1. On his first punt, send the kitchen sink at Kyle Richardson, who looks shaky. Anchor someone right over snapper Dale Hellestrae's helmet and take a marginal shot at him after the snap. He already looks squirrelly. Give him one more thing to think about.
2. Stay out of the middle with the run. This isn't the Buffalo Bills. This is a big, physical defensive triangle (defensive tackles Tony Siragusa and Sam Adams, middle linebacker Ray Lewis) and they aren't going to be budged with any consistency. Attack the flanks with the run or with cutbacks, even if it means going more to the quicker Travis Minor, despite Lamar Smith's big game against Buffalo.
3. Attack 5-foot-10 cornerback Duane Starks with Chris Chambers, assuming the Dolphins rookie is going to be fit enough for Sunday's game. Let Chambers outjump Starks on the sideline routes or take him deep. Starks is a quality corner, but he has been roasted a number of times this year on deep balls.
4. Blitz quarterback Elvis Grbac, who looks nothing like the guy who last year threw for 4,169 yards and 28 touchdowns at Kansas City. On Monday night, he overshot tight end Shannon Sharpe in the end zone so badly it was astonishing. He completed 10 of 27 pass attempts (37 percent) against a team that came into this game giving up 62.3 percent completions.
5. Have strong safety Brian Walker creep up on first down. The Dolphins are going to need all the help they can get to stop the running of Terry Allen and Moe Williams behind left tackle Jonathan Ogden (340 pounds) and left guard Ed Mulitalo (also 340). The Ravens have been a left-side running team all season. They're not going to change now. For all of Allen's injuries, he ran beautifully against the Vikings, and then they brought in Williams seven times, and he was effective as well. Allen had 133 yards, Williams 49. Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain can handle Qadry Ismail and Travis Taylor one-on-one. The only time I'm backing Walker out of the box in a running down-and-distance situation is if the Ravens bring in speedy Brandon Stokley. Linebackers are going to have to handle Sharpe.
6. Peter Boulware. Scary. He's listed as an outside linebacker, but he'll morph into a defensive end on third-and-long, and left tackle Spencer Folau is not going to handle him one-on-one. Boulware had four sacks in the Vikings game, the last one forcing a fumble that turned into a touchdown. You can't just play him for a bull-rush or an outside speed move. He will go inside on Falou. He has an excellent inside move. Keep him off quarterback Jay Fiedler.
