Little Richard sang ``Keep a knockin' but you can't come in'' just before Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning reached driving age. Been a long time since that piece of rock and roll, yet the Dolphins' red-zone offense should bring it to Henning's mind.

Of the eight drives on which Miami has snapped the ball inside the opponents' 20, only four have ended in the end zone. Two of those were in fourth-quarter garbage time. Three field-goal drives against Indianapolis ended at the Colts' 27, thus don't count in the statistic, but count in spirit with the Dolphins as drives left unfinished.

``The problem in the red zone is we haven't gotten the ball into the end zone for touchdowns,'' Henning said. Asked why, Henning said, ``The details are very involved.''

Pressed further, he said, ``I've got other things to do than spend time here explaining to you why we're not -- I can just tell you we're not getting it into the end zone and we've got to.''

The details don't seem so much involved as varied. Fumbles, missed blocks, and perhaps conservative play-calling have led to the Dolphins not getting points that could've changed the momentum in each of their losses.

``We've got to kind of not so much press, but you've got to pay a little more attention to detail in that area,'' running back Ronnie Brown said. ``Be a little bit more focused when you're tired or whatever it might be when you get in that area, make sure you don't put yourself in any bad situations. We have red-zone rules that we have to abide by and make sure we don't put ourselves in bad situations as far as shooting ourselves in the foot.''

ACCEPTS BLAME

After Sunday's loss in San Diego, Brown took the blame for the play that epitomizes the Dolphins' red-zone woes. Brown never got the handoff cleanly from Chad Pennington and Brown's thigh propelled the ball into the end zone, where San Diego linebacker Shaun Phillips pushed Dolphins left guard Justin Smiley as Smiley beat him to the ball. Instead of being in the end zone when he got control of the ball, Smiley's back and shoulders were out of bounds.

A 94-yard drive ended with no points. The next time the offense took the field, San Diego led 3-0.

``We drive 94 yards and punch it in, we have all the momentum,'' wide receiver Greg Camarillo said. ``We have the confidence. Instead, we're walking back to the sideline with no points. That tiny little difference in the game makes a huge difference in the long run.''

Tiny differences always make huge differences to a team with little margin for error. The season-opening loss at Atlanta could have been a 30-point blowout had the Falcons not blown some plays. But had Dolphins tight end Anthony Fasano not fumbled when Mike Peterson popped him with a Grade-A hit in the second quarter, the Dolphins could have gone in at halftime tied 7-7 instead of down 10-0.

Against San Diego, missed blocks led to San Diego defensive linemen engulfing Brown right after the handoff for losses on first-and-goal from the 5 and third-and-goal from the 4. The Dolphins settled for a field goal and a 3-3 tie. Later, on second-and-2 from the 5, the same thing happened. Other than those carries, the Dolphins generally had their way with the injured Chargers on the ground.

Of course, there's the question if the Dolphins should have been less predictable by not staying ground-bound on third down, as they did in two of the field-goal drives against Indianapolis. They did throw on the third down following the second-and-2 stop, only to have the pass batted away at the line.

`POOR EXECUTION'

``Our errors have nothing to do with the game plan, have nothing to do with the defense,'' Camarillo said. ``It's just poor execution. We need to hold onto the ball. We need to never have a penalty in the red zone, really. Little fundamental things we've been working on since Day One that we need to execute and make sure they don't happen.

``Those are the kinds of things that really hurt our team. We fix that and we'll start winning.''