The spotlight on Channing Crowder gets brighter this week, with the Dolphins playing on the high-profile Monday night stage and his summer spat with Jets coach Rex Ryan providing fodder for the ESPN broadcast. Although productive, Crowder, his coaches and fans want more high-impact plays -- he has no interceptions, 1.5 sacks and four forced fumbles in four previous seasons, and none in those categories this year. He admits it would be especially satisfying if he can do that Monday.

"I've got a celebration dance for the Jets people,'' he said. "A win would be 10 times better because that would shut everything up. If you can't get fired up for this game, you're a damn corpse.''

There are two sides of Crowder. There's the affable, playful guy who said of the Jets: "Leon Washington -- we do not like each other. . . . Mark Sanchez is about the only [Jet] I haven't cussed out because he's a rookie. . . . Every time there's a big play in [a Jets-Dolphins] game, I start looking up in the crowd to see when the fight's going to start.''

There also is a serious, studious side: Crowder often criticizes his play and knows his tackles are down -- he's on pace for 56, below last year's total of 114. But his run defense remains stout. Miami has held 63 percent of opponents' rushing attempts to 3 yards or less, and Crowder has a team-high 6.5 tackles on those runs.

"A lot of people are telling me, `You're not making as many plays.' But hell, we're No. 2 in the league in rushing. Some people are opening it up against us. That's not my forte, running around chasing receivers. Everyone says if I want to take that next step, Pro Bowl, you've got to make tackles for losses, sacks, strips. Every time I tell Joey Porter I've got to make something happen, he says, when you try to do that, that's when you're going to mess up.''

Crowder said it's frustrating to barely miss a bunch of sacks over the years: "I just scare the quarterback. I don't ever tackle him.''

Since Bill Parcells' arrival, he has implored Crowder, "Don't go back to playing streetball. Play within the defense.''

But "it's not like I say the hell with it,'' Crowder said. "Zach Thomas got me watching film, and if I see an opportunity to make a play, I take off. Sometimes, I get lucky. Sometimes, they might run a bootleg and I'm 10 yards behind the play. I'm getting away from that. With Zach, it's an educated guess. With me, it's just a guess. He's smarter than me.''

Crowder cautioned it's more difficult for inside linebackers to make big plays in a 3-4 defense (though he knows future Hall of Famer Ray Lewis does) than it was for former Dolphins Thomas and Bryan Cox in a 4-3.

"You've got two defensive tackles protecting you on both sides in a 4-3,'' he said. "Zach was behind Tim Bowens and Larry Chester and didn't have to hit offensive linemen. I'm hitting the guard every play. I could lose weight and get better in coverage, but then I'd get my butt whipped on running plays.''

CHATTER

- Ronnie Brown tells us he would welcome a contract extension, but Brown and agent Todd France said there are no ongoing talks. "I would like it because it would be one less thing for everybody to have to worry about,'' Brown said. Brown -- who is third in the NFL in rushing yards and first in making first downs, rushing and receiving (23) -- would be a free agent next spring if there is a labor agreement reached by February. Otherwise, he's signed through 2010.

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