What To Watch For: Another Rock Fight For Patriots Against Dolphins
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Fresh off Sunday's win over the New York Jets, the Patriots have a quick turnaround against another divisional foe.
The Miami Dolphins come to Gillette Stadium for a Thursday Night Football showdown, New England's third game in the last 12 days. Like Sunday against the Jets, this one should be another rock fight.
The Dolphins are flying high, winners of two straight and playing much better football under interim head coach Dan Campbell. The franchise essentially replaced a physics teacher (Joe Philbin) with a fired-up gym teacher, and the players have responded.
These Thursday night games are pretty unpredictable, but the Patriots are playing pretty well too. They're looking to go 7-0 for the first time since the 2007 season, and while Tom Brady is great any night of the week, he's enjoyed plenty of success on Thursdays as well with an 8-0 record and 20 touchdown passes.
Here's what we'll be watching for when the Patriots and Dolphins square off on Thursday Night Football:
Will Butler Bounce Back?
Malcolm Butler has had a real tough stretch the last few weeks. After a rough Sunday night against the Colts two weeks ago, Butler struggled to stay with Jets receiver Eric Decker last Sunday. Decker caught six passes for 94 yards and also drew an 18-yard pass interference penalty on Butler in the New England win.
Luckily for Butler, he's didn't have much time to dwell on Decker's success throughout the week. He's had a short memory anyways this season, but Butler had to quickly shift his focus to another tough matchup this week against Miami's Jarvis Landry.
Landry had a pair of touchdowns in Miami's 44-26 drubbing of the Texans last week, his first two scores of the season. It helps that Ryan Tannehill is playing extremely well over the last 14 days, throwing six of his 13 touchdown passes in the last two games. He also didn't throw an interception against the Texans, the first time in four games he didn't complete a pass to an opposing defense.
While the Patriots defense is no Steel Curtain, they are not the 2015 Texans either. They should be able to make Tannehill play like the usually-mediocre quarterback that he is -- the guy who is 0-3 on his trips to Foxboro with three touchdowns to five picks.
If Butler and the rest of the New England secondary can make Tannehill be Tannehill, they should be able to handle the Miami pass attack.
Slowing Down Lamar Miller
But Tannehill and Landry aren't the main concern for the Patriots' defense. The focus of the Miami offense is talented running back Lamar Miller, who has 288 rushing yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns over his last two games. He burned the Texans for 175 rushing yards and a touchdown (adding three receptions for 61 yards and a score) last weekend despite sitting out the second half, getting an extra 30 minutes of rest to get ready for the Patriots (it also paved the way for Jonas Gray to get 12 carries for 48 yards for Miami).
The New England rush defense has been a bit of a mixed bag this season, giving up 4.5 yards per carry (24th in NFL) and 110.3 yards per game (19th). They're coming off a strong performance against the Jets, holding one of the league's best rushers in Chris Ivory to just 41 yards on 17 carries (an early hamstring injury to Ivory also helped), but with a short week to rest and rehab from that bruising matchup, they may not be as sharp come Thursday evening.
Then again, we're talking about a group led by Dont'a Hightower and Jamie Collins, who simply are not humans this season. If anyone can stop -- or slow -- Miller, it's that duo.
Protecting Tom
We know that Ndamukong Suh can deliver pretty nasty hits on a quarterback, both before and after the whistle. He'll have his cross hairs set on Brady, and the Patriots will have to be ready for anything from the big pass rusher.
After Miami's highly touted defensive line recorded just one sack for Philbin, they have 10 in two games in Campbell's Cliffs Notes system. Suh recorded his first sacks in a Miami uniform last week with a pair against Houston and is finally starting to look comfortable with the Dolphins, which could spell trouble for a banged-up New England offensive line.
Containing Suh is just a fraction of the battle. Brady knows what Cameron Wake can bring, as the defensive end has sacked the Patriots' QB 8.5 times in their 12 matchups. Wake also has six of Miami's 11 sacks on the season, with four of them coming two weeks ago against the Titans. On the other end of Miami's line is Olivier Vernon, who had just one sack on the season but two sacks in six career games against New England.
The Patriots have to combat all of that with an offensive line that will be without Marcus Cannon again, who was replacing the injured Nate Solder at left tackle. That will leave Sebastian Vollmer protecting Brady's blindside with rookie David Andrews at center, Josh Kline and rookie Tre Jackson at the two guard spots and Cameron Fleming at right tackle. If Ryan Wendell is healthy he may see some more action than the one snap he got at fullback against the Jets, and the Patriots can go back to some form of that rotating offensive line that worked so well over the first four weeks of the season.
Brady praised the play of his offensive line on Tuesday, but they'll have to be at their best against the Dolphins come Thursday night.
Will LaFell Catch On?
After a very, very, very tough debut, Brandon LaFell has to be better. There's just nowhere to go but up.
LaFell, playing for the first time after starting the season on the PUP list, dropped three of the eight passes that went his way on Sunday. He only practiced three times leading up to the game, so he gets a little bit of a break.
But when the ball goes his way on Thursday, and it should, he has to catch it. It took him some time to form some chemistry with Brady last season, but it would be a shame if all that went to waste because of a case of the dropsies.
The Patriots were lucky to survive their six drops against the Jets. They shouldn't test the limits of their luck against Miami.
Tune in to Patriots-Dolphins on Thursday Night Football on WBZ-TV and 98.5 The Sports Hub -- the flagship stations of the New England Patriots. WBZ-TV kicks off their Pats-Dolphins coverage with a special Patriots GameDay Thursday night at 7pm. After the game, tune in to myTV38 for Patriots 5th Quarter. 98.5's coverage starts at 5:30pm on Thursday with Patriots Preview, followed by three hours of postgame coverage after the game!
