It didn't matter that the Miami Dolphins had
an overwhelming statistical advantage in their Monday night game
against the Indianapolis Colts. On Tuesday, they still found
themselves in a familiar position - 0-2.

Dropping the first two games is becoming a bit of a tradition
for the Dolphins, who did it for the fourth consecutive season.
Notching the first win Sunday at San Diego (1-1) could prove a
tough task for Miami, facing a short week and coming off a 27-23
loss to the Colts.

The Dolphins couldn't beat Indianapolis and Peyton Manning even
though the Colts had the ball for less than 15 minutes. Miami
converted 16 of 22 third- and fourth-down situations, rushed for
239 yards and still managed to lose.

"Nobody is world champion after two weeks," linebacker Joey
Porter said, "but we're not good enough to give games away."

Manning took advantage of breakdowns in the secondary to throw
for 303 yards and two scores. Now the Dolphins face San Diego's
Philip Rivers, who threw for a career-high 436 yards in a 31-26
loss to Baltimore.

"I know he threw the ball 50 times the other night. They didn't
try to run it too much. They played without LaDainian (Tomlinson)
and threw the ball a bunch," Miami coach Tony Sparano said.

"I think a lot of Rivers. He is a big, strong guy that stands
in there. He doesn't watch the rush and makes some outstanding
throws. He made some big time throws the other day in the ball
game. San Diego has been a physical team year in and year out, and
they run a lot of physical, hardball, downhill run stuff."

When the Dolphins started 0-2 last season, new coach Sparano
turned to the wildcat for a 38-13 upset win at New England. Miami
went on to win the AFC East title.

The wildcat's still effective - the Dolphins used it 12 times
Monday for 107 yards, all on the ground.

But for the second week in a row, Miami had trouble covering the
tight end. Colts tight end Dallas Clark had seven catches for a
career-high 183 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown on the first
play from scrimmage.

"We know we can play better defense than this," said safety
Gibril Wilson, who missed a tackle on Clark's score.

A week earlier, Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez caught five
passes against Miami for 73 yards. Now the Dolphins must brace for
San Diego's Antonio Gates.

"We didn't play Dallas the way we played Tony," Sparano said.
"We won't play Gates the way we played we played either one of
those guys. We will continue to change it.

"But at some point in the game, it doesn't matter who is
covering the tight end - I am talking about everybody - you have to
win individual matchups. I think that sometimes that is the
deciding factor. You have 10 guys doing a good job and one guy
doesn't win his individual matchup and that is where you get
beat."

Still, game film from Monday night will show a better effort
than in the Dolphins' opener, a 19-7 loss to the Falcons.

"The film would show you the bad and the film would show you
the good," Sparano said. "There was a lot of good things done out
there yesterday, there really was, on both sides of the ball. And
there was some bad things done on both sides of the ball. ... It's
just there were some things not done well enough."