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Fins Get Shot To Show They're Real

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The Associated Press

Published: January 2, 2009

DAVIE - Chad Pennington can prognosticate as well as he passes. The Miami Dolphins quarterback says he told family and friends before the season his new team was a potential 10-game winner.

Few others had such foresight, and many remain dubious that the surprising Dolphins really belong in the playoffs. Sunday's first-round game against the Ravens will help settle the question of whether Miami is for real.

Despite winning nine of their past 10 games, the Dolphins enter their first playoff game since 2001 widely regarded as overachieving underdogs.

"Good," Dolphins LB Matt Roth says. "Let people sleep on us. If we haven't earned respect by now, we're never going to win it."

Only five teams won more games than AFC East champion Miami (11-5). But memories of the franchise's 1-15 fiasco in 2007 remain fresh, making it difficult to accept the transformed Dolphins as juggernauts.

They're hardly treated as an elite team. The Dolphins haven't been scheduled for prime time all season, not even when they played the high-profile Jets in a December showdown. LB Joey Porter was the lone Miami player chosen to start in the Pro Bowl. There have been thousands of empty seats at every home game.

The Dolphins have few stars, a castoff quarterback in Pennington and a rookie coach in Tony Sparano. It's a much different environment than in, say, Dallas.

But then the Cowboys aren't in the playoffs.

"A team that has all the stars across the board and should have made it didn't," says Dolphins LB Akin Ayodele, a former Cowboy. "Is that what makes a playoff team? No. You still have to go out there and play.

"You look at this team - we don't have a lot of big names, but we have guys who love this game and have bought into what the coaching staff wants to do, and we do a good job."

LT, GATES SIT OUT PRACTICE: Chargers stars LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates missed a second straight practice Thursday as San Diego continued to prepare for its home wild-card playoff game against the Colts on Saturday night.

Tomlinson, who has a strained groin, is in better shape than Gates, who has a sprained ankle.

"If we were playing today he probably wouldn't play," Coach Norv Turner said about Gates.

And L.T.? "Yeah, I think he would," the coach said.

"Both of them are a lot better than they have been," Turner said. "It really will be a Saturday decision, how they feel. We'll get them out there and run around and see how they feel. I'm optimistic about both of them."

Tomlinson said he felt better than he did Sunday night, when he was hurt in San Diego's 52-21 win against Denver that clinched the AFC West for the Chargers.

The Associated Press

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