FOXBORO — If you knew all you needed for the Patriots to secure a bye next week was for Bill Belichick’s defense to outplay a Dolphins offense coordinated by Chad O’Shea and triggered by Ryan Fitzpatrick, and for All-Pro cornerback Stephon Gilmore to win his matchup against DeVante Parker, you think you might have bet your house, your car and your 1916 Babe Ruth baseball card on the Pats?

Of course you would have, and you would have slept in the parking lot, your new home.

That’s why they play the games, the outcomes of which rarely are as shocking as the visiting Dolphins’ 27-24 victory over the Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

The Patriots’ offense took a while to get going, but make no mistake, this stunning loss that cost the Patriots a bye week is on a defense that started the season inspiring talk of its standing among all-time greats and finished it in retreat, no match for Fitzpatrick, Parker and lesser known players trying to keep NFL jobs.

For one day that will live in Patriots infamy, the Dolphins’ No-Name Offense played with the efficiency of the Fish’s famous as No-Name Defense captained by the late, great Nick Buoniconti. And the Patriots’ didn’t have it in them to do anything about it.

Fitzpatrick (28 of 41, 320 yards) found Parker eight times in 11 targets for 137 yards. Most of those catches came against Gilmore, who entered the week as odds-on-favorite to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Gilmore surrendered three catches for 37 yards to Parker on the winning drive, including the longest gain of the march, a 24-yarder on second-and-12, which advanced the ball to the Patriots’ 29.

Gilmore completely shut down Parker in Miami, held him without a single catch, back on Sept. 15, in a 43-0 humiliation of the Dolphins.

“He made big catches, made some tough plays,” Gilmore said of Parker. “He had a better day today.”

Parker finished the season with 1,202 receiving yards, so it’s not as if Gilmore was beaten by a mediocre receiver, but no matter his man, Gilmore typically wins the matchup. Not this time.

“He made some plays,” Gilmore said. “It is what it is. I know what kind of player I am. I just have to go back to the practice field and practice hard.”

The Patriots offered shockingly little resistance on the final drive, when Fitzpatrick marched the Dolphins 75 yards on 13 plays, the game-winning play a 5-yard pass to Gesicki, who sprung loose from Patrick Chung in the back of the end zone.

Back in September, anyone predicting that the Dolphins would get the better of the Patriots’ defense would have been subjected to a sobriety test, but the Dolphins offense improved a great deal and the Pats’ defense headed in the opposite direction.

The Dolphins averaged 8.4 points per game in the first five weeks with Brian Flores, former Pats defensive assistant, as head coach, and O’Shea, former Patriots receivers coach, filling the OC role. The Fish averaged 28.6 points in their final five games.

In contrast, the Patriots allowed an average of 7.6 points per game in building an 8-0 record, and 20.5 points in limping to the finish line with a 4-4 record.

“Nobody feels sorry for us,” safety Devin McCourty said. “We shouldn’t feel sorry for ourselves. Our goal is to play in the playoffs. We’ve got a shot next week at all of that. Disappointed, wanted to play better, wanted to win today, but we didn’t. We’ve got to move forward and get ready to go or the end of our season will be next week if we don’t turn the page and play good football, way better than today.”

The coaching staff and veterans tried to paint the week as a playoff game because so much was at stake (earning a bye week and home-field advantage vs. Chiefs, if that matchup materializes). Yet, nothing about the way the game went for the Patriots seemed to have playoff intensity to it, least of all the final drive.

“We’ve got to suck it up,” Gilmore said. “We’ve got to go back and practice hard, correct the things we didn’t do right and go from there.”

If they do, they’ll receive credit for having had a good week of practice, which begs the question: How well did the Patriots’ week of preparation for the Dolphins go?

“It was OK,” Gilmore said. “We had to perform today. That’s all that matters.”

And they didn’t, which means they will need to win three times to earn the 10th trip to the Super Bowl in 19 seasons. As many as two of those would be played on the road. If the first-half dominance of the defense was more a function of a weak early schedule, it’s difficult to see the Patriots survive such a tough path. If they can recapture their defensive dominance against quality teams, anything is possible.