Power Rankings series, the eight panelists reached unanimity. Each of us voted Belichick the NFL's best head coach, and there's little room for argument.

As someone who has scrolled through their comments for the past three years, I can hear the Spygate whiners already.

But Belichick hasn't won anything since the New England Patriots were caught videotaping defensive hand signals ...

That's true, I suppose, if you don't consider 51 victories, a .797 win percentage, three division titles and a trip to the Super Bowl not winning anything. I'm pretty sure fans of any team other than the Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants gladly would trade their past four years for the Patriots' so-called embarrassments.

And I'm guessing fans would find ways to justify those three Lombardi Trophies if their teams were in the Patriots' situation.

Belichick wasn't the only coach voted on with conviction. Head coaches are the fifth installment of our Power Rankings series, and the 13 combined nominees from our ballots were the lowest number of nominees so far. Our panel nominated 17 tight ends, 17 pass-rushers, 16 wide receivers and 15 running backs.

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was second in the Power Rankings, and the lowest he rated was sixth on NFC West blogger Mike Sando's ballot. The minus-4 differential from Sando -- not a substantial disparity at all -- was the largest negative margin relative to final placement in the entire process.

Sando explained his deviance from the pack.

"I favored coaches that walked into tough situations, won relatively quickly and then sustained the improvement over more than one season," Sando said in a statement issued through an NFC West blog spokesman. "Tomlin took over a healthy operation and kept it going. He deserves credit for that -- I ranked him sixth -- but not as much credit as if he had produced similar results after taking over a struggling franchise.

"We should view the success Bill Cowher enjoyed in a similar context. Both worked for an outstanding organization."

To be honest, I actually considered putting Cowher on my ballot just for the heck of it. But I opted against getting cute.

Let's take a closer look at how we voted:

We ranked Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid third, and he was listed no lower than fifth -- on AFC West blogger Bill Williamson's and mine -- on anyone's ballot.

Tomlin led the way with four second-place votes. Reid received three. Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy got the other one and came in No. 4.

To further illustrate how closely the voting breakdown turned out, four coaches received third-place votes, four received fourth-place votes and four received fifth-place votes.

Our top seven head coaches were listed on every ballot.

The highest-rated coach not to be universally nominated was Chicago Bears boss Lovie Smith at No. 8. He didn't make AFC North blogger James Walker, AFC South blogger Paul Kuharsky and Williamson's ballots.

"Consistency is very important for head coaches, and Smith has more non-playoff seasons than playoff seasons," Walker said. "Smith seems to be on the hot seat every other year in Chicago, and he missed the playoffs three consecutive times from 2007 through '09. Despite a good run last year, Smith is a pedestrian 34-30 since '07."

Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith came in ninth. He didn't appear on NFC North blogger Kevin Seifert's ballot because Smith hasn't won a playoff game yet. Seifert swore it had little to do with that Falcons school bus commercial that gets played incessantly on NFL Network. Three other panelists omitted Smith, too.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan tied for 10th.

What helped narrow the field is the constant turnover the NFL coaching profession experiences annually.

Eight teams have new coaches for 2011, ostensibly reducing the number of Power Rankings candidates to 24 from the jump. Nine more coaches have been with their current teams for two seasons or shorter.

A two-year stint didn't prevent the panel from voting for Shanahan, whose body of work includes a pair of Super Bowl titles with the Denver Broncos, or Rex Ryan, who has guided the New York Jets to the AFC Championship Game in each of his two campaigns.

Williamson and Walker had Shanahan rated seventh, his highest placement. Shanahan was absent on four other submissions, mine included.

"Shanahan may not have looked like a brilliant coach in his first year in Washington, but he deserves to be on this list," Williamson said. "He is not some old retread. With so much turnover in the coaching ranks, he is truly one of the last remaining of the old guard 'Super Coaches.' The guy has two rings and a lot of playoff appearances. I don't think he's a top-five guy at this particular time, but he belongs in the top 10."

Williamson and I each thought Ryan deserved to be rated fourth, although none of our comrades had Ryan higher than seventh.

My reasoning is that Ryan, despite not winning the Super Bowl, has a tractor-beam pull on his players -- and even other teams' players -- unlike any other coach in the league. Ryan carries serious clout with the people who matter most of all, the ones on his roster. That's powerful, and these are Power Rankings.

Another to receive votes despite two years at the helm was Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell. He came in 13th overall, eighth on Kuharsky's ballot and 10th on Walker's.

"I do not think he's a particularly good game-day coach," Kuharsky said of Caldwell. "The rationale he had for the late timeouts that helped the Colts lose at Jacksonville and to the Jets in the playoffs was flawed.

"But in terms of delivering a consistent message, setting expectations and holding a team together through an injury-riddled season, he did excellent work. And those are very important elements to the job."

The floor is yours. Let us know if you agree or disagree.

NEW ORLEANS -- Florham Park, N.J., is the NFL's version of Ellis Island.

At the base of Rex Ryan's statue of liberty -- the one where he's proudly holding up a goddamn snack -- the motto reads: "Give me your inspired, your core contributors, your huddled players, yearning to be free agents."

The New York Jets head coach will take them all.

"I'd like to have every player in the league want to play for the Jets," Ryan said Tuesday at the NFL owners meeting in New Orleans. "We're on the right path because I think a lot of players do want to play for the Jets. And the great thing is the players we have want to play for the Jets. That's important to me."

In November, a Sports Illustrated poll of 279 anonymous NFL players asked "For which other coach would you like to play?" A whopping 21 percent chose Ryan. Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was a distant second at 12 percent. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was third at 9 percent. Former Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher was at 8 percent and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick at 7 percent.

Speaking even more to Ryan's personal allure as a fun and charismatic boss, he was the only coach among the top seven not to have been to the Super Bowl -- yet.

"I'm letting every player in the league know that if you want to win a Super Bowl," Ryan said, "you should probably come to the Jets."

The Jets reaching back-to-back AFC Championship Games and being featured on HBO's "Hard Knocks" last summer are the dominant forces to boosting the Jets' profile as a hot destination.

"I wanted to show our facilities off, show how we take care of our players and what kind of organization we have with our owner, Woody Johnson, and our GM, Mike Tannenbaum," Ryan said of the entertaining shows. "I think that helped us. I also think you're in the best market in the world, and oh by the way, we have a heck of a football team and have a good time playing, too."

Even a couple players from the cross-town rival New York Giants -- safeties Antrel Rolle and Kenny Phillips -- wished out loud that coach Tom Coughlin could be more like Rex.

"It's good to hear players want to come play for us," Ryan said. "There's no denying that."

There's a big problem. The NFL's immigration department is prohibiting arrivals until a new collective bargaining agreement can be struck. Free agency and player trades aren't allowed.

The Jets can't re-sign their own free agents, either. Receivers Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards and Brad Smith and cornerback Antonio Cromartie are the most notable they must address once a new CBA is in place.

That leaves Ryan and his roster in limbo and places a serious crimp in his plans for a second straight offseason. The Jets faced restrictions last year under the "final eight plan," a wrinkle of the uncapped season.

Clubs that reached the divisional playoff round weren't allowed to sign unrestricted free agents unless they dropped one of the same salary value. The Jets parted ways with reliable kicker Jay Feely to make room for outside linebacker Jason Taylor.

The Jets were able to get involved with players such as running back LaDainian Tomlinson and safety Brodney Pool, who technically weren't unrestricted free agents because they were released from their previous teams.

"They can want to play for you, but you couldn't do anything about it anyway," Ryan said.

Ryan will keep his torch burning.

As on organizational philosophy, the New York Jets rely on acquiring established veterans every year.

A player poll conducted by Sports Illustrated suggests they'll have any easier time landing free agents than other clubs.

Sports Illustrated asked "For which other coach would you like to play?" Of the 279 NFL players who responded, a whopping 21 percent of them said Rex Ryan.

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was a distant second at 12 percent. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was at 9 percent, Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher at 8 percent and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick at 7 percent.

Ryan's charisma stands out even more when you consider he's in only his second season and was the only coach among the top seven who has never taken his team to the Super Bowl.

To have that kind of allure around the league is significant for the Jets. Ryan's magnetism will make it tougher for opponents to convince free agents to sign with them instead of the Jets.

Sports Illustrated didn’t provide results for the entire poll so we could see how Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano or Buffalo Bills coach Chan Gailey rated.

The poll will appear in the issue that hits newsstands Wednesday.

ESPNBoston.com reporter Mike Reiss and Sheldon Mickles of the Baton Rouge Advocate preview Thursday night's preseason openers between the New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots in Gillette Stadium.

Reiss also provides an update on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's contract situation.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots running back Laurence Maroney claimed he won't flip on HBO to catch Wednesday night's season premier of "Hard Knocks" with the New York Jets.

"I couldn't care less about the Jets," Maroney told a small group of reporters after Wednesday morning's practice against the New Orleans Saints outside Gillette Stadium. "I'm focusing on my team.

"Me watching them, how's that going to help me?"

It might be funny, Boston Herald writer Ian R. Rapoport noted.

"Right now ain't time to be funny," Maroney shot back. "Right now is time to get business done."

Indifference was the general sentiment among Patriots players, who are well-coached on the field and in dealing with the media. Nobody was willing to give any credence to the Jets' boisterous offseason.

"They feel like they got it," Maroney said. "That's their own opinion on it, but the good thing is we've got to play.

"If football was determined on paper stats, a lot of teams probably would've won. The great thing about it is, we got to come out every Sunday and perform."

Saints head coach Sean Payton expressed high respect for what Ryan has accomplished in one season.

"He's got a confidence about him," Payton said. "That certainly rubs off on his team. I think he's a good football coach, and in a very short time he's got a team believing and playing very well. He's done a great job.

"A year ago I had to do a short piece for Sports Illustrated. I projected the Jets to have a good season, and sure enough they did. I think he's a guy that's always been respected as a head coach."

Miami Dolphins

• Quotes like this never get old, so I'm sharing this link from Palm Beach Post reporter Ben Volin a day late: linebacker Channing Crowder calls former teammate Jason Taylor "womanly" and other assorted comments.
• Miami Herald reporter Jeff Darlington tells us what we don't know about defensive end Kendall Langford.

Buffalo Bills

• Rookie receiver Marcus Easley, a fourth-round pick, is out indefinitely with an apparent knee injury, and the prognosis isn't good.
• Buffalo News reporter Mark Gaughan shines a spotlight on outside linebacker Reggie Torbor's transition from the Dolphins.

New England Patriots

• WEEI.com's Christopher Price writes Saints coach Sean Payton used the Patriots as his organizational blueprint.
• Boston Herald reporter Ian R. Rapoport takes a look at how the Patriots' secondary can learn from getting burned by the Saints.

New York Jets

• New York Times reporter Greg Bishop checks in with ESPN analyst and former Jets head coach Herm Edwards for insight on the Darrelle Revis headache.
• ESPNNewYork.com reporter Rich Cimini writes about Rex Ryan's decision to install Mark Brunell as the backup quarterback ahead of Kellen Clemens.

DAVIE, Fla. -- The Miami Dolphins were compelled to overhaul their defense.

They ranked 22nd in yards allowed last year. Only six teams, most of them scrubby, allowed more points or generated fewer turnovers. They gave up back-breakingly large chunks of real estate almost every week.

Their attitude in training camp, however, isn't about merely improving on defense. The Dolphins plan to be great.

New coordinator Mike Nolan is the primary reason.

"He's going to put a top-five defense on the field," said Dolphins defensive end Marques Douglas. "If we don't do that, we're not living up to our potential. Coaches don't play on Sunday, but the scheme is tried and true. If we're not top three at the end of the year, it's on us."

Much of the offseason attention in South Florida -- before LeBron James came along -- was on new receiver Brandon Marshall and inside linebacker Karlos Dansby.

But the Dolphins' greatest pickup could turn out to be Nolan, the former San Francisco 49ers head coach with an impeccable defensive résumé. He's entering his 13th season as a coordinator, coming to Miami to reinvigorate a unit that receded under Paul Pasqualoni.

"It's not a stagnant defense," Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder said of the change. "Last year, some of the games you knew what we were going to do. I would know what the coach was going to call before he calls it.

"Mike Nolan has so many different calls and blitzes and ways to attack. He mixes it up. Corners get a chance to blitz. Safeties get a chance to blitz. Defensive tackles and ends are covering people. It's fun to learn and fun to be in because you're always doing something new and not just banging your head against a wall."

Nolan's 3-4 defense is built on all-inclusive aggression. He'll blitz his players from anywhere. He orders them to fly to the football, create turnovers and have an offensive attitude. But he also encourages them to shake off calls and make suggestions.

While defense has some inherent reactionary elements, Nolan is more interested in dictating terms.

"We'll establish the foundation and the core of what we do, but what the players do with things will be important," Nolan said in a rare interview at Dolphins training camp. "One thing about our system is everybody gets turns.

"If they're good and playing fast, you're going to enjoy it. When you're good at something, you're having fun."

(Read full post)

ESPN The Magazine's annual Ultimate Standings issue has been drawn up.

The four-sport power poll is "driven by research and fan feedback, looks at MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL franchises’ affordability, bang for the buck, coaching, fan relations, ownership, players, stadium experience and title track to establish a ranking of all 122" major-league clubs.

Here's how AFC East teams made out:

46. New England Patriots

50. New York Jets

58. Miami Dolphins

101. Buffalo Bills

The AFC East also appeared in some subcategories:

Jets coach Rex Ryan tied with Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock for fourth in "Ultimate Skippers." Ahead of them were Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

The Jets scored third-highest in all four sports in a fan poll that rated a recent change in commitment. The Bills rated lowest among NFL teams.

MIAMI -- Reggie Wayne couldn't bring himself to admit he admired Sean Payton's intrepid call for an onside kick to open the second half of Super Bowl XLIV.

"I'm the one that's over here with my lip puffed out," Wayne said Sunday night in a tent outside Sun Life Stadium. "So apparently it was a good call."

Wayne and the rest of the Indianapolis Colts' offense were left standing on the sideline when the New Orleans Saints pulled off the big gamble.

Experience was supposed to be the difference-maker for the Colts. They'd been on this grand stage before. The Saints had not.

Yet, the Colts were caught unprepared.

The Saints recovered the kick and, six plays later, established themselves as an underdog on paper only. The Saints went on to win 31-17, and leave the Colts wondering about all the plays that got away.

"I didn't see it coming," Colts right tackle Ryan Diem said. "At that point in the game, I didn't expect them to do anything like that. The element of surprise got us."

Indianapolis was eager to get the ball first after halftime.

Peyton Manning directed the Colts' offense with his usual meticulousness in the first quarter. First possession: 11 plays, 53 yards, field goal. Second possession: 11 plays, 96 yards, touchdown.

Then came the second quarter. The Colts short-circuited, experiencing their first lamentable play. On third-and-4 from their 28-yard line, Manning zipped a short pass to Pierre Garcon. The play should have gone for a big gain, but Garcon dropped the ball.

"I seen it late, but I should've made the catch," Garcon said. "It was a great throw by Peyton. It should've been caught.

"It could've made the difference in the game."

Instead, the Colts were forced to punt for the first time. In the second quarter, they ran only six plays -- the second three-and-out series simply running out the clock. They gained 15 yards. They maintained possession for 2:34.

Still, the Colts seemed to be in control. They snuffed Saints running back Pierre Thomas on a fourth-and-goal run play that looked like it would doom Payton to a lifetime of second-guessing in New Orleans.

The double-team tackle by Colts linebackers Gary Brackett and Clint Session was the type of stop that championship teams make.

"The goal-line stand was big," Colts defensive end Raheem Brock said, "but you've got to play the rest of the game."

They led the Saints by four points at the extended Super Bowl intermission, and as Pete Townshend churned windmills on his guitar, the Colts strategized to bust the game open.

"In the locker room, we just talked about getting the ball back and going down and scoring some points and putting them in a hole," Wayne said.

The Saints concocted a plan to chop the Colts off at the knees. Thomas Morstead, who handles their kickoffs, was given the onside green light.

"Thomas came up and told me that we were running 'Ambush,' " field-goal kicker Garrett Hartley said. "To start off the second half of the Super Bowl, nothing like it. It's a gut shot, and it worked out in our favor."

Six plays later, Saints quarterback Drew Brees connected with Thomas on a 16-yard pass to give them a 13-10 lead.

"Every possession felt precious out there," Manning said.

The Colts did recover, mounting a typical 10-play, 76-yard drive to retake the lead on their next series.

But the tone had been set. The Saints were willing to trade shots all night, to get aggressive.

The Colts buckled.

"The Saints got some momentum there at the end of the first half and beginning of the third quarter and kind of kept the momentum from there," Manning said. "I thought we just didn't play well enough at certain times."

Indianapolis was outfoxed and outplayed by a team that hadn't been there, done that.

NEW ORLEANS -- The New England Patriots confirmed what few had been thinking before Monday night.

They are not an elite NFL team. Not at this time. Maybe they can be again, but based on the way the New Orleans Saints pillaged them in the Superdome, the Patriots aren't in the conversation anymore about the best clubs in the game.

New Orleans thoroughly outclassed New England in a 38-17 laugher.

"There's obviously a big gap between us," Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said.

Drew Brees made the Patriots' defensive backs, who had been thriving lately, look like a bunch of XFLers. He bombed them for five touchdowns, something that has never been done to a Bill Belichick-coached team.

"They were better than we were in every phase of the game," Belichick said in the postgame news conference. "I don't know any other way to put it. They were better coached. They played better on offense, defense, in the kicking game, they covered better than we did."

Belichick punctuated his response with incredulity at the questions about how his team failed to compete.

"They were obviously the better team," he said. "You guys had to see that. You were at the game."

It was a massacre. The 11-0 Saints made a deafening statement they're the NFL's best team. The Patriots merely whimpered in their final opportunity to record a signature victory before the postseason.

"They put it to us," Patriots receiver Randy Moss said. "We got our butts beat by 21."

New England (7-4), a team that likely will have to venture away from Gillette Stadium in the playoffs, is 0-4 in true road games and has come up short against two measuring sticks in the past three weeks.

They literally failed to measure up two weeks ago in Indianapolis. That heinous loss to the Colts resonates even more now.

"When we have expectations set high like we do, we take one game at a time," Moss said. "But we really see each week what teams are made of. I think we've shown we're up for a second, we're down for a second, we're up, we're down. It's kind of wavy right now."

At least now we know why Belichick went for it on fourth down from his own 28-yard line in the waning minutes at Indianapolis. His beloved former linebacker, Tedy Bruschi, criticized Belichick afterward for not showing enough faith in his defense to punt and force Peyton Manning to go 70 yards or so for the winning touchdown.

Belichick appears justified in the light of the bonfire Brees ignited here.

The game spiraled out of control so badly in the second half that Belichick raised the white flag, almost begging Saints coach Sean Payton to stop scorching his defensive backs. Belichick removed Brady from the game and inserted undrafted rookie Brian Hoyer, a signal to the Saints he'd seen enough carnage for one evening.

Nevada doesn't have as much open real estate as what Brees saw laid out before him.

To Devery Henderson for a 75-yard touchdown. To Marques Colston for 68 yards. To Robert Meachem for a 38-yard touchdown. To Henderson again for 33 yards.

"A lot of it had to do with us beating ourselves. A lot," Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. "Don't get me wrong. They came out and made plays and capitalized on [mistakes]. But it seemed like at times we couldn't stop them. That's a frustrating feeling.

"A lot of the plays we gave up out there, I could've completed the ball, or I could have ran the ball. Make an offense earn it, and we didn't do that at time. It cost us."

New England's defensive backs still had their eyebrows after the game, but you half expected to see them singed off. They looked like a quintet of Deltha O'Neal impersonators.

"We had several blown coverages defensively," Belichick said. "They took advantage of enormous mistakes on our part that they turned into huge plays. You can't make those kinds of mistakes against a good football team. We made too many of them."

Brees completed touchdown passes to five teammates. He finished with a 158.3 passer rating, nearly triple Brady's paltry 55.0 rating. Brady didn't have a touchdown. He threw two interceptions. A lot of his passes sailed.

More mystifying is that the Saints fielded a slapdash defensive backfield and Brady came into the game having thrown for 300 yards in five straight games, one shy of the NFL record.

His streak was snapped by a secondary that included Patriots castoff Randall Gay and rookie Malcolm Jenkins at cornerback, and Mike McKenzie, a street free agent two weeks ago, at nickel. Gay didn't play in the second half because of a leg injury.

The Patriots' chances to knock off the Saints seemed to get stronger when the inactive list was announced. On it were usual starting cornerbacks Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter, and dangerous running back Reggie Bush. Pro Bowl left tackle Matt Light and running back Sammy Morris returned from injuries for the Patriots.

"It wasn't nearly as competitive as we all were expecting," Brady said.

Where was Wes Welker? One week after Welker had the best game of his life, he had his worst of the season.

What about Moss? One reception for 9 yards in the first half, three catches for 67 yards all told.

New England's top target was Sam Aiken, mainly a special-teamer. He had seven catches for 90 yards, the best numbers of his career. But when Aiken is making your best plays and has two fewer receptions than Welker and Moss combined, chances are the Patriots will break your heart.

Belichick coached with conviction throughout the game. He kept his offense on the field for two fourth downs on their opening drive. They converted both, including Laurence Maroney's 4-yard touchdown run to put them up 7-3.

Yet, a fourth-down play doomed them. Belichick opted to go for it on fourth-and-4 from the Saints' 10-yard line with 4:12 left in the third quarter. A field goal would have put the Patriots a touchdown and a field goal behind. But Belichick knew his team needed a touchdown to keep pace with Brees.

Brady tried to force a pass to Moss in the left flat. McKenzie, out of football for 11 months before the Saints signed him, broke it up.

"That changed the momentum of the game," Saints safety Darren Sharper said.

The Patriots have a favorable schedule ahead. Just one of their final five opponents owns a winning record, the 6-5 Jacksonville Jaguars.

Next up are the Miami Dolphins in Land Shark Stadium on a short week. If the Dolphins can pull out a victory, they would be one game behind the Patriots in the AFC East standings.

"We'll rally around each other," Wilfork said. "If not, it's going to be over real soon if we don't get it going. But I have faith in these guys that we're going to get it together."

	Doug Benc/Getty Images
	Dolphins coach Tony Sparano called the timeout that helped the Saints get back into the game.

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Graham

MIAMI -- Everything was going right for the Miami Dolphins. Almost everything. Enough of everything to be in total command over the New Orleans Saints.

The Dolphins were forcing turnovers, ripping off untouchable runs, wringing the league's best quarterback and most powerful offense Sunday in Land Shark Stadium.

The Dolphins were working over the mighty Saints, up by 21 points heading toward halftime.

"It was ours," Dolphins running back Ricky Williams said of the momentum, a surge he helped create with touchdown runs of 4 and 68 yards on back-to-back carries in the first quarter.

Then the Saints hit one play. Drew Brees threw deep down the seam to Marques Colston for a 20-yard gain. The play was ruled a touchdown on the field. The replay booth reviewed it, and found Colston was down at the 6-inch line with five ticks left. The Saints had no timeouts. The clock would start running as soon as the ball was set. Kicker John Carney and holder Mark Brunell were taking their marks.

But the Dolphins called a timeout. What a break for the Saints. Brees and the rest of the offense charged off the sideline like a scene out of "Braveheart." Brees crashed into the end zone -- not for a field goal, but a touchdown -- with two seconds left on the clock.

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A game-changing touchdown. The type of touchdown that boomerangs momentum. The type of touchdown that was worth so much more than four bonus points.

"It was a turning point," Dolphins safety Yeremiah Bell said. "They got seven points instead of three. That hurts, too. I don't really know what happened in that situation, but it happened.

"It ended up turning out pretty bad for us in the second half."

New Orleans dominated, crumpling up Miami's hopes like a candy wrapper.

Thirty-six points later, the Saints finished well ahead of the Dolphins, 46-34.

"It just seemed like they took off," Bell said.

Dolfans will look at each result that makes up their team's 2-4 record and justify they should be 4-2, with a pair of victories over otherwise undefeated opponents. The Saints (6-0) and the Indianapolis Colts are among the elite this year, and the Dolphins should have beaten them both.

Yet they did not. As Dolphins football operations boss Bill Parcells once famously said, "You are what your record says you are."

The Dolphins choked away those games on their home field. Both defeats were epic in how they unraveled.

No team this year has blown a 21-point cushion and lost. The last time a team led by at least 21 points but lost by at least a dozen was 22 years ago, when the Saints beat the San Diego Chargers 41-24 after trailing 24-3.

The Colts loss was historic. They failed to win despite holding the ball for 45:07, the greatest time of possession for a loser since the stat became official in 1977.

Maybe the Dolphins are the NFL's best 2-4 club. They certainly were the best 0-3 team when they stumbled out of the gate.

The Dolphins have shown flashes of playoff-caliber football. They'll compete all season long, but if they think they're good enough to give away points and make the playoffs, they need a reality check.

They self-destruct. They miss way too many tackles (look up footage of safety Gibril Wilson) and drop way too many passes (Ted Ginn at the top of the list). They get eaten alive by tight ends. Young quarterback Chad Henne won't always play like an All-Pro (two interceptions returned for touchdowns Sunday). The Wildcat isn't unstoppable (Ronnie Brown: 16 carries for 48 yards). They commit too many silly penalties. Their injury list is growing. Top cornerback Will Allen left the game with a knee injury and reportedly will miss the rest of the season.

And on Sunday their coach made a rare gaffe that might have cost them the game.

Tony Sparano called the timeout that helped the Saints get back into the game.

"We played pretty well in the first half except for the last drive and kind of gave away some momentum there, allowed them to get a touchdown," Dolphins outside linebacker Jason Taylor said. "They should have had only a chance for a field goal there."

The Saints won much more comfortably than by the four points the Dolphins allotted them two seconds before halftime. But Sparano's decision to call a timeout and allow the Saints' potent offense back on the field was significant.

"If you could've been in here at halftime," Brees said of the Saints locker room, "it was 'Hey, we have them right where we want them.' To get to the six-inch line and come out of with a field goal would have been disappointing."

Saints coach Sean Payton said he intended to kick the field goal. Carney and Brunell were on the field for what they hoped would be an extra point, but when the replay spotted the ball outside the goal line and referee John Parry announced the clock would run as soon as the whistle blew, nobody in a black jersey flinched.

But Sparano did. He was emphatic in ordering linebacker Channing Crowder to call a timeout because "we wanted to be in the right personnel, and we called a time out to bring in the right personnel," Sparano said, even though he should have waited to see if Brees would sprint off the sideline to stop the clock. Brees wouldn't have.

"We were getting lined up," Carney said.

Brees claimed they were going to run it all along, but that comes off as wishful lobbying on his part. Besides, with the ball on the goal line and players on the sidelines not permitted to stand beyond the 35-yard line, all of the Saints offensive players would have needed to be world-class sprinters to get on the field, in formation and set for a second to either run a play or stop the clock.

"If no one calls timeout," Payton said, "they're going to whistle it ready for play and it's got to be snap, hold, kick. ... We were prepared to kick it initially. Obviously, we had enough time after the timeout was called to give some thought to that and change our minds."

Given the final score, would 24-6 at halftime been any safer for the Dolphins than 24-10? Does the second half fall apart the way it did if the Saints don't find a spark? There was an evident flicker after Brees plunged into the end zone. He reacted as though he were auditioning for the WWE.

"That is how they get hot," Dolphins nose tackle Jason Ferguson said. "So that's what they did."

There's no guarantee Carney even makes the field goal. He missed an extra point later in the game.

But the touchdown happened. Both sides believed it swung momentum and transformed the game.

"We can't give a team that chance, and this is our second time getting a learning experience from that," Ferguson said. "I am sure it's in our heads, but we have to fix it."

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Graham

MIAMI -- The game is merely at the halfway point, but the Miami Dolphins look like world beaters -- or at least for the first 29:58 of the game.

The Dolphins lead the undefeated New Orleans Saints 24-10 at halftime, but it shouldn't be that close.

The Dolphins' defense not only has handled the high-powered and undefeated Saints, but the Dolphins have dominated so far in Land Shark Stadium.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees is having an awful day. He has thrown two interceptions, fumbled once (one of his linemen recovered) and came dangerously close to getting tackled for a safety. The Dolphins have sacked him three times.

Miami's defense has been on New Orleans tighter than a second coat of paint.

For the first 29:58 of the first half, the Saints' only points were set up by an 87-yard Courtney Roby kickoff return.

But a questionable decision by Dolphins coach Tony Sparano gave the Saints a touchdown instead of the field goal coach Sean Payton was willing to settle for.

A video replay took away a Marques Colston touchdown with five seconds left in the first half. The ball was spotted on the half-yard line, and with the Saints out of timeouts, the clock was going to run when the official set the ball.

The Saints had their field-goal unit on for what would have been an extra point. But Sparano called a timeout. That allowed Payton to send his offense back out, and Brees plunged in for a touchdown. The drive began on a Davone Bess fumble in Saints territory.

The Wildcat offense hasn't been as prolific as in previous games, but Dolphins running back Ricky Williams has had a big day. He has two touchdowns, the second on a career-long 68-yard run.