The Patriots' passing defense has reached rock bottom: it's now so bad that the opposing team doesn't even need to be good at passing for it to give up yards.
This, at least, is the conclusion one has to arrive at after the most recent Dolphins scoring drive, which featured two huge pass interference calls on plays which really had no business gaining yards. After an unnecessary roughness call forced the Dolphins into a 3rd-and-12 situation, Matt Moore lofted a pass well over the head of a leaping Brian Hartline...who Devin McCourty slammed into needlessly. Probably not a catchable pass, but also not a wise decision.
The fresh set of downs gave the Dolphins new life, and they made the best of it, marching down the field in a hurry to set up the next instance of a gifted penalty. Needing three yards for a first from the 20-yard line, a trick play saw Reggie Bush throw up a terrible pass that should have had no chance of leading to a first. But, as before, the defense bit for no reason, with Rob Ninkovich running directly into Matt Moore (acting as a receiver) to give up another penalty for the first.
The second free set of downs proved enough. With just one yard to go, Matt Moore found Charles Clay for the touchdown.