Foxboro Forum

…not much

I know anything can happen on any given Sunday but lets be real - the Dolphins are terrible.  The only thing they got going for themselves is Joey Porter can still talk trash.

The Dolphins have one of the worst ranked defenses in the league and an especially poor secondary (ranked 30th of 32) which should allow for Matt Cassel to step up his passing game.  Hopefully this will mean more involvement for Randy Moss.  Miami gave up two 75+ yard passes against the Arizona Cardinals last week and allowed 37 year old Kurt Warner to throw for 361 yards before the 2nd string cleaned up.  The Dolphins have been playing better against the run holding opponents in the first games to an average below 100 yards.  That being said the Pats offensive line matches up well with Miami and should be able to open holes for the running backs.  With Miamis soft secondary and Maroney’s speed - if he has a chance to hit a hole and make it past the line there aren’t many who can stop him - he could end up having a big game.  Thats as long as he plays.

On offense - Miami has been as bad as they have been on Defense.  Chad Pennington has struggled to get anything going on passing in the first 2 weeks and Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown have struggled to 50 yards combined rushing in either of the 2 games.  The offensive passing struggles should be no surprise with their lack if receiving talent - Miami’s leading receiver in terms of receptions is a tight end.  But the problems they are having with the running game has been a bit of a surprise - Ricky Williams looked good in the pre-season and Ronnie Brown was a beast for the first half last year until he got hurt.  That said - Brown has struggled against the Patriots - in his last 6 starts against them he has averaged only 50 yards per game.  Williams hasn’t played the Patriots since two games in 2005 - one game he ran for 19 yards and the other for 108 yards and a TD - whats it all mean?  Not much - just to little recent history against the Patriots.  So with Miami struggling on offense and the Patriots playing defense at a high level they should struggle.