Sep 21st 2008 10:04AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: Dolphins, Patriots
For much of his football career — going back to his college days at Marshall — opposing teams have tried to stop Randy Moss by getting physical with him.
That’s what the Dolphins say they’re going to try to do against Moss when they play the Patriots today. Here’s what Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said:
“I think the best way to defend him, honestly, is you probably have to reroute him, get your hands on him a little bit early in the route. You’re taking a chance in doing that because, if you don’t get your hands on him and he gets going, he’s a hard guy to catch up with.
“I don’t think you can just let him go vertical on you. His athletic skills, the guy jumps out of the building. You’ve seen it, everybody’s seen it before. He can jump over you out there and catch the ball that way and he can flat out go. So, you can’t really let him get started.”
Sparano is obviously right that you can’t just let Moss go vertical on you. But will the Dolphins have success bumping him at the line of scrimmage? If they do, I think that success will be more about the absence of Tom Brady than the presence of physical play from Miami’s defensive backs.
