Carroll, Pats ready to go ice fishing; They're hoping Dolphins are the catch of the day.

Byline: Sandy Burgin

FOXBORO - Say what you will about Pete Carroll - and just about everyone has - the New England Patriots' coach can accomplish something today that eluded Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Tom Landry, Dan Reeves, Bud Grant and George Allen.

Those six legendary coaches were on the losing side in their first postseason encounter in the NFL. Today Carroll can come up a winner in his first playoff game when his AFC East champion Patriots (10-6) square off against the Miami Dolphins (9-7) at 12:30 p.m. at Foxboro Stadium in wild-card game.

Should the Patriots prevail, they would play at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Pittsburgh. Should the Dolphins win, they would play at 4 p.m. Sunday in Kansas City.

This will be the 10th time two teams that closed the regular season playing each other meet in the first round of the playoffs. In the six times it has happened since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, the team that won the regular-season finale has only won twice in the following playoff game. Overall, the home team has won six of the previous nine meetings.

HAPPY TO BE HOME

The Patriots are certainly happy to be in Foxboro, where they are 6-2 this season and 14-4 the past two years. The forecast calls for snow ending this morning with temperatures at game time in the low 30s and wind chill in the single digits to low teens.

"Once it gets below 65 degrees, everything's cold," Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson said. "When you're not accustomed to the cold weather, it's hard for you to concentrate."

Johnson, who did win his first NFL playoff game, has a postseason record of 7-1 - all with the Dallas Cowboys. But he is just 1-3 against the Patriots as coach of the Dolphins.

Two of those losses came this year. The Pats won, 27-24, on Nov. 23 in Foxboro and prevailed, 14-12, on Monday night in Miami.

In those games, the Pats put all kinds of pressure on Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, sacking him seven times and picking off four passes. Two of those interceptions - in the Nov. 23 game - were returned for touchdowns, one by Larry Whigham (60 yards) and another by Jimmy Hitchcock (100 yards).

NO NEED TO CHANGE

"They are not going to change much," said Marino, who has been sacked 21 times this season. "Their defense is playing good."

Marino wound up completing 28 of 44 passes for 275 yards Monday with one TD pass and one interception.

"When Dan didn't have pressure, and there were few times he didn't have pressure, I thought he played well," said Johnson, whose...