Miami Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall said Friday that he regrets his sideline horseplay with former teammate Jay Cutler, calling it "a boneheaded move" that cost the team critical field position in the previous night's 16-0 loss to the Chicago Bears.
"I let a lot of people down," Marshall said during an interview with NFL Network analyst Michael Irvin on Miami's WQAM-AM (via *The South Florida Sun Sentinel*). "We all took our turns in stalling our team, myself included. (I) dropped two balls and got a dumb penalty fooling around with Jay Cutler. That's not acceptable, especially in a game like that. We were all disappointed."
Officials gave Marshall a 15-yard taunting penalty early in the second quarter of Thursday night's game because he flipped the ball to Cutler, the Bears' quarterback, after running out of bounds on a 14-yard reception along Chicago's sideline. The infraction pushed the Dolphins back to their 25-yard line, and the drive eventually stalled near midfield.
Marshall and Cutler were Denver Broncos teammates from 2006 to 2008, when they formed one of the NFL's top passing combinations. Both players had issues with the Broncos' organization, however, and were traded, Cutler last year and Marshall last offseason.
Marshall said he and Cutler, who are close friends, joked before Thursday night's game about how each of them would do.
"I asked him, 'How many times are you going to get sacked today?' and he said, 'As many times as you catch a ball, two or three,'" said Marshall, who added that he flipped the ball to Cutler in continuance of that good-natured ribbing.
It wasn't the only mistake Marshall made. He was flagged in the first quarter for an illegal block that negated a Tyler Thigpen run for a first down. Thigpen threw an interception on the next play -- on a pass intended for Marshall -- and the Bears drove for a field goal that made it 6-0.
Adding injury to insult was the fact that Marshall later had to leave the game with a hamstring problem. He refused to discuss his status Friday, only saying that "I'm going to do everything in my power" to play in the Dolphins' next game, Nov. 28 against the Oakland Raiders.
