It can’t be a good sign that for the second consecutive week – and after a second consecutive loss – New England Patriots players and/or coaches on the defensive side of the ball acknowledged that their opponent didn’t do anything surprising.

And yet still they could do nothing to stop it.

During a weekly Tuesday conference call with head coach Bill Belichick, director of player personnel Nick Caserio and defensive coordinator Dean Pees, Pees was asked about the prevalence of three-receiver sets the Dolphins used Sunday in their 22-21 victory over New England.

“Maybe they did it a little more in this game, but that wasn’t something that was any bit of a surprise. In fact, we were very ready for it,” Pees said. “Ours was simply a matter of not executing what we were supposed to execute. If we had double-coverage on someone, then we need to double-cover them, and we didn’t get it done.

“It really wasn’t so much whether Miami spread us out or not, that really wasn’t a surprise. It was just the fact that we just didn’t execute some simple things that we needed to execute.”

If the Patriots aren’t executing properly 12 games into the season, that doesn’t sound like a good thing.

Pees said that in film review of the game, New England’s defense graded well on first down, especially compared to other games (the Saints come to mind; Drew Brees was 10-for-10 for 295 yards and three touchdowns on first down), and that the performance on second down may have been its best of the season.

The problem in Miami was on third down.

“We couldn’t get off the field. That’s why we had so many plays. That’s why they had so many yards,” Pees said. “We didn’t give up many plays – didn’t give up a lot of big plays. We just couldn’t get off the field on third down, for a lot of different reasons, most of which were fundamental mistakes, not necessarily attacking the team this way because we ran this particular coverage, because we really almost never were in the same coverage twice. We just fundamentally didn’t play well on third down, from the front to the back end. We just didn’t play well enough, and that’s my responsibility and I’ve got to get that fixed.”

The Panthers are converting 36 percent on third down, one of the lowest numbers in the league.

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In the Panthers’ win over Tampa Bay last weekend, Carolina started Matt Moore at quarterback, the first start of the season for the third-year player. Carolina coach John Fox finally benched Jake Delhomme after yet another poor performance, when Delhomme threw four interceptions against the Jets in Week 12.

Moore was 14-for-20 for 161 yards, no touchdowns and an interception against the Buccaneers.

But with several different options for Carolina at the position – former Eagle A.J. Feeley is on the roster as well – New England has to prepare for each one.

“We’ll definitely prepare for both (Moore and Delhomme) until we find out something different – actually, all three because there is a possibility Feeley can be in there as a backup,” Belichick said. “Moore is an athletic guy; they do a good job of moving him around. They’ve got a good running game, so you’ve really got to respect that, and the play-actions and boots and things like that (and) that come off that are dangerous. But he’s an accurate thrower with a good group of receivers. He gives them a little extra dimension back there. Jake is obviously a very experienced player; he’s seen it all. I thought he played very well against us in the games we’ve seen him. He stands in there, accurate passer.”

Fox told Sirius NFL radio on Tuesday that Moore will likely be the starter on Sunday.

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Caserio muddied the waters a bit concerning veteran cornerback Shawn Springs during Tuesday’s conference call. Springs, signed to a three-year free-agent deal before this season, has been inactive for each of the last four games, and didn’t even make the trip to Miami.

Caserio was asked why Springs’ preparation has not equaled snaps.

“We go through and we make our personnel decisions as it relates to the game,” Caserio said. “Shawn is a smart guy, he works hard and he is an experienced guy. I mean, there is a lot that goes into the personnel decisions on a week-to-week basis. That’s probably something Bill can answer a little bit more specifically, but just from an organizational perspective, there’s a lot that goes into it.”

Belichick was not asked about Springs’ lack of play during his part of the conference call. When he’s been asked about Springs on other occasions recently, he has also pointed to the “personnel decisions” reasoning in the past.

However, given the performance of New England’s secondary against the Colts, Saints and Dolphins, it is hard to believe Springs could not contribute to the defense.

smanza@projo.com