" There has been no lack of attention devoted to the few -- albeit critical -- mistakes made by Dolphins left tackle Jake Long this week. As Long knows, that's part of the territory when you are the first overall pick in an NFL Draft.

``You don't want to get Chad hit, and I did that,'' Long said Thursday. ``That's the low point of that game. I know what I did wrong, and I've got to get better at it. I've got to grow from it and embrace it.''

One sack, though, might have been harder to deal with than the others. That's the one when Long was bull-rushed by Falcons defensive end John Abraham, who knocked the massive tackle on his 317-pound back.

But guard Justin Smiley said there's something you should know about that play: It had nothing to do with Long's physical ability.

``It was a miscommunication on the line,'' Smiley said. ``We were in silent count. You can't hear the quarterback in shotgun in a loud place, so we went silent count. Jake thought it was on silent two, but we snapped it on one.

``It's not like our guy just got run over. That doesn't happen to Jake Long.''

Long being an extremely intelligent player, the snap count situation isn't one to worry about. Even with the line's other mistakes considered along the way -- including another sack given up by Long -- you can be sure coach Tony Sparano isn't worried, either.

``One of the reasons we picked Jake where we picked Jake is the character that the guy has,'' Sparano said. ``I think he has great character and he is a really tough competitor. These kind of days happen to a lot of tackles in this league.

``You learn a lesson and you go on. This guy is a pretty smart guy. I don't believe a lot in that you can learn from a loss. I'm not a big believer in that. Sometimes you learn to lose. But I think in that situation, Jake took something that was very valuable.''

He now will have the chance to bounce back against one of the league's best: Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney."