(Andy Cohen In the Morning – AC in the AM – will appear on Dolphins.com every Monday through Friday through the regular season and playoffs. The columns will be posted at 6 a.m. You can also follow AC in the AM by twitter at @acohenfins) # # #It’s safe to say this isn’t how the Miami Dolphins wanted to end the regular season. But at least for the first time since 2008, it doesn’t end here.What we witnessed Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium was a sobering reality check and a reminder that falling behind early to the New England Patriots is a recipe for a long afternoon.You can make all sorts of excuses for a 35-14 loss. You can certainly start with an injury-depleted secondary, now without its two starting safeties, and a defense in general that has had to overcome so much this season. But the bottom line is this: The Dolphins simply couldn’t measure up, couldn’t overcome a 20-0 first half deficit and couldn’t call upon the fourth quarter magic that has helped produce so many memorable victories this season.When you play the best, you need to play your best and the Dolphins could not muster up that type of performance, losing for only the second time in the last 11 games, and assuring a date in Pittsburgh to begin the playoffs next weekend.“We have to learn from this and we have to forget about it quickly,” said coach Adam Gase.This problem with slow starts has followed this team all season, now having been outscored 110-41 in the first quarter through 16 games. By the time the Dolphins got their initial first down on Sunday, they were down 17-0. That’s not how you beat the Patriots. That’s not how you make a late season statement.Sure, they made things interesting for a while, scoring a touchdown late in the first half and one early in the third quarter to make it 20-14 behind a pair oftouchdown passes toand. But then Tom Brady does what Tom Brady does, in this case hitting Julian Edelman on a 77-yard touchdown play to make it 27-14 and, realistically, end all hopes of a dramatic comeback.What this game did was underline how much better the Dolphins are going to have to play in order to make some noise in the playoffs. The question they must answer in Pittsburgh: Can they find that other level? Can they avoid another slow start? Can a defense that has lost five opening day starters somehow re-charge and re-group?None of what happened on Sunday should take away from what this team has already accomplished nor should it lessen its resolve heading into Pittsburgh. It was one game, against an imposing opponent, and just as those six straight victories in October and November could not define an entire season, neither should a 21-point regular season ending loss to the Patriots.Give the sell-out crowd at Hard Rock Stadium credit for recognizing this, a steady stream of applause following the Dolphins to the locker room, even after such a disappointing loss. You accomplish the things that this team has, you overcome so much in the process, you build an impressive nucleus of young players, and you earn a chance at a 17th game, how can you not appreciate that?Who wouldn’t have taken a 10-6 record when this long journey began in Seattle on the second Sunday of September? When the Dolphins started 1-4? When they lostfor the season? And then? And? Yes, they couldn’t beat the Patriots in either of their two meetings. But they were 10-4 against the rest of the league and that says plenty about the job Gase and this coaching staff has done.The Dolphins actually had a chance to make it a one score game in the fourth quarter before afumble and a 69-yard return of that fumble set up the game-clinching touchdown, a short run by LaGarrette Blount. That sealed the deal, assured the Patriots of home field advantage throughout the playoffs and cemented the Dolphins as the No. 6 team in the six-team AFC playoff field.When you break down this loss, you’ve got to include a pass rush that never got to Brady, a pass rush that in many ways has been the barometer of this team – no sacks in the six losses, dominant in the 10 wins. You give Brady time and he’s going to put together numbers like he did against the Dolphins: 25 of 33 for 276 yards and three touchdowns.That’s got to be an emphasis heading to Pittsburgh. This defense has too many flaws without its undeniable strength – the defensive line – setting the tone. But that was only one of the storylines on Sunday, the biggest being that early deficit and how, unlike so many times this season, the Dolphins couldn’t come up with the finish they needed.But now it’s a new season, and the Dolphins are a part of it. That tells you right there how far they’ve already come.# # #(On Tuesday, AC in the AM takes a look back and a look ahead.)