Doubtless they have burned the midnight oil in the Miami Dolphins defensive planning meetings this week, plotting a scheme to try to control the three-wide receiver formations of the St. Louis Rams and devising a blueprint to assure that an offense dubbed "the greatest show on Earth" doesn't turn into a high-flying and high-scoring circus act.

The irony of Sunday's marquee interdivisional matchup of undefeated teams, however, is that Rams first-year defensive coordinator Lovie Smith is suddenly faced with this same challenge that confronts Miami counterpart Jim Bates: How do you corral an offense that spreads the field so often and features such impressive outside speed?

	James McKnight has five receptions for 73 yards in his first two games with the Dolphins.

"They have some weapons there now," Smith acknowledged of a Dolphins offense that seems to have met its publicly-stated offseason goal of adding playmakers. "They are a lot faster, in overall team speed, than they were a year ago."

Indeed, while the Dolphins remain a team whose identity is the power running game, coordinator Chan Gailey now has enough personnel to tinker again with four- and five-wide receiver formations. In last Sunday's comeback victory over Oakland, the Dolphins aligned in either a four-wide receiver set or a five-widedout "empty" formation on 27 of 69 snaps. And over the first two games, that 40 percent quota of "spread" formations has held consistently steady.

While the Miami wide receivers aren't as explosive as the sprint relay team assembled by Rams coach Mike Martz, they do force you to honor their speed.

During the offseason, the Dolphins signed unrestricted free agent wide receivers James McKnight from Dallas and Dedric Ward of the New York Jets and also selected Chris Chambers of Wisconsin in the second round of the draft.

McKnight averaged less than 20 catches per season in the years when he wasn't injured, and until 2000 never had more than 34 receptions in a year. But his average of 18.2 yards per catch is hard to ignore, and the knee surgery that wiped out his 1999 campaign didn't rob him of any speed. Ward averaged just 21.7 catches his first three years with the Jets but had a career-high 54 grabs last season and his career average is 15.3 yards per catch. Chambers is raw and some teams questioned his desire to go into the crowd after the ball, but the Miami scouts liked his size and athleticism.

As a group, the trio still has some inconsistencies, as evidenced by a combined four drops in the victory over the Raiders. But their ability to vertically stretch the field is a welcome dimension for an offense that averaged a puny 5.72 yards per pass play in 2000. That was below the NFL average, as was the Dolphins' mark of just 11.19 yards per completion.

"What we've brought, I think, is the ability to catch the ball up the field or to take a short pass and turn it into something a lot more than just 10 or 12 yards," said Ward. "The other teams can't just crowd the line of scrimmage now, because we have enough speed to run past cornerbacks."

	“	They have some weapons there now. They are a lot faster, in overall team speed, than they were a year ago. ”
		— Lovie Smith, Rams defensive coordinator

One other offseason addition, third-round tailback Travis Minor, fits well into the new emphasis on speed. The former Florida State standout played the entire final series last Sunday, when the Dolphins drove 80 yards to the winning touchdown, and performed well catching the ball and blocking. He took a giant step toward securing the "nickel" tailback spot and figures to see his playing time increased.

Miami remains an offense that wants to run the ball first, prefers to smash tailback Lamar Smith into the line and likes bludgeoning an opponent. But by spreading out the offense and not permitting the opposition to deploy so many eight-man fronts, it creates larger creases for Smith and makes the run that much more effective.

Regarded last season as being ultraconservative in his playcalling, Gailey was miscast as a stodgy strategist -- a guy who played things too close to the vest. All one has to do is look back to his tenure as offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, where he relied heavily on sets that featured four- and five-wide receivers.

The additional firepower this year, at least the perception of having outside playmakers, has permitted Gailey to dig a bit deeper into the playbook now. In schematic terms and personnel packages as well, the Miami offense is significantly more diverse now than it was a year ago.

"We've just got more options," Gailey said. "Last year, I don't know if we could have pulled off that kind of two-minute drive we had (against Oakland). At the very least, I know we could not have called some of the same plays or used those formations. It's given us a lot of things to choose from."

And a lot more, too, for which opposing defensive coordinators must prepare.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.