MIAMI -- As he sat at his locker stall, battered and bruised and all but booed off the field Sunday afternoon, Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler looked up to address a query and stared hard at a reporter seeking a one-word assessment of his emotions.

And after pondering the question for a few seconds, Fiedler offered this pithy response, one that marked not only his mood but also that of his teammates: Dispirited.

"Whether we can move on from here, to get started again going the right direction, that's a question everyone here is going to have to answer now," said Fielder, who threw three interceptions in a 24-0 loss to the New York Jets, including two returned for touchdowns. "This was a tough loss. And I'm sure the guys are getting a little tired losing to the Jets all the time. But we have no choice but to bounce back. I mean, if we don't ..."

It is a question, of course, that seems to haunt the Dolphins on an annual basis, at least the past few seasons. Known for their quick starts, the Dolphins are almost as famous for their lax finishes, and the specter of another second-half flop loomed palpably over the Miami team as it exited Sunday evening.

That the Sunday collapse came against the Jets, a team that has not defeated Miami in eight consecutive games, only served to magnify the potential crisis. They won't concede it for attribution, but some Miami players do feel there is a "curse" hanging over them in games against the despised Jets, and several used pretty salty language in describing the eight-game losing skein to their division foes.

Most, however, left the locker room just cursing, period.

The loss dropped Miami (6-3) a half-game behind New York in the AFC East and, following a seeming breather against Buffalo next Sunday, the schedule becomes more difficult. Of their final five games, four are against teams with winning marks, and the other is versus the archrival Indianapolis Colts.

Miami was 5-3 in the second half of the 2000 season, but November-December flops here are hardly uncommon. The suspicion among some who see this team on a regular basis is that the Dolphins are again a flawed bunch and capable of negating their latest fast start with a failed finish.

"I'm not buying into that, and I don't think anyone else will, either," said defensive end Jason Taylor. "There's too much character here."

Still some players allowed that, when New York cornerback Aaron Glenn scored on a 60-yard interception return to snap a scoreless game in the first quarter, there was a definite feeling of déjà vu. Noted one veteran: "Yeah, we've seen this act here before."

	“	Here were are, playing a game for first place against a team we don't particularly like, and this was as good as we could manage. There is no excuse for this. None. Everyone is going to have to answer for himself. Everyone has to go home tonight and ask how we will fight back from this. ”
		— Patrick Surtain, Dolphins cornerback

One could make a compelling argument that, with the exception of five turnovers, Miami played the Jets pretty evenly. But in a contest when the New York offense registered but a blip on the radar screen, and the Dolphins defense played very stoutly in most junctures of the game, coach Dave Wannstedt's club still went down rather meekly.

The only legitimate scoring threat ended on Olindo Mare's missed field goal, his first miscue of the year, and the offense rarely stretched the Jets out vertically. And then, of course, there were the killer interceptions.

And so here are the Dolphins, once again at a crossroads, again forced to stare into the mirror to see if they will fight back or blink back. Wannstedt insisted that there will be no snowball effect on what he feels is a pretty solid team, albeit it one that like predecessors here doesn't know how to handle prosperity, and vowed the Dolphins will recover.

But tailback Lamar Smith is averaging less than three yards per carry, Fielder continues to cough up the ball with tragic regularity in big games, the defense might be forced into playing the balance of the season without tackle Daryl Gardener, and that familiar but fatal Jekyll-Hyde feeling is creeping around.

It is not yet a season on the brink, but the loss on Sunday nudged the Dolphins into an uncomfortable position, one from which they must battle back. This is a place where familiarity, in the form of midseason crisis, really does breed contempt.

"Here were are, playing a game for first place against a team we don't particularly like, and this was as good as we could manage?" said cornerback Patrick Surtain. "There is no excuse for this. None. Everyone is going to have to answer for himself. Everyone has to go home tonight and ask how we will fight back from this."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.