This one never had an upside for the Dolphins. In almost each of the few games they lost this season, you could throw in a woulda-coulda-should. Not Sunday. The Ravens came here to crush the Dolphins, and did it like an elephant stomping an aluminum can, 27-9. There never really was a moment when a Dolphin or Dolfan could say, ``Well, if this happens now, or that happens next, we got a shot . . .''

Five turnovers will kill any team, but the Ravens would have romped without one Dolphins turnover. They brought better, stronger, faster athletes. Their coach, John Harbaugh, has nothing on Miami's Tony Sparano, but Sunday was about players, not coaches.

'UNIQUE' DEFENSE

Chad Pennington, that paragon of accuracy in Miami's sparkling 11-5 regular season, threw four interceptions. He was asked the difference between the Ravens' pressure and the kind other teams brought.

''The Ravens have unique concepts,'' Pennington said, ``and excellent athletic ability within those concepts. The more in control they get, the more risks they will take, and when the risks pay off -- the way the Ravens make them pay off -- you're in trouble.''

The Dolphins' offense knew it was facing a monster defense. It knew that from the 27-13 loss to Baltimore in mid-October. But the best pro football players, and you can include the Dolphins in that category, refuse to believe any opponent is better until the scoreboard documents it. And even then, a lot don't believe it.

That goes for coaches, too. Nobody had to tell Tony Sparano the Ravens hit like tons of bricks. He came in thinking the Dolphins could somehow win. In his heart, he probably isn't convinced otherwise even now, but his head knows different.

''I certainly didn't expect what happened,'' Sparano said. ``Even when it was 20-3, I still thought we would win.''

He must have been the only one in Dolphin Stadium. But that is what makes him what he is. Bet your bottom dollar Sparano was thinking as much about the 2009 season as he was about this one as he tried to shake off the dreadful beating.

I found only one modest point of disagreement with the man who did such a superb job in his first Dolphins season. He pointed to the five turnovers as a chief difference. I figured the Ravens would have won even without the takeaways. Granted, they deprived the Dolphins of scoring chances, and the Dolphins weren't going to score multiple touchdowns anyway.

Miami has no player even remotely in the class of either Ed Reed (two interceptions) or Ray Lewis (nine tackles).

Reed on the prowl brings an uncanny resemblance, only in different clothes, to Joe DiMaggio patrolling center field back in the day. His 62-yard touchdown runback of a second-quarter interception was a classic scamper.

THE BEST LB EVER?

Lewis doesn't just tackle. He explodes into people holding the ball. Your bones remember Lewis years after he hits you.

Both, of course, came from the University of Miami. When once I persuaded Lewis to stand on the 50 after an Orange Bowl game and say, ''I am going to be the greatest linebacker UM ever had,'' it didn't take an awful lot of arm-bending. I confess to never entertaining so much as a clue Lewis might become the greatest linebacker the NFL ever had. He just might be.

To their endless credit, the Dolphins traded the Ravens stop for stop, blow for blow, until late second quarter, when Reed locked on and got loose.

It was just that it was impossible to shake the feeling that Miami never would break through.

Miami couldn't run -- 52 yards rushing isn't running -- and everything Pennington did in his 252-yard passing total was undone by his interceptions. As for total turnovers, the Dolphins' five Sunday came to just about 38 percent of their regular-season total of 13. Even if statistics don't begin to tell the story of this game, that's a blockbuster statistic in any attempt to sum up the difference in the game.

I am pretty sure of only one thing.

Given Sparano's return and, hopefully, the return of chief muckety-muck Bill Parcells, as well, if the Dolphins and Ravens should meet under the same circumstances a year from now, the differences in talent will be considerably less clear, and lustily better on Miami's side.

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