Sometimes it's important to just come out and say the obvious: The Dolphins stink in the

fourth quarter. They're the worst.

The pits. You can look it up, if you want.

Or you can just listen to the frustration bubble from Tony Sparano after the Dolphins'

31-14 loss Sunday to Buffalo effectively canceled so much good work over the previous several

weeks.

Sparano left the locker room and his first words, his very first, were, "24-0 in the fourth

quarter to a team that was having trouble finishing themselves." That sums up Sunday. It sums

up the Dolphins' weakness, really.

And it's inexplicable. Last year, the Dolphins defense gave up 3.9 points in the fourth

quarter. This year, it's a league-high 12.2 points.

"And 24 today," Reggie Torbor said, shaking his head. "I can't explain it. None of us can."

One of the things we got used to this past year and a half with the Dolphins is watching

unheralded players perform valiantly on Sunday.

Well, on this Sunday, in the other locker room, Buffalo's third right tackle this season

was doing interviews.

"We pushed them around," said Jonathan Scott, a Detroit Lions' reject.

There was the right guard, who had been in Buffalo all of five days.

"The language of the plays was the hardest part," said Kendall Simmons, who was cut by New

England.

Then there was the quarterback, a Harvard man and career backup making his fourth start in

Buffalo.

"It felt good to put the dagger in the fourth quarter," Ryan Fitzpatrick said.

It's one thing to lose at the finish to Drew Brees and the high-scoring Saints or Tom Brady

and the dynastic Patriots. But to Fitzpatrick operating behind a makeshift Buffalo line? And

can you even name Buffalo's interim coach? This is a team the Dolphins' defense should have

chewed up and spat out.

It looked like it might, too. Then, midway through the second quarter, Fitzpatrick rolled

right and saw that Joey Porter wasn't guarding the edge of the defense.

He took off and 31 yards later had the longest touchdown run by a Bills quarterback.

"He doesn't look like he could run," Torbor said. "But he ran today."

"We gave them life," Dolphins defensive lineman Tony McDaniel said.

"And it was hard for us to take it back out of them in the second half." The fourth quarter

has become a scene in a thousand movies where everything goes wrong. The pipe breaks. The

dog's lost. The couple fights. And the other team keeps scoring and scoring.

"We gave away the game in the fourth quarter," Jason Taylor said.

"Obviously, what we're doing right now is not the trick. I can't diagnose it, but it cost

us the game again."

Let's be fair: The Dolphins' defense lost an essential piece in nose guard Jason Ferguson.

And it did some good work. It had three sacks (two by Porter) during successive Bills

possessions in the fourth quarter, knocking Buffalo out of field-goal range once and demanding

a 56-yarder be made the other time.

But after a Chad Henne interception, a big play broke the Dolphins' defense again. Terrell

Owens beat Vontae Davis for a 51-yard touchdown that put the game out of reach, 24-14.

Do they need more players? Well, Matt Roth had seven tackles and a sack for Cleveland after

being cut by the Dolphins last week. At 5-6 with a half-dozen teams to climb over, the

Dolphins' playoff hopes are pretty much gone, except for the defiance.

"If someone wants to give up on us or thinks it's over, then just don't come in [Monday],"

Taylor said. "Media, fans, players, coaching — anybody just don't come to work tomorrow.

I'll be there. It ain't over yet."

No, it's officially not over. But this Dolphins season effectively ended on the Buffalo

field where a lot of Dolphins seasons have ended through the years. This was a surprise,

though, right through the fourth-quarter meltdown.