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FOXBORO - Wildcats are one thing. Ted Ginn Jr. channeled the cheetah last week.

The fleet-of-foot Miami wide receiver and kick returner made NFL history Sunday at the New Jersey Meadowlands, returning two kicks for 100 yards or more and touchdowns, and now it's up to the New England Patriots to figure out how to take that dangerous weapon out of the Dolphins' repertoire.

"He has good vision, a good change of direction, and all the tools that you look for that make him a dangerous returner in this league," said the Patriots' Matthew Slater, one of the "gunners" on their kick coverage teams. "You guys saw what he did, and everybody saw what he did. We just have to focus on us and our job, and be disciplined and be able to go down and cover him as a unit.

"It can't be one man going down there, trying to make the play," he added.

Ginn became the first player in NFL history to have returns of 100 yards or more in the same game, and the first player since Green Bay's Travis Williams on Nov. 12, 1967, to return two kicks for touchdowns in the same quarter. The third-year receiver out of Ohio State also became the eighth player in league history to have two kick returns for touchdowns in one game, the first covering 100 yards and the second 101. "That's a tremendous boost," Slater said. "You're talking two in the same quarter that can be a big momentum-swinger, and it can be devastating on the other side of the ball. We've just got to make sure that we worry about us and what we've got to do, and hopefully, have some success against him."

Because of Ginn's success in the 30-25 win over the Jets, Patriots' coach Bill Belichick is making sure the topic is fully covered in special teams practices prior to Sunday's game at home (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12) against the 3-4 Dolphins.

"Each week, 85 percent of our time on special teams is pretty constant," Belichick said at his Thursday press conference. "There is maybe another 15 percent that would change week to week, depending on where we feel like we want that emphasis, whether it's on punt protection or kickoff coverage or kickoff returns or fakes - whatever the point of emphasis for that particular team happens to be."

That 15 percent is almost certainly going to be devoted to the tendencies of not just Ginn, but also the special-teamers who constitute the blocking for his returns.

"Just like any returner, back or receiver, there are certain things that they do better than others," Belichick said. "There are certain types of returns they run, however their coach designs them. Whatever the schemes are, you know they will have something that plays into his strengths. So you have a speed guy, you want to be able to get outside. If you have a guy that's more of a north-south, hard running, up-field guy you are probably going to have more returns designed like that. It's a combination of the player, the skill of the player and the scheme that they use to accentuate that players skill."

There's more than one way to skin a cat, however - and one way to take the advantage away from a player with Ginn's gifts starts with the kicker.

"You can get in trouble if you try to just drive it down there," Patriots' kicker Stephen Gostkowski said. "If you drive it, you'd better kick it out of the end zone. If you can keep it in the air another half a second, that's another five, 10 yards these guys can run, as fast as they are."

Gostkowski, a consistently successful kickoff specialist, knows that even the best kickoff deep into the end zone can be returned for big yardage or points. Any help he can give to the coverage can reduce that risk, and that help can take different forms according to weather or wind conditions.

"Sometimes a kick to the 5 (-yard line) is a really good kick come November and December," Gostkowski said. "So, I try to make good contact, get some good hang time, and give the guys a chance to go down there when a directional kick is called, and get it over there so our kickoff coverage can read the ball and read where the returner's going."

Gostkowski tried to distance himself a little from football during the bye week, "but it was hard not to hear about it," he said of Ginn's returns. "We know how good that guy is and how fast he is. Every returner is capable of doing that, and each week, it's a challenge for our special teams. You don't get scared of one guy, you don't get scared of one team, you just rise to the challenge. "I pride myself on kickoffs," he added. "It's something I don't overlook and I work hard at it, and I've had some success at it and hope to continue to have the same."

Belichick hopes for the same, but he knows that if his coverage teams don't execute, "nobody's going to catch Ted Ginn, this guy's as fast as anybody in the league," he said.

"Tackling is always an emphasis for us against Miami with their backs and their receivers," the coach added. "Ginn's got the big time speed. We've worked on it and probably put a little more time on kickoff coverage than, I don't want to say normal, but that's the way it's been this year."

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.