A look, sound and feel so rare lately returned late Sunday afternoon like an old friend dearly missed. It was a Dolphins home crowd, standing and thunderously cheering their team as a game ended.

This wasn't the sound heard after the win over Baltimore last fall that avoided the ignominy of a 0-16 season. That sound was a mix of relief and embarrassed sarcasm.

This was the sound that pride makes.

Dolfans were cheering not just Sunday's 17-10 triumph over the San Diego Chargers, but also a season of sudden promise, a future finally taking root and earning belief after six consecutive seasons out of the playoffs.

They were cheering the best comeback story in the NFL right now, and maybe the best in all of sports.

''The Dolphins are here. We have arrived,'' said receiver Greg Camarillo in a postgame locker room bubbling with ebullience. ``Other teams would doubt us before. Now they have to prepare to play a great team. We're ready to play anybody.''

A great team?

Audacious words, considering the season began as a continuation of last year's stink, when the record was 0-2 after a stumbling rout loss in Arizona.

Lately, though? These past two games?

Great almost seems an understatement.

The franchise that was the laughingstock of football has now won consecutive games against last season's AFC Championship Game combatants, winning in New England and now humbling LaDainian Tomlinson.

You might have been forgiven calling the Patriots game a fluke or some wild aberration, or attaching an asterisk because star quarterback Tom Brady was out injured. You might have wondered if you were dreaming.

But what happened Sunday only legitimizes that result while suggesting, maybe for the first time, that what has been going on here isn't something rebuilding.

It is something rebuilt.

All at once, the Dolphins are playing like a legitimate playoff contender.

Has a 2-2 record ever felt better? Miami is looking lately like a team that needs concede the AFC East title to nobody.

Bill Parcells' genius card is officially renewed.

And, as an aside to whomever is charge of engraving the league's Coach of the Year trophy: Careful with the spelling, please.

It's S-p-a-r-a-n-o.

''These are fun,'' first-year boss Tony Sparano said afterward. ``We're just learning how to win right now.''

Seems to me like they've learned.

The Chargers might agree after being thoroughly dominated on both sides of the ball even if the scoreboard didn't show it.

You could have a pretty good debate arguing whether the Dolphins' offense or defense was more impressive Sunday, with such abundant evidence for either.

''Hopefully, this will raise some brows,'' said defensive end Vonnie Holliday.

Consider brows raised.

The defense stymied the NFL's best running back, had a classic goal-line stand and barely allowed double-figure scoring to a Chargers team that was averaging 35 points a game. Yeremiah Bell was a punisher.

When the D is on the field, sometimes they play that ominous music from Jaws. Sunday, the defense lived up to that menace.

The offense?

It enjoyed more scalpel precision from quarterback Chad Pennington, got another 125 yards rushing from Ronnie Brown and continued to flex its Wildcat formation.

Start calling these guys the Miami Wildcats if you like.

The bizarre formation -- with Brown taking direct snaps and Pennington aligned as a receiver -- helped stun the Patriots, and Sunday, Miami used it even more, on 11 plays that produced 49 yards, including a Brown scoring run.

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