Not this time, Marty.

They’ve been doing this all year, these plucky Chiefs. Hanging around until the fourth quarter and sneaking a win or slipping somehow into overtime for three victories.

By all rights, this one should have been in overtime, too. Maybe won in regulation. But coach Marty Schottenheimer’s pretenders to the Super Bowl clocked themselves out of this one.

Lin Elliott missed a conversion that would have cut Miami’s lead to 13-7 in the fourth quarter, and then wunderkind Tamarick Vanover dropped Steve Bono’s pass in the end zone on the final K.C. series.

Flat out dropped it. Took Troy Vincent’s bump at the line of scrimmage, knocked him off his pins and was wide open with his hands on the tying score.

They were stone hands. The ball fell off his fingers, and on the final shot Webster Slaughter had no chance against Terrell Buckley on a fade pass to the left corner of the end zone.

The Chiefs fell to 11-3 and no longer look like they’re on their own fast track to the AFC title.

Despite the fast finish, this was not a good day for Bono, whose injured right palm – his throwing hand – was OK enough for him to start.

But he wasn’t right, throwing a very bad interception, nearly tossing two more, missing wide-open targets and hanging a few receivers out for Buckley and Louis Oliver to whack in the back.

It was by far Bono’s most inaccurate performance of the season as he pitched 15 for 37 for 180 yards.

It also showed the Chiefs’ vulnerability. Despite a strong inside-outside running game, they are not explosive enough to win without Bono’s passing. And with Bono off his game, they don’t have enough to fall back upon.

They look in many respects like the Chiefs of 1994 with Joe Montana out of the lineup, though the run-defense is clearly better.

Bono fashioned a couple of impressive drives, getting great running from Allen and fullback Kimble Anders. But he was unable to control his throws much of the time. At first everything was low into the dirt. Then he adjusted and was throwing high. On one pass Allen, stretched out for the catch, took an awful crack from Buckley. And the Chiefs were stuffed on runs on two 4th-and-1 situations.

And then there were the passes over the middle – consistently off. The Chiefs staggered into the fourth quarter trailing 13-0, not looking this time like a miracle win was in the offing. Even with Elliott’s miss.

But Bono threw a 5-yard TD pass to Slaughter and things got a mite uncomfortable on the Dolphins side of the field. When Brian Washington forced a fumble by Bernie Parmalee, you could see the smiles on the Chiefs’ faces. They had been there before for late-game wins. It felt right. But there was no payoff.

This game meant substantially less to the Chiefs, who have clinched the AFC West, than it did to the Dolphins, who are struggling to make the playoffs.

But this game is a blow to Kansas City in its efforts to win home-field advantage throughout the playoffs from Pittsburgh.

And the Chiefs can’t feel confident about the ability of their running game to dominate when Bono is off.