The last game in Jason Taylor’s 15-year NFL career could have been his career in microcosm.

It involved both the Dolphins and the Jets, two of the three NFL teams he played for, in the stadium he called home for 13 seasons. It involved pounds of defense broken up by specks of offense, just like so many Dolphins teams during Taylor’s career and just as Taylor made cameo appearances on offense during 2005 and ’06.

And a defensive end and a linebacker came up with the game-turning plays.

Those plays didn’t belong to Taylor, although he did help force one and possibly two of them. Two interceptions by defensive end Randy Starks and one by linebacker Marvin Mitchell set up three Dan Carpenter field goals, one a 58-yarder, the difference in a 19-17 Dolphins win that had a three-pronged effect:

It knocked the Jets out of playoff contention; it ended the Dolphins season at 6-10, but with a win, unlike last season’s 38-7 stomping at New England; and it sent Taylor into retirement on a high note.

“We wanted to make sure we didn’t come out [Sunday] and stink it up the way we did last year,” Yeremiah Bell said. “That’s one thing, as a leader on this team, I made sure to tell the guys. The way we went out last year was embarrassing. That stayed with me the whole offseason. And we wanted to make sure we sent J.T. out the right way.”

Taylor went out literally on a high — he rode off the field on the shoulders of teammates, including defensive linemen Kendall Langford and Paul Soliai, a gesture suggested by linebacker Kevin Burnett early last week.

Taylor said: “Don Shula deserves to be carried off the field. Dan Marino deserves to be carried off the field. Zach Thomas deserves to be carried off the field. I don’t deserve that.”

Taylor, the NFL record-holder for career fumble-return touchdowns and once spoken of as an actor, almost got the complete Hollywood finish. The Dolphins led 19-10 with 2:32 left when a Mark Sanchez pass got batted to Jets offensive guard Matt Slauson, who was quickly upended and fumbled. Taylor picked up the ball, dropped it, picked it up again and ran the ball into the end zone. A full-on dogpile engulfed Taylor.

Upon review, however, replays clearly showed Slauson’s left forearm hit the ground just as the ball came out, thus making him down by contact.

“In our minds, it did hold up,” Bell said. “You saw the way we celebrated, guys coming off the bench, jumping in the end zone; that was enough for us.”

The Jets turned their second chance into a drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown catch by former Dolphins draft bust Patrick Turner with 1:15 left. But Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall recovered the ensuing onside kick. The Dolphins sent Taylor out on offense for the kneel downs, allowing him to be on the field as the game ended.

The Dolphins managed only 210 yards of offense, and Matt Moore threw for only 135 yards with two interceptions on 22-of-32 passing. But Sanchez threw three interceptions in going 21 of 32 for 207 yards.

The Dolphins scored their only touchdown on a 21-play, 94-yard drive that drained 12:29 from the clock spanning the third and fourth quarters. The drive set franchise records for number of plays and time elapsed. Moore hit wide receiver Davone Bess — who later left the game with a knee injury — four times and completed five third-down throws, including a 1-yard touchdown to tight end Charles Clay.

Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald

QB Matt Moore (8) and left tackle Jake Long (right) are just two of the talented players on the Dolphins’ roster who are expected to play big roles again next season.

FOXBOROUGH, MASS.—

A common word thrown around the Miami Dolphins’ locker room this season has been “winnable.” That’s what happens when a team piles up defeats in games they probably should have won. The latest example was Saturday’s 27-24 loss to the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

The Dolphins blew a 17-point, halftime lead, creating an all too familiar post-game mood. The Patriots, meanwhile, clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs.

“We didn’t finish,” linebacker Jason Taylor said. “They made a lot of plays in the second half. We made a lot of mistakes, missed some tackles … I think it was a very winnable game for us. When you play against a quality opponent, you can’t make some of the mistakes that we made.”

The Dolphins (5-10) have now lost five games by three points or less. This one was probably the toughest to stomach because at one point they were dominating perhaps the AFC’s best team. Miami was so in control it had the New England crowd of 68,756 booing beloved quarterback Tom Brady in the first half.

Then Brady began playing like Brady.

After enduring his worst half of the season, he completed 20 of 27 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown in the second half. Brady then connected with Wes Welker for a six-yard pass on 3rd-and-5 on the final drive to close out the Dolphins.

“That’s what everybody across the world knows,” cornerback Vontae Davis said. “Tom Brady, that’s what he’s capable of … That’s Tom Brady. He’s an elite quarterback in this league. You can stop him three quarters. You give him the fourth quarter to comeback, he’s gonna come back.”

Brady, who finished 27 of 46 for 304 yards, did most of the damage after New England switched to a no-huddle offense in the third quarter. It eliminated the pressure the Dolphins were able to get on Brady in the first half.

That helped the Dolphins force the Patriots (12-3) into three-and-outs on three consecutive possessions. The halftime adjustments were evident, with New England gaining 293 yards in the second half. Welker had 12 receptions for 138 yards.

“We knew halftime would be 0-0,” interim coach Todd Bowles said. “We knew these guys would come back out and fight. We got back out and we fought. We just didn’t play smart. They made the plays, we didn’t.”

After kicker Stephen Gostkowski got New England on the scoreboard with a 45-yard field goal in the third quarter, the unraveling of the Dolphins began.

Quarterback Matt Moore fumbled on the next possession, giving the Patriots the ball at the 38. Brady then hit Deion Branch on a one-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-10 with 7 minutes, 10 seconds left in the quarter.

On the next series, Brady once again took advantage of a short field. The 41-yard drive ended with Brady scoring on a one-yard touchdown run that tied the score.

The Dolphins were on the verge of answering when Moore made perhaps the most costly of his mistakes. Receiver Brian Hartline had beaten Patriots cornerback Devin McCourty on a fly pattern, but Moore’s pass was badly underthrown.

The play resulted in an interception by McCourty at the 2.The Patriots used the opportunity to grab their first lead on a 42-yard field goal by Gostkowski.

“It’s frustrating,” receiver Brandon Marshall said. “But the whole season is frustrating. We got a lot of heart in this locker room but unfortunately sometimes we’ve just got to make plays. We’ve got one more game left and we’re going to go out there and try to win it.”

Scoring plays

Patriots 27, Dolphins 24

Scoring play: Davone Bess catches a 15-yard pass from Matt Moore as the Dolphins claw back to within three; Dan Carpenter kicks the PAT

Matt Moore showed no signs of a head and neck injury that sidelined him a week ago by throwing two touchdown passes — a 22-yarder to Anthony Fasano and a 65-yard strike to Brandon Marshall — and finishing with 217 yards passing.

Cornerback Vontae Davis had two of Miami’s three interceptions and Dan Carpenter hit three field goals in helping the Dolphins win for the fifth time in seven games following a 0-7 start.

Though both AFC East teams are 5-9, the Dolphins have moved ahead of Buffalo in the division after sweeping the season series following a 35-8 win at Miami a month ago.

Looking nothing like the upstart team that got off to a 5-2 start, he Bills have lost seven straight and are in jeopardy of finishing last in the division for a fourth straight season.

C.J. Spiller scored on a 24-yard rush — the longest run this season against Miami — and added a 3-yard touchdown catch.

Ryan Fitzpatrick’s struggles continued. He finished 31 of 47 for 316 yards with two touchdowns — including a 2-yarder to Derek Hagan — and three interceptions.

He has 12 interceptions and eight touchdown passes during the team’s seven-game skid.

The Bills made it close by recovering an onside kick that led to Dave Rayner hitting a 34-yard field goal with 1:22 left. Rayner failed on his next onside attempt, which Chris Clemons recovered to allow Miami to run all but the final seconds off the clock.

Bush secured the win with his electrifying run up the middle to put the Dolphins up 30-13 with 5:41 left.

It came on the first play from scrimmage after Spiller’s 3-yard score. Breaking through a huge hole up the middle, he blew past safety Jairus Byrd, who was the only Buffalo player to get a hand on him.

Bush then capped the run by sliding through the end zone on a slick field.

His 203 yards rushing rank third on the Dolphins’ list. And Bush has three straight 100-yard games and four this season after he had just one in five seasons in New Orleans.

Moore broke the game open in the third quarter when he hit Marshall in stride up the right sideline for an over-the-shoulder 65-yard touchdown pass.

The Bills then bumbled the game away as their next two possessions ended with Fitzpatrick throwing interceptions.

Heavy snow fell at around noon, but stopped a half-hour before kickoff with no accumulation on the field. And there were intermittent flurries throughout the game.

It proved to be a sloppy first half that ended with the Dolphins leading 13-7 and only after Rayner missed a 26-yard field goal attempt as time ran out. Rayner had been bothered by a sore pelvis this week.

The Dolphins squandered three scoring opportunities. Carpenter hit 20- and 26-yard field goals on consecutive possessions after Miami failed to punch it in on seven plays inside the Bills 9-yard line.

Then there was Moore fumbling at the Bills 12, when linebacker Chris Kelsay punched the ball out of his hands in the final minute of the second quarter.

The Bills were even worse. After Spiller scored on a 24-yard run 10 minutes in, they mustered only four first downs on their final six possessions of the half — three of them coming on their final drive.

Bills second-year defensive coordinator George Edwards’ job might be in jeopardy after Buffalo’s WGRF-Radio — the team’s broadcaster — announced assistant head coach Dave Wannstedt was calling the defensive plays.

Despite his unit being hurt by injuries, Edwards has come under criticism for a defense that allowed 194 points in its previous six games, while managing just five sacks and getting five takeaways.

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