Yet, so much transformation lay in the future for each franchise -- two of the three biggest turnarounds in the NFL this season -- that those teams might be only distant cousins of the two 11-5 2008 playoff participants.

So much so that viewing highlights from that day have the similar feel to watching a VHS tape of ESPN's NFL Primetime from 13 years ago instead of only 13 months ago.

Neither head coach, the Dolphins' Cam Cameron nor Baltimore's Brian Billick, would survive beyond January.

That day's active quarterbacks -- the Dolphins' Cleo Lemon and John Beck, Baltimore's Kyle Boller and Troy Smith -- combined for all of four passes this season, all by Smith.

Of the game's top four rushers, Musa Smith and Samkon Gado are out of the league.

OUT FOR SEASON

The third-string receiver who streaked down the field with the 64-yard game-winning touchdown in overtime, Greg Camarillo, has been hopping on crutches for the last month after being the Dolphins' leading receiver most of 2008.

Wayne Huizenga, the owner who cried for joy as Camarillo scored because, he said a few days later, he didn't want these Dolphin players to be shown on video for years as the NFL's all-time losers like the 0-14 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are.

He would soon sell part of the team and is in the process of selling most of the rest.

Heck, an injury removed Ray Lewis for half the game.

Does it even count as a Ravens game without the middle linebacker?

"You don't really think back to that game," Dolphins defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday said. "Not right now. Two completely different teams."

It was the last Dolphins game BP (Before Parcells).

NEW EXECUTIVE

The changes executive vice president of Football Bill Parcells wrought on the Dolphins has been well documented in these parts.

Up in Baltimore, general manager Ozzie Newsome did some rookie coach hiring of his own, tapping former Philadelphia special teams coach John Harbaugh.

Harbaugh had to win over a veteran defense long established as the team's signature unit.

He also had to handle an offense in transition.

Whoever would be the new starting quarterback, Smith or first-round pick Joe Flacco, would be running an offense without retiring left tackle Jonathan Ogden.

There also would be a new coordinator for the offense, long the ball-and-chain that kept the Ravens from flying. Ironically, Harbaugh brought in Cameron.

Lewis said Harbaugh quickly got the veterans on his side by entrusting them "to just really control certain things and he gave us a lot of leverage on certain things, almost in training camp.

"We knew the core of people that we did have here," Lewis said. "Year in and year out, two years removed from a playoff game, being deep in the playoffs with a first-round bye, all of that, the same core was kind of here, but when you're trying to come in with a different personality, whether it's Harbaugh and then you bring in Cam Cameron and all of these different personalities, then things start to kind of tweak a little bit. That's the kind of what happened to our team. Now everything is caught up and that goes back to what I'm talking about that chemistry and the camaraderie between offense, special teams and defense," he said.

"Now everything catches up with each other because you bring a totally different personality in."

Injuries to Smith and Boller gave Flacco the job by default.

He kept the job through maturity and talent, the former of which impressed the Ravens veterans the most.

Rookie runners Ray Rice and LeRon McClain, along with veteran Willis McGahee, smoothed Flacco's Sundays by giving him a steamroller running game.

HEALTHY AGAIN

"You get all of these young guys and there's no push-pull," Lewis said. "They just come right onto it."

The defense, healthy again, regained its stature atop the league standings.

When the Ravens returned to Dolphin Stadium on Oct. 19 and pounded the Dolphins 27-13, that strange Dec. 16, 2007, afternoon couldn't seem longer ago or perhaps in a different reality.

That's the way the Dolphins feel about it, too.

Dolphins tight end David Martin, asked about the feeling of that one win, said, "I tell you what -- it won't feel better than winning Sunday."

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