FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) -- This time, Jimmy Johnson had nothing but nice things to say about his quarterback.

	The Dolphins' Damon Huard, left, proved to be a quick study under Dan Marino.

And this time, the quarterback was Damon Huard and not Dan Marino.

Huard, filling in after Marino left early with a sore shoulder, threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Stanley Pritchett with 23 seconds left Sunday to give the Miami Dolphins a 31-30 victory over the New England Patriots.

"We believe in him. He played an outstanding game," Johnson said of Huard. Two weeks ago, Johnson criticized the 38-year-old Marino following a loss to Buffalo. Last week, the coach was lukewarm after Marino engineered a comeback victory in Indianapolis.

"But there's no quarterback controversy here. Dan's our quarterback. Dan's our starter," Johnson said.

The Dolphins (4-1) had fallen behind 14-0 on two interception returns for touchdowns by the Patriots -- a 57-yarder by Andy Katzenmoyer off Marino and a 24-yarder by Ty Law on Huard's first pass.

But after that, Huard settled down.

He threw a 69-yard TD pass to Tony Martin and the final five-yard score to Pritchett on a 59-yard drive on which he converted three third downs -- a third-and-10, a third-and-9 and a third-and-5. He finished 24-for-42 for 240 yards and ran six times for 54 times.

GAME NOTES

The Patriots' nine sacks were the most in 20 years and one short of the team record. The nine sacks were the most ever against the Dolphins. The last time New England had two interceptions returned for touchdowns was on Nov. 23, 1997, when Jimmy Hitchcock and Larry Whigham did it against Miami. Olindo Mare broke the field goal record he shared with Al Del Greco, Fuad Reveiz, Jim Turner and Gino Cappeletti.

In between, Olindo Mare kept Miami (4-1) in the game with six field goals -- breaking an NFL record by kicking four or more for the fourth consecutive game. They included a 53-yarder with 3:01 left that set the stage for Miami's final drive.

Huard was sacked nine times by the Patriots -- a record for the most allowed by the Dolphins. But by the final drive, he was able to scramble out of trouble or hit short passes in front of single coverage after Miami got the ball back with 2:10 remaining.

"We had a lot of time left," said Huard. "I just tried to keep the ball in front of me and go down the field slowly."

Meanwhile, the Patriots struggled offensively.

New England (4-2) gained just 259 yards and had the ball just 19:53 to 40:07 for Miami.

"We just can't get it moving on offense," said coach Pete Carroll, whose team lost 16-14 in Kansas City last week when Adam Vinatieri missed a 32-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds. "We're just not making the ball move."

Vinatieri wasn't the problem this week -- he kept the Pats ahead with three field goals from 41, 39 and 34 yards. But the only offensive touchdown New England scored came on 29-yard pass from Drew Bledsoe to Tony Simmons with 1:03 left in the first half. Mare partially countered that with a 45-yard field goal that left the Dolphins behind just 24-19 at intermission.

New England, which had a first down on its opening series and none until the final series of the half, couldn't do much better in the second half.

"When your defense scores twice, there's no way you should ever lose the ball game," said Bledsoe, who was 17-for-36 for 225 yards and didn't complete a pass to Terry Glenn, his most dangerous receiver. "In this league you're going to play a lot of tight games, and one or two plays will make the difference."

Marino, who had a sore shoulder all week, completed one pass -- an 8-yard completion to Martin that put him at 60,001 yards, the only quarterback ever to go over the 60,000 mark.

But it was Huard who was the show.

"It was his scrambling that did it," Carroll said. "Dan doesn't do that, and we prepared for Dan."

Johnson said it was easy.

"We practice the two-minute offense every week with 1:40 and no timeouts," he said. "I told them two minutes on the clock and one time out is better than we usually do. Just take your time and work with the plays."

Huard did it this week.

Marino did it last week.

Next week?

An MRI to be performed on Marino this Monday might tell the story.