Week 7: New England at Miami

These are two teams hurtling in different directions – one toward a collision with greatness, the other toward infamy.

Oddsmakers list New England as about an 8-1 shot to go 19-0 this season – winning every game the Patriots play, including the Super Bowl in Arizona. The Dolphins are a longer shot – at about 15-1 – to go 0-16 and surpass the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs as the worst team in history.

If you’ve ever seen a tank blast through a wall of tissue paper, you have an idea of what New England’s offense is about to do to the Dolphins’ dismal defense. If the Patriots had to play with only 10 on offense and Miami got to use 13 players on defense, this might be even. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine New England scoring less than 35 on a Miami team whose entire season could be encapsulated by the surname of its current quarterback (Lemon).

Miami has obviously given up on this year, no longer harboring the delusional fantasy that the Dolphins just need a little tinkering to make things better. On Tuesday the Dolphins traded WR Chris Chambers, one of their few very good players, to San Diego for a 2008 draft pick, reportedly a second-rounder. That means more time for Ted Ginn Jr., the rookie kick returner/receiver, but probably fewer TDs for the Dolphins.

New England, on the other hand, is coming off yet another high – the 48-27 dismantling of the Dallas Cowboys in Texas Stadium. QB Tom Brady threw five TDs in that one – he’s had at least three in every game this season -- and showed that if you double-cover Randy Moss, he’s still got Donte’ Stallworth and Wes Welker to make your lives miserable. The Patriots are good enough now that they can basically abandon the run if they like – and they chose to vs. Dallas – and still seem almost unstoppable.

Miami actually scored a lot, too, last week. But its defense, so good for much of 2006, never showed up, and the Dolphins lost 41-31 to Cleveland. QB Cleo Lemon was actually quite good, accounting for four TDs.

He will face a much more difficult defense this week, though. The Patriots have never actually started a season 7-0 before, but there’s a first time for everything.

New England by 24