The king is dead.
There when it happened Sunday, causing it, the Miami Dolphins — the once downtrodden-now-rising franchise that had suffered so long under the ruler’s iron hand.
Miami’s 22-12 home victory against the New England Patriots advanced the new-era Fins, now 9-5, closer to an NFL playoff ticket and continued the fresh bloom on the blossoming era of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
It did more than that, though.
It ended Bill Belichick’s Patriots dynasty.
The loss eliminated the now 6-8 Pats from postseason contention, ending a run of 11 consecutive playoff appearances for Belichick, and a run of Super Bowl championship-gilded excellence going back ever further.
Tom Brady left Belichick during the offseason.
The greatest epoch in football history left the old coach Sunday, becoming a thing of memory, of history. Of used to be.
The postgame handshake might as well have been a symbolic passing of a baton as Belichick met his protege, Brian Flores, who in his second season here, ahead of schedule, has transformed the Dolphins with a winning culture and should be NFL Coach of the Year.
If the score didn’t quite reflect it, the Dolphins won this game without frills, battering Belichick’s defense for 250 yards rushing, including 122 and a touchdown by Salvon Ahmed, an unknown before this improbable season.
Tagovailoa scored twice on short runs. After one the TV cameras showed Stephen Ross and Dan Marino fist-bumping in the owner’s suite, masks hiding their smiles.
Tagovailoa continues as the Dolphins’ greatest QB hope since Marino fashioned a Hall of Fame career starting in 1983, and Sunday did nothing to hurt that perception as he won his first career start vs. Belichick — and ended the voach’s 9-0 run over rookie QBs.
Tagovailoa completed 20 of 26 passes for 145 yards. He had an interception, yes, but it happened because he was hit as he threw, ending what had been a dominant 15-play, 95-yard, 9-minute Miami drive.
Miami won despite some other tough luck.
An 86-yard fumble-return touchdown by Xavien Howard — oh how that would have feathered his Defensive Player of the Year cred — was called back because the football grazed the leg of teammate Christian Wilkins as he had a foot out of bounds before Howard grabbed it.
Jason Sanders, perhaps the best kicker in the NFL this year, pushed wide a 52-yard field goal try as the first half expired.
A completed pass on a fake punt was erased by penalties.
But the Dolphins did what winning teams do. They overcame. And that they did it against their longtime nemesis, against Flores’ former boss, against the last desperate breath of a dynasty, should not be underestimated.
The wins don’t get much satisfying, in other words.
There are two games left. At Las Vegas, then at Buffalo — Miami’s new nemesis in the AFC East. The Fins sit seventh in the jockeying for seven playoff spots and could lose that grip.The work isn’t finished.
Sunday was huge, though. Tangibly, symbolically, in every way.
The juxtaposition was unmistakable.
The Patriots and their old coach, defeated, having to face what an uncertain future might be.
The Dolphins and their young quarterback, leaving the field all smiles, so eager to make that future arrive.
