His players -- hello, Joey Porter -- may talk trash, but not Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano.

Unlike Jets coach Rex Ryan, who fanned the flames of his team's rivalry with the Patriots prior to their meeting in Week Two, Sparano had only nice things to say Monday about Bill Belichick's AFC East-leading Pats, who'll host the Dolphins this Sunday.

"Really hard challenge for us. Very well coached team. Not going to make a lot of mistakes. They just don't," Sparano said.

A year ago, in Sparano's first season, the Dolphins came to Foxboro having lost 20 of their last 21, while the Patriots had won 21 straight regular-season games. But, baffling and rattling the Patriots with their innovative, "Wildcat" offensive formation, the Dolphins rolled to a stunningly easy, 38-13 victory.

As the old saying goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The embarrassed Patriots weren't fooling around in the rematch in Miami in November. With Randy Moss catching three TD passes, the Pats rolled past the Dolphins, 48-28.

Miami comes into Gillette with a 3-4 record, including two wins over the Jets. Despite gaining a mere 104 yards total offense Sunday at Giants Stadium, the Dolphins beat the Jets, 30-25, by virtue of Ted Ginn's two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

"Ted has been, in my history with him, a little streaky," said Sparano, who took Ginn out of the starting lineup Sunday in favor of rookie Brian Hartline. "Ted certainly can benefit from seeing the possibilites of making plays no matter what the play count is.

"What did he have -- 6 kickoff returns, and he played 16 snaps on offense, so he played 22 plays in the game and, quite honestly, was the a major reason why we won. Some of these other guys played 60, 70 plays out there and didn't have that kind of impact."

Because of his speed, Ginn -- a first-round pick out of Ohio State in 2007 -- is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. But he has been a disappointment thus far as a big-play receiver, making just 2 TD catches in each of his first two seasons with the Dolphins.

Sparano noted that it's not entirely Ginn's fault that he hasn't scored more often.

"There's two things that went on in the (Jets) game that nobody has seen. Never mind the two kickoff returns -- he ran by people two plays on offense and we just couldn't get him the football. I think he can benefit from learning that it really only takes on play. One play can be the difference."

It didn't take those two KO returns for TDs against the Jets to make Belichick aware of Ginn's big-play capability.

"I don't know if we, or any team in the league, has more than one or two -- if that -- people who can run with Ted Ginn," Belichick said in a conference call Monday.

Ginn responded well to being replaced in the starting lineup by rookie wide receiver Brian Hartman.