Dolphins quarterback Cleo Lemon, being sacked by the Browns’ Kamerion Wimbley, might be in for a long day today.

AP / Tony Dejak

MIAMI — There are two sides to every story.

In today’s story about the winless Miami Dolphins, who this afternoon will take on the undefeated and virtually unchallenged New England Patriots at Dolphins Stadium, there is Pats coach Bill Belichick’s side, and then there is the view of Greg Cote, columnist for the Miami Herald.

Listen to the two of them, and you have to wonder if they’re talking about the same team.

Belichick makes this 0-6 Miami team seem like the 1972 Dolphins, who went 17-0, capping their perfect season with a victory over the Redskins in Super Bowl VII.

On the other hand, the headline on Cote’s column last Monday, after Miami lost at Cleveland, 41-31, was “Dolphins Could Be Hurtling Toward 0-16 Infamy.”

So what’s the real story?

“Miami has a lot of great players on defense,” Belichick said. “They cause you a lot of problems.”

Really?

The Dolphins “D” didn’t pose any problems for the Jets, who put up 31 against Miami in what is New York’s only victory this season. The Raiders, who were the worst team in the league last year, scored 35 to Miami’s 17 last month in Oakland. The Brownies, for crying out loud, put up 41 points.

Problems?

“To clear up any possible confusion,” Cote wrote, following the Dolphins’ miserable myriad of mistakes by the lake last weekend, “the Dolphins are dreadful. They keep digging and digging to hit new rock-bottoms.

“Miami is the worst team in the NFL, led by a disintegrating defense that has turned rancid and makes you wince and want to look away.”

Tom Brady, great quarterback and loyal soldier that he is, sides with his coach.

“They’re a tough defense,” he said of the Dolphins. “They’ve got a great pass rush. They don’t make mistakes.”

They don’t make mistakes? Kind of makes you wonder if Belichick made a mistake and showed Brady the films of Don Shula’s defense that featured the likes of Nick Buoniconti, Manny Fernandez and Jake Scott, instead of video footage of Cam Cameron’s motley Miami crew.

Then again, the Miami defense wasn’t looking all that good last year when they whitewashed Brady and the AFC East champion Patriots, 21-0. That embarrassing setback was Tom Terrific’s fourth loss in six career starts at Miami, so perhaps we should cut Brady some slack when he says of these Dolphins: “I know their record. I don’t think it really indicates what type of team they are.”

Of course, that’s not what former Patriots coach Bill Parcells would say. The Big Tuna has always insisted that “You are what your record says you are.”

And what the Dolphins’ record says they are is lousy.

Cote says the same thing.

“There is a chance — an actual possibility — that this atrocity to a franchise’s proud tradition might become the first team in pro football history to go 0-16.”

Cote doesn’t give the Dolphins much of a chance of breaking into the win column against the unbeaten Patriots, who have scored at least 34 points in every game, and whose smallest margin of victory so far this season has been 17 points.

“The state-of-the-art New England Patriots come to town next,” he wrote, “and it’s like a pit bull visiting a poodle.”

Although the Poodles — oops, sorry — Dolphins are 17-point underdogs, Belichick makes it sound as if Miami ought to be favored.

“Nobody has given us more trouble than the Dolphins,” he said. “The 21-0 shutout last year, with them kneeling on the ball at the 5-yard line, was a pretty low point for us.”

This year, watching the Dolphins is like watching somebody do the limbo — you wonder just how low they can go.

“The first half Sunday (in Cleveland) was a failure of near-epic proportions,” wrote Cote. “The score was 27-10, but felt worse. Browns fans in the raucous Dog Pound were literally laughing at Miami’s ineptitude. If Miami’s abysmal pass defense makes Derek Anderson and Braylon Edwards look like Hall of Famers, what will Tom Brady and Randy Moss do?”

While Brady agrees with his coach, Miami linebacker Zach Thomas seems to side with Cote.

“I’ve never been on a defense this bad,” the 12-year veteran said after losing to the Browns. “We’re horrible. If we don’t improve on defense, we’re not going to win a game.”

Offensively, the Dolphins will be starting their backup quarterback, Cleo Lemon, who took over when Trent Green suffered a severe concussion at Houston two weeks ago.

“They’re much improved on that side of the ball,” Belichick insists.

That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.

So, you can believe who you want to believe.

Belichick may be a football genius but, on this one, I’m going with my fellow sports writer.

jdonalds@projo.com