FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) Before Miami took on the New England Patriots, Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson stressed to his team that it could afford one turnover, just one. If they had two, he said, they would be sure to lose.

With seven minutes gone in Sunday's, the Dolphins had thrown two interceptions, both returned for touchdowns.

And they won - without Dan Marino, beating the Patriots 31-30 on backup Damon Huard's 5-yard touchdown pass to fullback Stanley Pritchett with 23 seconds left.

Leave it to New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe to express Johnson's thoughts - in reverse.

"When your defense scores twice, there is no way you should EVER lose a game," Bledsoe said.

This was a strange one and a long one - it lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes without overtime. "One of the strangest games in my 9-year career," Patriots wide receiver Shawn Jefferson said.

The Patriots led until those final 23 seconds, even though it had the ball for just 19 minutes and 53 seconds of the 60-minute game. It was Miami's fourth win in its first five games and the second straight loss for the Patriots after four wins to open the season.

On the second play of the game, Marino, starting despite a sore shoulder, completed an 8-yard pass to Tony Martin. That gave him 60,001 yards for his career, making him the first quarterback to throw for more than 60,000 yards.

On the fourth play, he was blitzed by New England safety Lawyer Milloy and threw the ball right to Andy Katzenmoyer, the Patriots' rookie linebacker, who took it back 59 yards for a TD.

On the next series, Marino, who said, "I was throwing changeups," took himself out and Huard was in on Miami's third possession. His first pass went straight to New England cornerback Ty Law, who ran it in 24 yards to give the Patriots a 14-0 lead.

But the Patriots could do nothing on offense and Olindo Mare kept Miami in the game with six field goals, breaking an NFL record by kicking four or more field goals in four consecutive games.

Huard, sacked nine times, threw a 69-yard TD pass to Martin in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 14-13 and Bledsoe threw a 29-yarder to Tony Simmons late in the half for New England's only offensive TD. Adam Vinatieri added four field goals.

That set the stage for the final quarter.

With the Patriots leading 30-22 and 3:01 left, Mare hit his sixth field goal, from 53 yards, to cut the deficit to five points. Then New England went three and out, giving Miami the ball at their own 41 with 2:10 left.

According to Johnson, that made things easy.

"We practice the two-minute offense every week with 1:40 and no time outs," 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."

That's what they did.

Three times, Huard faced third-and-long and converted - third-and-10, third-and-9 and third-and-5. With 52 seconds left, his pass to J.J. Johnson put the ball at the 5. After a spike, he found Pritchett alone in the flat for the winning score.

Other than the interception, Huard did fine for a quarterback who had thrown just nine NFL passes in two seasons. He finished 24-of-42 for 240 yards and two TDs, and gained 54 yards on six scrambles, something the Patriots hardly expected as they prepared for the immobile Marino.

"The scrambles killed us," New England coach Pete Carroll said. "That's not something they would get from Dan."

But that doesn't mean there's a quarterback controversy in Miami, even though Johnson was critical of the 38-year-old Marino after a loss to Buffalo two weeks ago and remained cool toward his quarterback even after Marino led a fourth-quarter comeback for a 34-31 win in Indianapolis a week ago.

Marino will undergo an MRI on his shoulder today. But Johnson made it clear that if he's healthy, he's the starter.

"We believe in him. He played an outstanding game," Johnson said of Huard.

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

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 Whigam did it against Miami. ... Mare broke the field-goal record he shared with Al Del Greco, Fuad Reveiz, Jim Turner and Gino Cappeletti. ... This was the third straight game between the Dolphins and Patriots decided by three points or less - the teams split 3-point games last season.