The Patriots are preparing to take on the Dolphins for the first time this season and unfortunately, their first meeting is in MIami, where they have historically struggled over the years. Besides the inevitable problems they'll have due to how difficult it seems to play at Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins are also a consistently loaded team, especially on offense.
That doesn't bode well for a Patriots defense that had a hard time doing much of anything successful against the Rams last week, mainly with tackling and the secondary allowing receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp to run all over them.
The Dolphins are similar in firepower, having Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle as the leading receivers and a rising star in Jonnu Smith this season. It will be another big test for the defense for the second week in a row, making the coaching staff's decision about Wednesday's practice more troublesome.
ESPN's Mike Reiss shared that Wednesday practices are typically fully padded, but the team decided to have a lighter day without pads, assuming they will be more energized for Sunday's matchup.
After having full-pads practices consistently every Wednesday, the Patriots are lightening the physical load on players today with a non-full-pads practice.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) November 20, 2024
The hope is that perhaps it leads to more fully-charged batteries on Sunday.
🔋🏈
Considering the Patriots are yet to have their bye week, which comes up in Week 14, it's not entirely out of the question to believe a lighter practice here and there could be to help deal with such a late break. However, doing that the week they match up with one of their most heated rivalries doesn't make much sense.
Because they haven't fared well in Miami over the years, you'd think lightening up practice ahead of their first matchup would be the last thing on their mind, especially after the type of performance the defense showed last week.
If anything, the expectation would be to ramp things up at practice this week, not vice versa.
Hopefully, this decision won't come back to haunt them on Sunday, even if they're not playing for the postseason anymore. Adding more wins to this season is what will help build the new culture moving forward, and it looks like they're taking steps to make winning more difficult instead.