FOXBORO, Mass. -- The New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI a year ago by conjuring up a way to successfully defend Marshall Faulk in the championship game. They kept their 2002 playoff hopes alive here Sunday afternoon, albeit for only a few agonizingly tense hours, by unleashing their own tailback with the same recognizable last name.

For a 27-24 victory over the archrival Miami Dolphins, a win climaxed in overtime by Adam Vinatieri's 35-yard field goal a little over two minutes into the extra session, the Pats had to plumb deep into their souls. Deeper even than The Big Dig, the multi-billion dollar highway project in Boston that has become infamous for huge cost overruns, and for its unparalleled bureaucratic buffoonery.

	Faulk

There was no boondoggling, however, in the decision by Pats coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis to increase playing time for Kevin Faulk against the super-quick Miami defense. Few defenses close on the ball with the alacrity of the Dolphins unit and, in the mercurial Faulk, the sputtering New England offense discovered an instant elixir.

The four-year veteran, a second-round choice in the 1999 draft, totaled 232 all-purpose yards. And while the Miami players and coaches will spend the offseason lamenting the fact they blew 14- and 11-point leads, squandering a 24-13 advantage in the final five minutes of regulation, credit Faulk for his proactive role in contributing to the Dolphins' season-ending meltdown.

The gut-wrenching defeat kept the Dolphins from claiming an AFC East title that seemed all but assured only two weeks ago. Both Miami and New England were officially eliminated from postseason play a few hours after their game here concluded, in fact, when the Jets completed the second half of the league's "New York State of Mind Weekend," summarily dispatching the Green Bay Packers to steal off with the division title.

As they prepare for a winter minus the playoffs, the devastated Dolphins will have visions of Faulk dancing through their addled craniums, in much the same manner he danced through their defense in rallying the Patriots.

When the Patriots brain trust gets around to assigning culpability for a year in which New England defeated just two opponents with winning records, a season when the reigning champions demonstrated little of the urgency that was a hallmark in 2001, Faulk can certainly escape the blame game.

"He was definitely a big difference-maker," said Miami free safety Brock Marion. "They weren't doing much of anything until he lit their spark. He was the one guy we couldn't get a handle on, especially when he got out there in space, and he really hurt us with some (timely) plays. There aren't any excuses for what happened to us. There are reasons. And he was one of the reasons, I guess you could say."

A former LSU standout, but no relation to the more famous Louisiana native with whom he shares a surname, Faulk carried eight times for 53 yards and caught a game-high nine passes for 70 yards. He also added 104 yards on four kickoff returns and had two punt runbacks for five yards.

Not bad numbers for a situational player, even one whose playing time has been modestly increased in the past month, but who remains just a caddie for starting tailback Antowain Smith. It was the kind of performance that could earn Faulk more consideration in 2003, when the Patriots will have to revamp an offense that couldn't run the ball effectively this year, and which lacked rhythm for much of Sunday's game.

Two years ago, as a spot player, Faulk totaled 1,035 yards from scrimmage, including 570 rushing yards. But since that 2000 campaign, when it looked as Faulk might break out of the backup stereotype, he has become not much more than an afterthought at times.

	“	I feel like I'm a pretty diverse guy. I can do a lot of things well. But I wished I wasn't kind of (stereotyped) as a 'nickel' player. On that last drive, well, I was like The Man, you know. ”
		— Patriots RB Kevin Faulk

Not until after the New England staff thought of him on Sunday, inserting Faulk in the second quarter and then making him quarterback Tom Brady's receiver of preference, did the Pats offense have much of a chance against the hard-closing Miami defense.

By unofficial count, Brady directed 14 of his 25 attempts toward Faulk, and the tailback accounted for nearly one-third of the Patriots passing yards. His 20-yard reception along the right sideline in overtime, a stumbling grab on which he outfought weak-side linebacker Derrick Rodgers for the ball, put the Pats in range for Vinatieri's game-winning field goal. One snap before that catch, which moved the ball to the Miami 25-yard line, Faulk took a direct snap in shotgun formation and rambled for a 15-yard gain around the right side on a second-and-10 play.

"There are a lot of things I can do," said Faulk, who yearns to become more than a third-down contributor. "I feel like I'm a pretty diverse guy. I can do a lot of things well. But I wished I wasn't kind of (stereotyped) as a 'nickel' player. On that last drive, well, I was like The Man, you know? It felt pretty good, to tell you the truth."

Even if the stickout performance was rendered meaningless three hours later by the Jets' victory, Faulk served notice he is prepared for a bigger role, and clearly desire a bigger piece of the offensive pie. His career day likely will be of little solace by the time he gets to really reflect on it, but it might have established him as a larger part of the New England puzzle, as Belichick and Weis prepare for an offseason overhaul.

Said the confident Faulk: "(The coaches) will have to remember it."

The Dolphins, on the other hand, will commit Sunday's game to the file that is marked "eminently forgettable."

That the Patriots rallied from three different double-digit deficits was in part attributable to New England players recalling, at least for one quarter, some of the traits that were manifested in last year's Super Bowl miracle. That the Dolphins will spend the New Year replaying their many Sunday pratfalls is a function of somehow forgetting, especially in the second half, the formula that boosted them to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.

With the Miami offensive line coming hard off the ball, Ricky Williams was a running game wrecking crew, blasting for 120 first-half yards. He added 65 more yards in the second half, but the Dolphins quit running him off the right side, where he found so much daylight earlier in the game behind the tandem of tackle Todd Wade and guard Todd Perry.

Williams finished with 185 yards on the day, and he concluded the season with 1,863 yards, the eighth-best total in league history. But now Miami is faced with the worst-case scenario: It has the NFL's rushing champion, but must surrender its 2003 first-round choice to New Orleans, but without the playoff berth the Dolphins felt Williams would provide.

New England clamped down defensively on Williams in the second half and, despite facing eight players "in the box," Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler could not come up with key completions. And in a gambit that will haunt coach Dave Wannstedt and offensive coordinator Norv Turner most of the winter, the Dolphins abandoned Williams when they took over the ball at their own 4-yard line with 2:46 left in the game, and still clinging to a three-point edge.

Fiedler attempted passes on both first and second downs, meaning that the Patriots did not have to burn timeouts to stop the clock, before Williams ran off right tackle on third-and-10. A poor punt by Mark Royals completed the miserable series and four plays later, Vinatieri hammered home a 43-yard field goal to knot the game and set up the overtime.

On the kickoff that launched the overtime, Dolphins placement specialist Olindo Mare pushed the ball out of bounds. The critical error provided the Pats good field position, at their own 40-yard line, and from there New England turned the game over to Faulk.

"A lot of people," said one veteran Miami player, "are going to face a lot of second-guessing after this one. We just absolutely choked. There's no other way to put it. We choked big-time. We quit making plays. And their guys, especially the little back (Faulk), started coming up with plays."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.