Stopping the wild cat – Twice the Patriots faced the Dolphins and the wild cat offense last season. The first match up was in week three, the first time the Dolphins revealed the formation to the league. That game the Dolphins ran six plays out of the formation, five rushes for 100 yards and three touchdowns and one 19 yard touchdown pass from Ronnie Brown. Needless to say, the Dolphins won that game easily 38-13. The wild cat caught everyone by surprise that week, but they were ready the next time they faced off holding them to only 25 yards on eight rushes in a 48-28 Patriots victory in November. The Dolphins offense revolves around the formation. When it is clicking, it opens up their entire game. Along with the Jets, they are the only team with more rushing yards than passing, largely due to the wild cat. If the Patriots can hold it in check, they will have a much easier time taking care of this game.

Shutdown the run – This goes hand in hand with shutting down the wild cat. As previously stated, the Dolphins are on of only two teams with more rushing yards than passing yards. Many of those rushing yards come off the wild cat. When you force them to run out of a normal formation they become far less dangerous. Even so, Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown still present a dangerous threat in their backfield. The Dolphins offense sputtered last week when they couldn’t establish the run against the Jets. Look for the Pats to employ a similar game plan.

Screw with Chad Henne – I was a little bit embarrassed for Henne last week. The guy has the raw talent to be an NFL quarterback, but he just looked clueless on the field. The man couldn’t call a coverage audible if the coach told him exactly what the defense was going to do. The Jets employed the same scheme they have been running most of the season, blitz the crap out of the offense. They weren’t really disguising it too. Every play they simply brought everyone. All Henne could do was run back fifteen yards and take it in the bum. Because of that, the Pats need to bring the heat until Henne proves he can check out of it and make a play.

Keeping Ted Ginn Jr. in check – The only reason the Dolphins were even in the game last week was because of two unreal returns by Ted Ginn. The guy can run, it’s unreal. On both returns in looked like multiple players had the angle on him and he just changed gears and took off. On the second it looked like he was playing in slow motion just dancing around defenders. The Patriots have been in the bottom third of the league in kick coverage all season but need to really step it up this week because this guy can burn you. We might need Gostkowski to just boot it out of the end zone every kick.

Exploit the secondary – The Dolphins will have three rookies starting in their secondary this week, corner backs Vontae Davis (1st rd pick)  and Sean Smith (2nd rd) along with safety Chris Clemons (5th rd). This is a match made in heaven for a team that throws 60% of the time. As talented as they may be, they are still rookies and have their flaws. The Patriots need to attack straight from the get go and try to get some quick points on the board. Doing this will force the Dolphins away from their running game and force them to pass.

- Chris