Simply, not good enough.

That hard conclusion faced the Dolphins Monday, even before the team film review of Sunday's 27-17 loss to New England. They went on the road, had a 10-minute touchdown drive, led twice, committed three accepted penalties, no turnovers and, by their picky head coach's film review count, a season low in defensive mental errors against perhaps the best quarterback and the best wide receiver of the past decade.

Yet, as they hear the hype for this Sunday's New England-Indianapolis Rivalry of the Decade game, they'll know they played to near perfection against each team and it wasn't good enough either game. They had little pass rush, more pass coverage but not enough and they couldn't get enough out of their own fourth-quarter possessions.

``I think the guys have gotten [Sunday's loss] out of their system already to be honest,'' Dolphins cornerback Nate Jones said in a sparsely populated locker room Monday. ``It was just that type of game. We had a chance to win. We didn't finish, let some big plays get by. We've kind of been down this road before.''

CLEAN GAME

Exactly. Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said he told the team Saturday night that the details, the little things, would probably decide Sunday's game and believes this year's Dolphins do a good job in that regard. Upon further review of the game tape, he said the Dolphins played a clean game. In the end, the Patriots just made more plays.

``We probably had seven mental errors on defense,'' Sparano said. ``That might be the low of the season, that's the truth. It isn't a mental thing. It isn't any of those things. It's getting off of blocks. It's tackling in some situations. It's execution of man-to-man technique, or zone principles when you're in coverage, a pass drop. On the offensive side of the ball, leaving bodies in the hole, a double-team execution, running the right depth, these kind of things.''

``Not good enough'' could be the title of Sparano's half-season self-analysis of him and his coaching staff. The Dolphins sit 3-5 with all five losses against teams that would be in the playoffs if they started today.

``We have to do a better job preparing these guys every week,'' Sparano said. ``Have to do a better job finding ways to win some of these big games, some of these critical games as we get on. I think that our coaching staff has tried to utilize our personnel to the best of their ability right now. We've tried to put the right guys in the right spots so to speak. Every once in a while you miss. That's not good. If you miss, you have to re-evaluate it and you have to try to make it right. So that's what we're doing.''

SOME MOTIVATION

While players often pooh-pooh such things, especially players from buttoned-down organizations such as New England, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady admitted on Boston radio Monday morning that the Patriots did draw some motivation from angry words Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter spoke late last week.

During his regular Monday morning show on Boston's WEEI, Brady was asked if he even knew Porter (zero sacks or tackles) played Sunday. Brady chuckled for a few seconds before answering.

``We did. We did,'' he said. ``It's very motivating for our team throughout the course of the week and into the game when you hear that kind of stuff. The guys take it to heart, the coaches take it to heart.

``It's always great when you come out of a game and you understand that you've kept one of their best players from being an impact on the game.''

During a conference call with New England media, Porter reiterated his belief that the Patriots, accused in the ``Spygate'' scandal of underhanded tactics before winning their first Super Bowl, stole a pair of Super Bowl trips from him and his then-Pittsburgh teammates.

Porter, on NFL Network's Total Access, also accused Brady of getting to play by ``his own rules'' and prompting penalty flags be thrown on opponents by simply pointing at officials.

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