---

FOXBORO - Vince Wilfork chuckled Friday when he was asked if he had been "Wildcatted out" this week.

There had been nothing but non-stop talk about the Patriots having to face the Miami Dolphins' "Wildcat" formation in the week leading to today's game at Dolphin Stadium (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12) , and it would have been understandable if the members of the Patriots' defense were tired of hearing about the success those plays had against them in September.

"No ... I'm pretty sure they have something else that they're brewing up with it," the New England nose tackle said. "They might, or they might not. But having the success that they had earlier in the season, they'd be fools not to try to run it."

Few can forget the incredible success the Dolphins had when they unleashed their tailback-as-quarterback plays upon the Patriots in their Week 3, 38-13 victory at Gillette Stadium. But rather than look at that game as a crowning triumph, Dolphins' coach Tony Sparano said he looked at it this past week as a learning tool.

"We watch it, sure," he said. "We go back. There are some things that we didn't do well in that game, so we needed to be able to go back and figure out what we didn't do well and maybe some of the things that they exploited. They had a couple of runs come out of there for 14, 15 yards during the course of that game. Some things happened that way. We needed to make sure that we went back and took a peek at that as well." The Dolphins and Patriots have matching 6-4 records behind the division-leading New York Jets (7-3), and the loser will be at a distinct disadvantage in terms of tiebreakers for one of two AFC wild-card playoff berths. It's a big game for both the Patriots and the Dolphins, but especially so for the Dolphins as they try to re-establish themselves as a winning franchise.

"Obviously, we need to keep it on an even keel here," Sparano said. "For us right now, it really is a Week 11 during the course of the season. We realize it's a big game for where we want to be in our conference. Every conference game is really a big game for us. This is a little bit bigger game because in this sense of the word, we've already played each other once.

"We're at a point right now where we both have the same records and we're both chasing another team in the division, so if we want to stay kind of where we are, that makes it an even more important game," he said. "Coupled with the fact that we won the last ball game, we know how those guys are going to be coming in here. They're a well-coached, resilient team themselves, so it will be an interesting game, our guys know that."

As the talk has been about the "Wildcat" this week, Sparano said that the permutations of the play have grown considerably since its debut against the Patriots.

"An awful lot," he said. "In that game we only went into that game with four plays. One of them was a pass that Ronnie (Brown) threw, so we really only had three plays other than that in that game. Right now, we've probably run 12 to 15 other plays."

And there might be more to come.

"We have a lot of plays and we've shown a lot of plays over the last eight weeks, but we still have a few more wrinkles and a few other situations where we can get the ball into some different guys' hands," Brown told Miami-area reporters Thursday. "I think that's the key. You see a lot of teams trying to game plan for us and it's the same thing on offense; obviously they're going to give us different looks and we've seen a lot of them as far as the Ravens and the Patriots. Teams are playing it differently.

"We have to approach it in a different sense," he added. "We know these guys are going to prepare for it, but at the same time we have to work on our technique stuff and the fundamentals at the end of the day."

Needless to say, the Patriots have been meticulously studying film this week - not just about what the Dolphins did against them, but also what they did in the other eight weeks after dropping the Wildcat bomb on them.

"I feel very confident in what we've done in practice, in a lot of areas, and that's one," Wilfork said. "Every week it seems like somebody is pulling something out of the bag of tricks to throw at us. They might have something new, and we'll have to go to the sideline to make adjustments. "But more importantly, I think we're well-prepared," he added. "I feel very confident going into this game. It's a challenge. This is what you live for, games in November and December, that basically determine where you are going to be in January and February.

"We've got our hands full," he said, "but we're looking forward to the challenge."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.