Mmm....Cat Meat - or - The Dolphins Get Their Carolina BBQ On!

For General information on this match-up, I suggest heading back to the pre-season articles. The Pregame is here and the Re-cap is here.

Here's some of what's current.  We know that Joey Porter will be back.  We know that Sparano says he wants to rotate the LBs, and with Charlie Anderson's performance on Sunday, that task likely got tougher.  We know that Ronnie Brown will be out with a 'foot' injury.  I'm no doctor, but I do like to speculate and hereby speculate that Ronnie has ligament damage in his foot, possibly the Interosseus Talocalcaneal Ligament or the Dorsal Talonavicular Ligament or both.  Obviously this isn't the sort of injury that you hear about often, but it's not often you see a player's foot do what Ronnie's did on Sunday.

There's the possibility that Carolina will be without their top running back also, in DeAngelo Williams.  In fact, the Dolphins and Panthers are so similar offensively, that it wouldn't surprise me to see both teams deal with these missing players in the same way, which is to promote their 3rd RB into heavy rotation, still maintaining their 'Two-Headed Monster' systems.

Ultimately, I believe this will come down to whichever team's defense plays the best.  Whoever forces the most 3 and outs, turnovers, and puts the most pressure on the opposing quarterback should win out.  Delhomme is known for making mistakes when he's under duress. 

It will be fun to see Vontae Davis match up physically with Steve Smith.  I'm actually more interested in seeing how that unfolds than anything else in this game.

I'm not too worried about Ronnie being out for this game, because Ricky has shown bursts of his old self lately, and I'm also excited to see Lex Hilliard in his first real game action.  The Dolphins and the Panthers are in a virtual tie for 3rd best running game in the league, so this game could give on of these teams a bump in the rankings.

The one thing I'd really like to see in this game is for Miami to go over the top of the defense.  Their secondary is terrible and needs to be exploited.  I know some of the stats suggest otherwise, but the Panthers are giving up a 63 percent completion rate to their opponents, which ranks them 25th in the league.  By comparison, Miami is 8th.  Both teams are tied with 11 receiving touchdowns given up by their defenses.  Hopefully, Miami jumps above Carolina on Thursday in that ranking as well.

But ultimately, the running game is where the stats suggest we should go.  Currently the Dolphins are ranked #7 vs the run while Carolina is ranked #25.  Even if our running attacks are virtually equal, our defense trumps theirs, and the running game keeps time of possession and control of the ball in our hands.

That all suggests a 'safe' playbook, but these two teams share a lot of their playbooks, and I would expect both teams to try some trickery against each other.  Perhaps a first play Ted Ginn reverse?

Let me know what you expect and what you would like to see on Thursday night.