With Dolphins, it's the same difference as Ravens

With Dolphins, it's the same difference as Ravens
January 3
Baltimore Sun columnist Rick Maese
"The Easter egg colors left no doubt it was a different locker room. But that was the only telltale sign. If you closed your eyes - and forgot about the Florida reporters who can still wear golf shorts in January - you might as well have been in Owings Mills.

Here's what the linebacker said, "Before the first game started, it was only us 53 guys on this team who thought we could win, thought we could go to the playoffs, thought we could win a single game this season."

Ray Lewis?

No. Teal-clad Channing Crowder.

And here's what the coach said: "There was a culture change that had to take place here, just with everybody in the building, to be quite honest with you. It wasn't just the players. It was everybody."

John Harbaugh?

Nope. Miami Dolphins first-year head coach Tony Sparano.

This isn't to suggest the Ravens and Dolphins are identical. In fact, many glaring differences will be on display tomorrow when the two clash in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The back story, though, is quite similar. The 2007 futility is comparable, and the 2008 turnaround just as surprising. Both underwent enormous makeovers in what amounted to an NFL finger snap: new coach, new quarterback, new identity, new beginning.

But what's different between the two teams is the point of realization. Mill around the Ravens' locker room for just a couple of seconds, and you're bound to hear someone in purple brag he knew all along his team was special.

The Dolphins' clairvoyance apparently wasn't firing on all six cylinders. Their expectations were either muddled or modest.

"I think Coach Sparano made realistic goals," seventh-year defensive back Andre' Goodman said, "even though we were at the bottom looking up. That's what he always said. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. Don't search for a light, don't look for a light. Just put your head down and go to work."

Entering training camp, the Dolphins had two obstacles tempering expectations. Sparano tried his best, but the team's palm-tree-lined practice facility was still wearing the stain of last season's calamity.

"Guys who were already here were looking for answers," Crowder said. "One-and-15, you start questioning yourself, questioning everything. We were looking for answers and [club vice president Bill] Parcells and Sparano brought some answers to us. We really bought in easier because we didn't have anything to come off of last year."

They began the season with 13 new starters from Week 17 a year ago. But in August, there was still a giant question mark.

"Everybody goes to training camp with one goal in mind: to become champions. But we had a quarterback situation," defensive end Vonnie Holliday said. "We didn't know who was going to be quarterback. We had a young guy in [Chad] Henne, who showed a lot of promise. We had [ John] Beck, who'd been kind of up and down. But then comes Chad Pennington, right into our lap. What a d
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