"Everybody kind of understands their roles and it's not one of those things that just because Ronnie's not out there that we don't do it," Sparano said. "It depends on the game, depends on the situation during the game, but Ricky's capable of doing it."

In Weeks 2-8, the Dolphins averaged 10 Wildcat plays a game for a total of 407 yards. They've run nine Wildcat plays for 25 yards the last two games. Williams scored a touchdown out of the formation in each of those games.

"Ricky's always been the other guy involved in that," Sparano said, "taking snaps in the Wildcat, even when Ronnie was here and Ricky and Ronnie would switch spots on occasion. But Ricky understands the whole package, and we obviously have other running backs that can come into the game and do Ricky's job. So that's pretty much the way we've been going about it. We certainly figured out that all hands on deck is going to be important."

Miami unveiled its Wildcat offense during last year's visit to Gillette Stadium. The Patriots weren't ready for it and the Dolphins scored four touchdowns out of the formation in a 38-13 win.

When the Dolphins were here in November, they ran 10 plays out of their traditional Wildcat setup, with Brown or Williams taking the direct snap from center, and added a variation with rookie quarterback Pat White, a spread option QB at the University of West Virginia, lining up behind center for eight other plays.

The Wildcat helped the Dolphins on their two touchdown drives, but for the most part, the Patriots defense did a good job against it, holding Miami to nine yards.

"It looks to me like 95 percent of their offense is the same as it was with Ronnie," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, "and looks like they've maybe replaced a little bit of that Wildcat package with both Ronnie and Ricky in there with some other things, maybe the Pat White package. I don't know."

White has thrown three pass attempts without a completion and has rushed 12 times for 50 yards - 45 of those yards came against the Patriots .

Belichick said White can pass, so the Patriots are trying to prepare for his versatility and everything else Miami might throw at them.

"That's one of the hard things about playing Miami," Belichick said. "They keep it moving on you. You work on one thing and they're working on something else. Sometimes they come back to it, sometimes they don't, so you've got a lot of different bases to cover. They did a good job keeping us off balance. They just keep pecking away and sooner or later they get you on something where you don't have quite the right placement or technique or distribution on, and you can be in trouble."

Brown threw nine passes this season. Williams attempted his first pass in nine years last week in Buffalo and was intercepted by Bills linebacker Chris Draft in the end zone.

Williams' workload has increased since Brown went down and he's responded with three straight 100-yard rushing games. Williams averaged 10 carries and 57 yards in the Dolphins' first eight games, 23 carries and 112 yards in the last three.

He is on pace for the fifth 1,000-yard rushing season of his career and first since 2003.