"Brandon Marshall was hurting.

Not physically. Not the way Matt Moore, Jake Long and so many other battered Dolphins were after the Eagles finished cuffing them around.

It was more an emotional pain evident in Marshall late Sunday afternoon.

You could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice.

This loss meant the drive for .500 was over. A day later Tony Sparano would be fired.

"This is when you think back to the Pop Warner days," Marshall said, "when you played not for the money, but you played because you loved it."

Marshall loves playing football. He makes tons of money, too.

Yet, at 27, he hasn't done nearly enough winning.

Not only will Marshall's career-long exclusion from the NFL playoffs continue for a sixth season, but this marks five straight years for him without a winning record.

The only exception came in his rookie year with the Broncos, who went 9-7 with Marshall making just one start and contributing 20 catches.

Since he's become a regular, it's been nothing but individual accomplishment and team frustration, although there was that one fast start under Josh McDaniels in 2009.

"When I was with Denver, we started off 6-0," he said of a year that ended at break even. "In the National Football League, you never know what can happen.""