This Week
The New England Patriots visit their AFC East rival Miami Dolphins at Dolphins Stadium in Miami FL Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
The Patriots are 3-0 on the road this season, 2-0 in the division and 5-0 in the AFC. The Dolphins are 0-2 at home, 0-1 in the division and 0-4 in the AFC.   Â
Here are the rosters for the Patriots and Dolphins.
The Line/Prediction
As of Friday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -16.5. The over/under is 52.
My prediction is Patriots 42, Dolphins, 10. Give the points and take the over. I am 6-0 against the spread and have called the over/under five out of six times in 2007.
Tickets
The Dolphins are reporting the game as a sell out but as of Thursday I have found that there are still tickets available to the game through Ticketmaster. The best way is to search for 2 seats.
Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster via the Dolphins website. You can check the availability here. Many times tickets are released in the last 48 hours prior to the game.
Getting To The Game
If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game in the Miami make sure you check out the links.
Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from weather.com.
Click for stadium directions, parking and stadium information, parking map and a Dolphins Stadium seating chart.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Television
CBS is televising the game, it is a regional broadcast. The play-by-play duties will be handled by Greg Gumbel with Dan Dierdorf doing game analysis. You can check here to see if you are getting the game from CBS and look for your local CBS Station.
Radio
The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color.
It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresch and the pregame show at 10 a.m. along the network.
The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.
Check this out for the low down on the Patriots Rock Radio Network and stations in your area.
If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.
All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots radio call is available on Channel 119, the Dolphins radio call is available on Channel 130.
Last Week
The Patriots kept their record perfect and improved to 6-0 with their first ever win in Texas Stadium over the previously unbeaten Cowboys, 48-27. The Dolphins lost on the road to the Browns, 41-31 to drop to 0-6.
History
This is the 84th meeting all-time between the teams. Miami holds a 48-35 lead in the series.Â
You hear all the time beware of the trap game, this is the Patriots trap game.
The Patriots are just 9-32 in Miami, including the playoffs, and are just 2-5 in Miami since 2000 when Bill Belichick became the head coach.
Last season the teams split the series with the Patriots winning 20-10 on October 8th at Gillette Stadium and the Dolphins shutting out the Patriots, 21-0 in Miami on December 10th.   Â
While the Patriots have won 6 of the last 9 games between the squads the Dolphins have actually won 3 of the last 5 games in the series.
Connections
- Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker signed with the Dolphins in 2004 after being waived by the San Diego Chargers. In 2004, Welker became the first player in NFL history to return a punt, return a kick, kick a field goal, kick an extra point and kick off in the same game when he did so against New England.
- Patriots running back Sammy Morris signed with the Dolphins as an unrestricted free agent in 2004. Six of Morris’s career highs were set against New England as a member of the Miami Dolphins. His personal bests in rushing attempts (25), rushing yards (123), receptions (6), receiving yards (46), total touchdowns (2) and rushing touchdowns (2) all came with the Dolphins at the expense of the Patriots.
- Patriots linebacker Junior Seau was traded to Miami by the San Diego Chargers in 2003. He started 15 games for the Dolphins that season (missing one due to injury) and was placed on injured reserve each year for the next three seasons. Seau signed with the Patriots as a free agent on August 18, 2006.
- Patriots defensive linemen Kareem Brown, Santonio Thomas and Vince Wilfork were teammates with Dolphins tackle Vernon Carey at the University of Miami from 2002-03. Brown is originally from Miami, while Wilfork is from Boynton Beach, Fla.
- Dolphins Director of College Scouting Chris Grier’s first NFL position was as an intern for the Patriots in 1994. He spent five seasons working in the personnel department before joining Miami in 2000. Grier was a two-year letterman at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is the son of Bobby Grier, the former Vice President of Player Personnel for New England.
Other News
This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Dolphins. You can also see what new Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron had to say about the game in a conference call with the New England media.
Since 2003, the Patriots are 17-3 in October.
The Patriots are just the second team in NFL history to win it’s first six games by 17 or more points tying the record set by the 1999 St. Louis Rams who lost their 7th game of the season to Tennessee, 24-21.
This is Tom Brady’s 115thconsecutive start, including playoffs. It is the third longest streak among NFL quarterbacks behind only Peyton Manning and Brett Favre.
Tom Brady was named AFC player of the week.
The Patriots will be without defensive end Richard Seymour who along with wide receiver Chad Jackson and wide receiver Troy Brown are on the PUP List. They are eligible to practice for the next three weeks and can be activated during that time but after Week 9 must either be activated or placed on the IR for the season. Reports say Seymour is possibly still two weeks away from returning after knee surgery. Here is the injury list for the game.
Patriots running back Sammy Morris is expected to miss Sunday’s game against his former team with a chest injury. Sources say he may miss as much as a month. Running back Laurence Maroney is expected to play on Sunday after missing the last three weeks with a groin injury.Â
The Patriots are 6-0 for the just the second time in franchise history. They will attempt to set a new standard for the franchise in a place that has never been kind to the team. The last time the team was 6-0 was in 2004 during the 21 game win streak.
New England has traveled to Miami 14 times during the months of September and October and has won just once.  They are 1-7 in Miami in October and haven’t scored more than 19 points in any of those games. The teams only October victory in South Florida was in 2003 when they won 19-13 in OT when Tom Brady hit Troy Brown on an 85 yard bomb.
This is the Patriots only 2007 regular season game to be played on natural grass.
Tom Brady is 7-5 in his career against the Dolphins, 2-4 in Miami. Brady is 31-8 in regular season games against AFC East foes with 5 of those 8 losses coming against Miami.
NFL Pro Bowl balloting runs through Dec. 11. Fans may vote online at nfl.com/probowl or by sending the text message “PRO” to 7777 from a phone with Sprint wireless service. The AFC and NFC All-Star squads are determined by the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group’s vote counts one-third towards determining each conference’s 43-man roster.
News from this weeks opponent:
Dolphins quarterback Cleo Lemon has never faced the New England Patriots in his career.
As mentioned in this weeks earlier “In The Red Zone”, the Dolphins traded former all-pro wide receiver Chris Chambers to the San Diego Chargers for a second round draft pick.Â
Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron has his own column on the teams website where he answers fans questions. This is one frustrated fan base:
Q. Given your record, why not start John Beck to see if he has what it takes to be a starter? Wouldn’t that give you insight into whether you have to draft another quarterback next year?
David
Port St. Lucie, FLA. That’s a common thought for people to have. I remember when I was with the Redskins there was a little bit of that thought process with the guys we had there and it didn’t pan out. I think in retrospect we would have done some things differently. At this juncture here with the Dolphins, we need to go with the quarterback that gives us the best chance to win. It’s way too early in the season to go down in that road. If John Beck eventually plays, he plays but right now Cleo Lemon gives us the best chance to win and that’s the direction we’re going to go.
A win by the Dolphins would mark the first time they have won consecutive games over the Patriots since they won five in a row between the first meeting of 1999 and the first matchup of 2001.
Dolphins place kicker Jay Feely, has made his last 150 PAT’s. His last miss was on November 9, 2003 when he had an extra point blocked.
Defensive lineman Jason Taylor has 110 career sacks he is 15th all-time.
With last weeks loss in Cleveland the Dolphins have lost a team record nine games in a row.
Linebacker Zach Thomas on Miami’s defensive woes:
“We’ve got a lot of problems. We are the problem; the defense. I’ve never been on this side of the coin. It’s flipped. I’ve never been on a defense this bad. It’s very humbling. I feel bad for the guys who are playing at a high level like Keith Traylor and JT (Jason Taylor). You can say what you want about our defense, we’re just playing horrible.”
This has the potential to be ugly.
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Next Week
The Patriots host the Washington Redskins. Game time is at 4:15 p.m. and will be carried by FOX and heard along the Patriots Rock Radio Network.
