The Dolphins starters played into the second quarter, but again were lackluster in a 27-25 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Chad Henne led the offense to three points in the opening quarter, and he was 6-of-11 for 53 yards.

Backup Chad Pennington came in, and immediately took the team down the field for a TD, throwing a 2-yard scoring pass to Brian Hartline.

If you're scoring at home, that's 17 points in five offensive series Pennington led the Dolphins on this preseason, with Henne guiding the team to 23 points in 19 series.

Ricky Williams broke free for the longest run of the preseason, 42 yards. But then the Dolphins had a scare, as Henne was hit and fumbled, and left tackle Jake Long went down with a leg injury.

That ended the night for the starters, but not before starting corner Sean Smith gave up yet another big play.

Smith, who has not played well this preseason, let unheralded Sam Hurd get behind him for a 43-yard TD in the first quarter, as the Dolphins' first-string defense allowed Cowboys third-string QB Steven McGee to move his team up and down the field.

Dallas, on the other hand, played just one defensive starter, and Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Miles Austin, Felix Jones and Marion Barber all sat out.

That made Miami's struggles even more frustrating.

Cameron Wake finally made his presence felt with a sack, but it was the only sack the Dolphins could muster against the Cowboys' backups.

Rookies Jared Odrick and Koa Misi made fine plays in stuffing Dallas' runing game, but were nowhere to be found in the pass rush.

It was a perplexing finish to an odd preseason, and the fact is, we won't know which Dolphins team will show up for the opener in Buffalo.

There are no more mulligans after this week, and the Dolphins have gotten off to slow starts in each of Tony Sparano's two previous seasons, going a combined 0-5 in 2008 and 2009.

Do that now, and the Dolphins will find themsevles sitting at home come playoff time, just as they did last year.