Massive as they are, it's easy for Randy Starks and Paul Soliai to get lost on the Dolphins defense.

Neither would be called ``loquacious,'' either on the field or off. When it comes to the glamorous duties of sacking the quarterback, Joey Porter and Jason Taylor draw most of the attention. Meanwhile, Starks toils as a defensive end in the Dolphins' 3-4, somewhere between the 4-3 defensive tackle he was in Tennessee and a 4-3 defensive end. Soliai backs up Jason Ferguson at nose guard, a job so brutal, some very violent NFL defensive linemen won't touch the job.

Yet, it's Starks who is second to Taylor in sacks for the Dolphins, who rank fifth in the NFL in sacks per pass play. He's also fourth on the Dolphins in tackles, second among the front seven and first among defensive linemen.

Though second-year man Phillip Merling has shown the knack for the big play, Starks' consistency allows him to retain his starting role.

On Sunday, on the Dolphins' final red-zone stand, Starks sacked Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez on third down by yanking Sanchez down as he tried to dart up the middle for the game-winning score on second down.

``Everybody's talking [in the huddle], `We need somebody to make a play,' '' Starks said Tuesday at The Touchdown Club of Miami. ``That was the main thing. They don't score, we win.''

And, on Sunday, Soliai had six tackles, a blocked pass and caused the fumble Taylor returned for a touchdown by treating Jets running back Shonn Greene like a hammer throw until the ball came loose. For a nose guard, that's almost like hitting for the cycle.

PRAISED BY SPARANO

``I was really happy for Paul [on Sunday], I really was,'' Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said Monday. ``Kind of looking forward to getting him in here and letting him know that. We do a good job of telling them when they don't do something right, so this is a good opportunity to tell him he did it right.

``I thought he really played a pretty darn good game,'' Sparano said. ``He was active. There's some things technically he needed to do better, but his activity in there, and his physicalness took some of those things out of the equation. The play he makes on Jason's fumble return is just a tremendous play. To make the tackle for a loss and strip it the way he stripped it, I thought was an outstanding play. I thought he and Ferguson inside really controlled the tempo in the middle of that deal [Sunday].''

Nobody's explicitly said publicly that this season would be Soliai's last chance to emerge as a possible successor to Ferguson or at least someone who can help Ferguson remain spry for games in late November and December.

GETTING OLDER

You don't need to be an MIT graduate to do the math, however -- Ferguson turns 35 later this month; Soliai's in his third season and was twice suspended last season for violating unspecified team regulations; and the Dolphins signed rookie free agent nose guard Louis Ellis, who said he took less money than offered elsewhere because he had the idea he had a better chance to crack the Dolphins roster. Ellis, who was cut in training camp, didn't get that idea on his own.

``You guys [in the media] have said it: `This guy been through a bunch, he has had a few chances,' '' Sparano said. ``[A] large part of that is due to me seeing a sincere effort in this guy that this guy has put forward in trying to get better, maintaining his weight [355, officially]. I think it can help tremendously with Ferguson if you can find a guy like that. We have been trying to do that for a while, and he has been playing more and more each week.''