There were no nooses in the Dolphins locker room Monday. No tears. No fistfights. No excuses.

A day after the Dolphins’ wretched collapse against Denver, nobody was feeling sorry for the losers.

And the losers were resolute: They would not feel sorry for themselves.

Everybody came to work, kept a stiff upper lip and said the right things.

“The games aren’t going away, so we’re sticking together,” Jason Trusnik said. “Everyone in this locker room has been through adversity at some point in his football career. You just have to move on.”

But it must be increasingly difficult for the 0-6 Dolphins to deposit the losses in the cellar incinerator and bound back up the stairs. The stench on their hands is getting more unbearable, especially after Sunday’s 18-15 overtime loss in which they became the first team since 1970 to blow a 15-point lead in the last three minutes.

They helped write another chapter in “The Legend of Tim Tebow,” even though Tebow was incompetent for most of the game, necessitating his frantic comeback.

The Dolphins obliged the Miracle Worker, botching pass coverage, dropping an onside kick, displaying the ball like a glass slipper on the fumble that led to the winning field goal and allowing Tebow to skip into the end zone when everyone knew he would get the call.

“I think we had the wrong personnel on the field at the time,” Tony McDaniel said of Tebow’s two-point conversion.

Yes, Tony, all 11 of them.

In fact, the Dolphins have had the wrong personnel on the field for most of the past seven years. Poor choices have doomed what was once an iconic NFL franchise to irrelevance.

Based on the slapstick football game we saw Sunday, the Dolphins are worse than we thought, and on a path similar to the ones that ended with a 4-12 record in 2004 and a 1-15 record in 2007. The team has been lurching around in circles.

Revolving door

The crux of the problem has been at quarterback. Miami has been through 16 and counting since Dan Marino retired. They tried journeymen, retreads, babysitters, even the wacky experiment named Pat White. They traded a second-round pick for A.J. Feeley. They passed on Drew Brees (twice) and Matt Ryan, choosing Jake Long instead in 2008.

Now, as one of three winless teams in the Suck For [Andrew] Luck Sweepstakes, they have a shot at drafting one of several quarterbacks worthy of a rebuilding project.

As great a lineman as Long is, the Dolphins are desperate for a star, and Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Cam Newton, Josh Freeman and Ryan have confirmed what Tom Brady has demonstrated all these years — today’s NFL revolves around the quarterback position. For further proof, look at the Colts — utterly lost without Peyton Manning, and going head-to-head against Miami for Luck.

But it’s not even Halloween yet (and Dolfans, who don’t know whether to laugh or cry, are making paper sack masks). Ten games to go: That’s a long time to speculate on the future. That’s a long time for Tony Sparano to keep plugging away as lame-duck coach.

To preserve their sanity and pride, the Dolphins must relearn how to win. Tebow gave them a lesson in their own stadium. When it’s Tebow Time, the missionary’s son makes things happen. Belief in himself is “a gift” Tebow was born with, said Denver receiver Demaryius Thomas, who had been overthrown and underthrown by Tebow until a touchdown pass narrowed the score to 15-7 with 2:44 left.

The Miami Dolphins not too long ago were a team that couldn’t pass for much, but one that was competitive on the strength of its running game, its defense and its ability to avoid self-inflicted wounds. Three games into the preseason, maybe the opposite is becoming true for these Dolphins.

Quarterback Chad Henne and the Dolphins’ passing offense produced gaudy numbers in the first half here at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But the Dolphins’ sloppiness, and defensive lapses at inopportune times, fueled a 17-13 Buccaneers victory.

Rudy Carpenter, the Buccaneers third-string quarterback, engineered the game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter. He completed a 7-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Overbay with 3:11 to play.

Henne, who played into the third quarter along with the Dolphins’ other starters, completed 10 of his 12 attempts in the first half for 175 yards. The most memorable moment came on his team’s first offensive series, when Henne threw a 60-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Marshall.

Marshall beat single coverage to make the play near the right sideline. He stiff-armed a defender on his way to the end zone. Henne’s strong performance followed another one against the Carolina Panthers last week, when he completed 15-of-24 attempts for 194 yards.

“I thought he threw the ball well,” Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said of Henne at halftime. “They are trying to pressure him out there a bunch – he got rid of the ball a few times. We have to do a better job of protecting the quarterback on some of those early downs.”

Outside of the touchdown pass to Marshall, the highlights were few.

The Dolphins didn’t score a touchdown on their only trip into the red zone during the first half, instead settling for a 29-yard field goal from Dan Carpenter. On other drives, penalties stalled the Dolphins before they even began to move.

At one point in the first half, penalties forced the Dolphins backwards on three consecutive drives before they ever had a chance to move forward. There was a hold on a punt return, then an offensive holding and then an illegal formation penalty. The Dolphins finished with 11 penalties for 76 yards.

Late in the first half, the Dolphins had a chance to take either a 17-3 or a 13-3 lead. Henne had found Marshall and he was off in the open field, making defenders miss. But after gaining 30 yards – most of them coming after the catch – Marshall fumbled. Buccaneers cornerback E.J. Biggers caught Marshall from behind and knocked the ball loose.

Tampa Bay recovered on its own 46 and moved with ease during a 54-yard scoring drive that culminated in Earnest Graham’s 2-yard touchdown. To that point, the Dolphins’ defense had frustrated quarterback Josh Freeman and the Buccaneers offense. Still, the teams entered halftime tied at 10.

In addition to the penalties, the defensive breakdown at the end of the first half and the lost opportunities on offense, the Dolphins’ running game provided more cause for concern. Miami gained two yards on nine carries in the first half, with rookie Daniel Thomas leading team with three yards rushing.

The running game’s struggles could be traced to the offensive line, which struggled to open holes and also had issues providing Henne adequate time to throw downfield. Henne often compensated with quick, short passes down the middle – but the running backs, including Reggie Bush, rarely had a chance.

Reserves for both teams entered early in the third quarter and played the rest of the way. The Dolphins’ newly-signed running back Larry Johnson gained two yards on his first carry of the preseason early in the fourth quarter. He finished with 7 yards, an underwhelming total in an underwhelming overall performance for the Dolphins.

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

If he’s the Dolphins’ quarterback of the future – and that’s a big if considering owner Stephen Ross’ tepid endorsement – then Chad Henne is swimming in the deep end of the NFL pool.

Not just because of the position itself, which might be the most wicked meat-grinder in all of sport, but because of the talent level of other men who play it and who are of Henne’s approximate age. Or, in some cases, are appreciably younger.

So, never mind about old hands Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or Drew Brees. Never mind, too, about anyone else who has blown out at least 30 candles on a cake, which, for one, eliminates Eli Manning.

Henne will be 26 by the time next season rolls around. Here is a list of well-established or very promising quarterbacks who fit the aformentioned age brackets: Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Jay Cutler, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez, Josh Freeman, Sam Bradford and Matt Stafford.

It’s an impressive group.

And it exemplifies the Dolphins’ concerns regarding Henne.

After almost two complete seasons as starting quarterback, Henne doesn’t stack up well in terms of accomplishment or potential compared to quarterbacks against whom he’ll likely compete for years if he remains in the role.

Ross, speaking on a radio show Monday night, sounded hesitantly inclined to call Henne his quarterback of choice while also citing a need to “fortify” the position.

“I’m not stopping until we overturn every stone,” Ross said. “Look what fans are looking at: ‘What are you going to do with the quarterback position?’ “

It’s a cinch nobody is asking that question in any of the four AFC playoff franchises competing this weekend.

Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore and New England vs. the New York Jets are the semifinals featuring Roethlisberger vs. Flacco and Brady vs. Sanchez. In the NFC? Chicago’s Cutler, Green Bay’s Rodgers and Atlanta’s Ryan are still playing.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, will ponder seriously whether to use their first-round draft pick on a quarterback three years after having used a second-rounder on Henne.

Miami’s hope, of course, was that Henne would have rendered any quarterback debate moot by now. He took over the position when Chad Pennington was injured early in the 2009 season and then was named the starter for the 2010 season, but has done little to convince anyone who matters that the job should be his for keeps.

There is the notion that Henne has played scared while in charge of a conservative offense. Is that a contributing factor – and perhaps even the primary one – for throwing more interceptions (33) than touchdown passes (27) across the past two seasons?

If so, Henne will have the opportunity to prove the point should Ross get his way after asking coach Tony Sparano to construct a more “aggressive” offense.

Neither is it a small matter that Dan Henning is out as offensive coordinator and David Lee is no longer the quarterbacks coach, if only because the moves clear the decks for Sparano to fulfill Ross’ desire for a more “unpredictable” style by hiring new people.

Nor would it be a bad thing to remove whatever constraints under which Henne has been operating, because to do so would afford the team a better opportunity to judge his worth in a once-and-for-all scenario next season.

The issue the Dolphins have to settle for themselves is whether Henne is capable of becoming what several other quarterbacks of his generation already have become.

The clock is ticking on the time he has to show he has the goods to be a good NFL quarterback.

No reason to set the bar Rivers-Roethlisberger-Ryan high, but is there a Cutler or a Flacco in Henne?