The Miami Dolphins may have won their preseason opener against the Atlanta Falcons on Friday, but the portion of the game played by Dolphins starters was far from reassuring.

On offense, Chad Henne threw two interceptions in his four series of action and the running game was practically nonexistent.

Meanwhile, Atlanta QB Matt Ryan picked apart the Miami defense en route to a 17-0 first quarter lead. The Falcons gained yards in bunches, making the Dolphins defense look like a college scout team.

Sure, the Dolphins second- and third-teamers managed to make up the deficit against Atlanta's scrubs, but that is not a recipe for success in the regular season.

Not that the Dolphins are worried about any of this. For starters, Reggie Bush, Brandon Marshall, and Jake Long, arguably the team's three best players on offense, did not play. And the mistakes the offense did make were mostly fixable, or so argue the Dolphins.

"There were some sloppy plays in there," Chad Henne told the Miami Herald this weekend, "but it's not a crisis."

"We felt like we were sputtering," added WR Brian Hartline, "but nobody was panicking."

Head coach Tony Sparano did reveal some concern about the offensive line, but stressed that it is too early in the preseason to get worried. The Dolphins only had seven practices before Friday's game due to the late start of training camp resulting from the lockout.

"At the end of the day, it takes a lot longer than seven practices to build continuity within your line or communication amongst quarterback and receivers or any of those things," Sparano told the Herald.

There are few conclusions to be made from one preseason game, but Friday night revealed that the Dolphins face an uphill battle if they want to resemble a competent football team in 2011.

No amount of sugar-coating from the players and coaching staff can hide that fact.