After facing one of the hottest teams in the league last week in the Patriots, the Dolphins now get to play one of the worst in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Their lone win of the season came last week against a Green Bay team that many anticipated would be very good this season.  So did starting rookie QB Josh Freeman give the Bucs the spark they needed to turn the corner, or is Green Bay just terrible?  In my opinion, it is kind of the latter one.  The Bucs are still in heavy rebuilding mode, and are not stocked with very much talent right now- so these keys should be short and sweet- in fact, there are really only two main points:

1. Make the rookie QB look like a rookie: Josh Freeman got his first NFL start last Sunday, and his first NFL win.  He did look like he could be their QB of the future, and even tossed a few TDs to help lift them over the Pack, but he didn’t even complete 50% of his passes (14 of 31).   The Phins need to do everything they can to make his life miserable.  That means stuff the run, and when he is forced to pass- throw a lot of confusing fronts and zone blitzes in his face.  That puts the math in our advantage, because everyone knows Rookie QB + confusion=turnovers.  If we can get some decent field position out of some Freeman picks or fumbles, then we should win the game handily.
2. Run, run, run, and play action: If we don’t see a heavy dose of Ronnie and Ricky I am going to be disgusted.  The Bucs are third worst in the league in both yards per game and yards per carry (with 163.4 ypg and 4.8 ypc respectively).  Teams lately have been limiting our rushing attack by stacking the box and trying to force our WRs to beat them (which they can’t. . .).  We can’t be scared of that early- we still need to try to jam it down their throats, and then if they are clogging the middle, find ways to get the ball to the outside on tosses, sweeps, etc.  Once we have established that we will run on their 8 and 9 man fronts, we need to get the ball over the top on play action.  And when I say over the top, I mean over- they are last in the NFL (just behind us actually. . .) in yards per pass allowed- so we can be scared to launch it deep.

If we can just execute those two points, it should be enough to take down the rebuilding Bucs.

There are also two news items I feel are worth mentioning:

1. Joey Porter, benched?: Porter had been limited in practice earlier this week with a knee injury, but participated fully on Friday.  Sparano also went out of his way to praise JP’s professionalism, and how he thought he was going to bounce back.  Somewhere along the line though, Porter must have said or done SOMEthing wrong, as he is a “Coaches Decision” on the inactive list for the game against the Bucs, and the team spokesman went out of his way to clarify for the media that he was being benched for reasons other than injury.  What could have possible happened?  I’ll post an update as soon as I hear.
2. Fasano questionable?: Anthony Fasano was listed as questionable on the injury report with a hip problem, but a recent roster move suggests he won’t be able to play.  Specifically, the Dolphins cut recently promoted practice squadder ILB J.D. Folsom and brought up TE Kory Sperry- meaning he and Joey Haynos would be the only two TEs on the roster.  This could be a blow for the Dolphins as they are regularly in 2 TE formations, and we really don’t have the personnel to start using a 3 WR formation as our base formation.  Maybe we’ll see a 3 ‘back’ formation with Ronnie, Ricky, and Lousaka Polite?  I like that better than relying on a rookie from the practice squad. . .

Anyways that’s all for now- enjoy the game everyone and go Phins!