When the Miami Dolphins' plane landed early Monday after another humbling trip, coach Tony Sparano didn't go home. He went directly to the team complex to watch videotape of the latest loss.
He reviewed the game film three times.
"I just wanted to be able to be exact to my players when they walk through the door today,"
Sparano said. "We need to fix the things that we didn't do well, and we will do that."
Sparano said one thing won't change will be the starting quarterback. Chad Pennington, who went 10-for-20 for 112 yards Sunday, will start against New England.
Pennington's backup, rookie Chad Henne, directed Miami to its lone touchdown in the Dolpins 31-10 drubbing Sunday at Arizona. Henne directed an 18-play, 89-yard drive in the fourth quarter that ended with Ronnie Brown's 1-yard scoring run on fourth down.
"There was an opportunity to learn a little bit about Henne in that kind of situation,"
Sparano said.
Even though the quarterback situation is resolved for now, there's plenty on Sparano's to-do list. The Dolphins' secondary was riddled, their offense never got going and penalties made matters worse.
The Dolphins are 0-2 for the fourth time in five years, and they've lost 20 of their past 21 games. But this is a new experience for Sparano, a first-year NFL head coach.
As an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, he said, mentor Bill Parcells warned him there would be days like Monday.
"We had just lost a game together, and I was feeling pretty bad,"
Sparano said. "He came into my office and he said, 'The losses hurt a lot more when you're the head coach, and they last a lot longer than the wins last.' I was sitting there at the time feeling pretty bad thinking, 'Come on.'"
"I understand what he's saying now."
Sparano expects things to change in Miami.
"The only way I know how to make it better is to go harder,"
Sparano said. "So that's what we're going to do as a team. We're going to go harder. I'm going to go harder. I told the team (Sunday) night and I'll say it again, it ain't going to be this way forever."
Sparano said to regroup, the Dolphins -- losers of 11 consecutive road games heading into this weekend's contest at New England -- need to understand how they got into this hole.
"We have to look at how we became 0-2, because you kind of are what your record says you are,"
Sparano said. "We have to look at how this happened to us and be able to correct some of these things."
Sparano said he doesn't plan to make major lineup changes. He said he did not want to "overreact or panic"
about the secondary.
For a second week in a row, Miami's secondary looked woeful. Arizona's Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald combined for 12 receptions for 293 yards.
"It's definitely something we've got to watch the film and learn from, learn how to adjust against those bigger receivers like Anquan and Fitzgerald,"
safety Renaldo Hill said. "It's just going to be a task on our part."
Penalties included two for having 12 men on the field. Sparano took the blame but said he expected his players to be aware of the depth chart.
"When I was in junior high school, from day one, they put the depth chart up and I knew where I was,"
Sparano said. "But it's the coaches' responsibility, and I take responsibility for that."
Small problems were frustrating for the Dolphins, linebacker Joey Porter said, but Arizona's big plays were worse.
"They jumped on us quick and we never really had a chance to rebound,"
Porter said. "When you give a team a quick fix like that ... it's kind of hard to fight back. We're not a strong enough team to just climb back like that."
After losing to Brett Favre and Kurt Warner, the Dolphins will at least be spared this week from facing Tom Brady. Instead, Matt Cassell will be at quarterback for the defending AFC champion Patriots (2-0). Though that might not be a break, Cassell is 29-for-41 for 317 yards and a 70.7 completion percentage since replacing the injured Brady.
"When they get into close games, they know how to win,"
Sparano said. "From our standpoint, we're going to have eliminate the mistakes when you're playing against a good team like that on the road."
