The true test of Dan Carpenter's nerve and courage came well before the Dolphins kicker connected on Sunday's winning field goal.

That test began months ago when the pale kid from the University of Montana, a rookie who had not been drafted, was ordered by team veterans to sing his school's fight song during a team gathering.

Veterans typically hand down such orders to give themselves a break from the summer training camp's monotony, and no one really worries that rookies will complain because, after all, they are just rookies. But unlike other rookies, Carpenter refused to sing.

So veterans rewarded Carpenter's insolent silence by dumping his shoulder pads and other equipment in the team's cold tub.

Carpenter, the story goes, retrieved the equipment before a practice, put it on and went about his business, beating out Jay Feely as if nothing happened.

And when he was ordered to sing at the next team gathering, Carpenter still didn't blink, still refused to be treated like a rookie, and still did not sing.

So this time Carpenter's playbook disappeared and, sure enough, his equipment got dunked again. And still Carpenter would not back down and sing.

''Kickers are supposed to be afraid of everything,'' Joey Porter, perhaps Miami's most menacing player, said Sunday afternoon. ``But he wouldn't blink.''

And he still hasn't sung.

No one should wait for that moment, either, because if that victory over the veterans' hazing didn't do it, Carpenter's 38-yard winning kick Sunday against the Oakland Raiders sealed his reputation on this team.

''I'm always happy when the team wins no matter what happens,'' the baby-faced kicker said afterward. ``But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. There's got to be a first for everything. I've had my first NFL kick and now I have my first game-winner.''

A TOUGH DECISION

Moments before his game-winner, the Dolphins faced a fourth-and-5 situation on the Oakland 35-yard line. Had coach Tony Sparano decided to let Carpenter kick then, the rookie would have been attempting a career-long 51-yard field goal.

''I had confidence if [Sparano] had put me in I would have made it,'' Carpenter said. ``Like I said earlier, it's kind of in the gray area, and, with a little breeze blowing around, coach made the decision to go for it on fourth down and it worked out perfectly.''

The Dolphins converted that fourth-down play and set Carpenter up for an easier attempt. But Sparano's decision and Carpenter's kick were the only things that went right for Miami's special teams this day.

The reason Carpenter was so important in the game's outcome in the first place, the only reason the Dolphins found themselves needing some special-teams heroics at the end, is because special teams almost lost the game moments earlier.

Miami's special teams, you see, allowed a 93-yard punt-return touchdown that turned a manageable 14-8 lead into a potential game-losing, season-deflating 15-14 fourth-quarter deficit.

The Dolphins yielded a 70-yard punt return touchdown against Houston. They gave up a couple of long returns in the season opener against the Jets. And there was the 95-yard kickoff return in Denver.

So the Dolphins have been dodging bullets on special teams all season. But Sunday's special-teams meltdown threatened to pierce Miami's heart.

It seriously threatened Miami's hopes of winning and was especially frustrating because the Dolphins have sought solutions to keep something like this from continuing.

SPECIAL EXPERIMENT

Just last week the team found Courtney Bryan working at an Arby's and signed him to play special teams. The team asked Renaldo Hill to run down on kickoffs as well as start at free safety. And the Miami brain trust even put in a waiver claim for Jets special-teamer Justin Miller.

But after this game, Hill was wondering if he might have to also run down on punt coverage. The Miami brain trust was wondering whom it might try to add this week to fix the broken coverage units.

And Bryan might have been wondering if he has to go back to dispensing Horsey Sauce.

''Coach Sparano is trying to turn things around and he's doing a great job, but we have to hold up our end of the bargain on special teams,'' said Bryan, who was not really the player responsible for the long return. ``We have to change that.''

A few feet away in the victorious Dolphins locker room, receiver and special teams player Brandon London was looking defeated. London is the player who missed the initial tackle on punt returner Johnnie Lee Higgins on the fateful touchdown return.

''I was about to make the play but got pushed wide,'' London said. ``I don't know what happened after that. I don't care, either. I was the first one down there, and if I make that play, it's at the 10-yard line. I put that on myself.

``I'm hurting inside. It's eating at me right now.''

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