Winners and losers as Patriots suffer stunning upset to Dolphins in Week 17

The Patriots will play in the wild card round.

Here are the winners and losers from the New England Patriots’ 27-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 17 at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

The Patriots slipped out of the No. 2 spot, losing the the playoff bye. They will move to the third seed, and will play either the Tennessee Titans, the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Oakland Raiders next week during the wild card round.

Loser: Stephon Gilmore, CB

He allowed one of the most costly plays of the game: Devante Parker beat Gilmore for a jump-ball for 24 yards on third-and-5 on the Dolphins’ final offensive drive. There were a number of bad plays for New England on that drive, but this was one the Patriots expect Gilmore, their best player all season, to make. He didn’t. First down. The game-winning  touchdown came a few plays later, with Patrick Chung getting beat in coverage against tight end Mike Gesicki.

And that captures just how wild this game was: the team’s best and most consistent player Gilmore was a mess. He didn’t look like the Defensive Player of the Year. Instead, Parker got the better of Gilmore for much of the game. Parker finished with eight catches and 137 yards, and won with a diversity of routes (crosses and fades).

Gilmore has created a high standard for himself. This performance was well below that standard.

Winner: Elandon Roberts, LB

Mike Vrabel… is that you?

Maybe this game wasn’t a pleasure for Patriots fans to watch. In fact, it was probably miserable. But Roberts’ touchdown catch was a fun moment for New England.

The linebacker has been playing at fullback after the Patriots saw injuries to James Develin and Jakob Johnson. Roberts hadn’t touched the ball despite his solid work as a blocker, and perhaps because of that, the Dolphins left him completely uncovered on a wheel route on first-and-10 in the second half. New England was hoping the Dolphins would forget about Roberts — Tom Brady dumped the ball off to Roberts, who had nothing but open field in front of him, thanks to strong play design by offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

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