The Miami Dolphins will face a tougher team in the Patriots than they did the Chargers

Week two will see the Miami Dolphins travel north to face the Patriots in a game that Miami is favored to win by a whopping two points. That spread has many fans scratching their heads.

The victory over the Chargers should have been the tougher of the two but that isn't the case. The Patriots, despite most seeing them as the AFC East cellar occupants in 2023, are a good football team. Better than others expect.

Last Sunday we saw the Patriots narrowly lose to the Eagles in a game that many believed would be a walk-off opener for Philadelphia. It took an incomplete pass at the end of the game on 4th down to close it out.

The Eagles did not move the ball easily against a very good defense that will be tasked with stopping Tyreek Hill on Sunday night and you can bet that Bill Belichick will make the Dolphins lives hell trying to feed him the ball.

The Patriots can get to the QB. They can cover in the secondary. They can disguise their blitzes and their linebackers can fill gaps and recognize the run, quickly. Offensively, the Patriots may not have the Justin Herbert big-arm QB but Mac Jones is capable of simply doing enough to not make mistakes.

Jones can easily be rattled and that is what Vic Fangio will need to do to keep him off his game.

The strength of the Patriots offense, however, is their running game and last week, the Dolphins gave up 200 yards to the Chargers. The Patriots will try and do the same thing.

As fans, we would love to see a blowout victory in New England. Tua Tagovailoa is 4-0 against the Patriots and the Dolphins are starting to become the darling of the NFL predictions but the Patriots are not a slouch. They play Miami hard and they get them at home.

Belichick may not be the same coach without Tom Brady but he will have his team ready and still knows how to develop a game plan that confuses opposing coaches and this week, we can expect them to have pulled out all of the stops.

This game is going to be a physical trench game and the Dolphins may have to win on the ground and not through the air. Belichick knows that Miami's offense is built around the passing game so the Dolphins need to expect that part of the game to be taken away or at least contained.

If the Dolphins can get their 3rd WRs involved, use their TE again like they did last week, and more importantly establish a run game that forces the Patriots to change their defense, the Dolphins will take care of their business.

Defensively, Miami has to stop the Patriots rushing attack and force them to win in the air where they are not as strong. The key to stopping Mac Jones is getting into his face and making him scattered. He doesn't react well under pressure.