Not good enough.

Ask the Dolphins' first-team offensive line about its Monday night performance, especially in the running game, and that's what you will hear.

``We did some good things, but we didn't do them well enough,'' Dolphins left tackle Jake Long said. ``We didn't have enough rushing yards. We didn't pound it up between the tackles good enough. We took some good steps, but definitely a lot of things we'll get better at.''

Offensive linemen tend to toward modesty and harsh self-analysis. They also tend to be terribly perceptive. Aside from quarterback Chad Henne's end-of-half kneel-down that went down as a 1-yard loss and a Chad Pennington-fumbled handoff that cost 5 yards, the No. 1 offensive line was on for only 56 rushing yards on 17 carries, 3.29 yards per carry.

The Dolphins' longest running play with the first-team line, 14 yards, wasn't even a standard running play, but rather an end-around to Ted Ginn Jr. An 11-yard sweep right by Ricky Williams began with Williams coming back in motion out of a left H-back position.

``You have to tip your hat to their defense. They're really good,'' Dolphins left guard Justin Smiley said. ``[Jacksonville defensive tackles] John Henderson [and defensive end] Rob Meier -- these guys get paid tons of money for a reason. They're great players.''

In pass protection the line kept both Chads vertical throughout the first half and pretty much unhurried, even on Jacksonville's blitzes. Until facing Baltimore's swarming, dive-bombing pass rush in the playoffs, the Dolphins did that well last season.

But it was the lack of push by last year's Dolphins offensive line that often left Dolphins coach Tony Sparano grumpy. It's why the Dolphins signed center Jake Grove as a free agent after watching Samson Satele treated like a sack of peat moss by nose guards such as New England's Vince Wilfork and Baltimore's Haloti Ngata.

Another change the Dolphins hope will help the run game is the return of powerful Donald Thomas at right guard. Shawn Murphy started the game there and traded possessions with Thomas, in his first game of any kind since the 2008 season opener.

``It felt good to finally step on the field again. It was a surreal moment for me, to say the least,'' Thomas said.

``I feel like, for the most part, I settled in there. I wasn't nervous like I thought I would be. I felt ready to go.''

Run blocking takes more time and line cohesiveness than pass protection, which is one of the reasons Sparano wanted to give the first-team line as much work as he could Monday while still seeing the second and third teams.

``You don't want to make excuses,'' Long said. ``The first live game, first time all together with new guys and everything, we're going to have some rough spots.

``You know we're going to get better at it. But you can't make excuses. We need to do better. And we will.''