ABSTRACT:

DENVER – You figured they would swim upstream to Mile High and die without a squeak. That they would compare their wounded roster to that of the defending champions, curse their crummy luck and lament what might have been if it weren’t for all the casualties. That they would do like most teams and embrace a great excuse.

That is not Jimmy Johnson.

And in the spirit of their coach who last week smashed Doug Flutie’s poor flakes all over Pro Player Stadiu, the Dolphins were downright saucy for a team missing four starters and a bringing a shopital ward to Denver for yesterday’s AFC second-round game against the Broncos.

“If they’re looking for me, I ain’t hard to find,” Sharpe proclaimed. “If they’re looking for something to say, I’m going to give them something to say. I said what I said and I’m not going to back down. We’re going out there and prove three weeks ago was a hoax.”