Proving ground Dolphins are on verge of winning AFC East, but they still feel slighted

Proving ground Dolphins are on verge of winning AFC East, but they still feel slighted
December 23
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel columnist Mike Berardino
"There's a word that bubbles just beneath the surface for these Dolphins.

It stalks them throughout every moment of every day. It drives them through every practice session, every media session, every game day.

In some ways, it has as much to do with the unlikely high ground they have claimed for themselves heading into Sunday's all-important game at the Meadowlands as any personnel move, any scheme, any adjustment we've see from them all year.

That word?

Fluke.

Just two players were made available to the media on Monday morning, but André Goodman and Anthony Fasano used the same word to describe the lack of respect these Dolphins still perceive, even as they close in on the unlikeliest of playoff berths.

"I think everybody thought of us as a 1-15 team and there was no point in the season where anybody took us seriously," said Goodman, a cornerback who lived through the pain of 2007. "It's just a fluke."

Fasano reached the playoffs with Dallas last year, so he's new to the no-respect party, but it hasn't taken the big tight end long to latch onto the same concept.

"I feel like that. I think the other guys do too," he said. "I think it just comes from the way we won some of the games this year, [others] thinking maybe it was a fluke."

Surely there has been some chatter out there about the fact the Dolphins are 8-1 against teams that currently have losing records, but just 2-4 against those with winning marks. And those eight wins have come against clubs that are a combined 43 games under .500.

Close games? Well, 17 teams have a better season point differential than these Dolphins, including the Packers, Chargers, Bears, Eagles, Saints and (sorry) the Jets.

"I just think teams said, 'They're winning some close games, but they're still the same Dolphins,'"Goodman said. "Same roster. You look at our roster and nobody scares you. We have a couple big names … but outside of that nobody takes us seriously."

Pressed for concrete examples, however, neither player could provide any.

There have been no memorable lines uttered in the heat of battle. No regrettable putdowns during one of the Dolphins' many narrow victories.

"I don't think it's so much on-the-field trash talking or attitude," Fasano said. "There's not much personal communication where it's lack of respect. It's just the whole feeling [of how] the other team walks in there."

Ah, Us Against The World. I'd recognize it anywhere."
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