Football in Baltimore

History and Memorabilia

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Special Bonus Chapter
Page 4

The Ravens defense was keyed to notch a fifth shutout when the sputtering Browns came to town on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Former Brown-turned-Raven Ernest Byner was honored as the first member of the Ravens Ring of Honor. The Ravens Director of Player Development finished 16th on the all-time NFL rushing list and was an inspirational player in 14 seasons in Cleveland, Washington, and the last two in Baltimore.

Any thoughts of a shutout against Cleveland ended early when the Browns drove 86 yards for a touchdown on the opening drive. That was it for Cleveland, though, as the Ravens romped 44-7, holding the punchless Browns to just 112 total yards and five first downs. Take away the 86 Cleveland garnered on the opening drive and the Browns mustered only 26 yards in more than three quarters against the suffocating Ravens defense. Jamal Lewis went over the 1,000-yard mark in rushing with 170 yards on 30 carries. At 9-4, the Ravens entered the bye week in great position to nail down at least a wild-card against their next opponent, the 1-12 Chargers at PSINet Stadium. During the bye week Billick levied his first fine for violating the "P" word rule. Tony "Goose" Siragusa was fined $500, $400 for talking about the playoffs on national television and another $100 for discussing it on his weekly radio show.

Rested and refreshed from the bye week, the Ravens won their fifth straight game and nailed down a playoff berth in the process by beating San Diego 24-3 at a sold-out PSINet Stadium. The NFL's top rated defense held the Chargers to 128 total yards, causing five turnovers in the process. Before the game, instead of the offense or defense being introduced, Ravens owner Art Modell, in recognition of his 40 years of NFL ownership, was introduced, with Shannon Sharpe and Ray Lewis escorting him through a tunnel of Baltimore players. Billick ended the ban on talking about the playoffs, saying, "we might have to use 'Festivus Maximus' for the Super Bowl. It's okay for all of us to think about the Super Bowl. That's what earning the playoffs gives you the right to do." The term "Festivus" had been substituted for "playoffs" by some of the players and the term really caught on in the Baltimore area.

Arizona was the next to fall as the Ravens won their sixth in a row, suffering no letdown after clinching a playoff berth, surviving in the desert, 13-7. While the offense struggled, (Trent Dilfer mustered only 70 yards in the air), the defense produced four turnovers, including two takeaways inside the Ravens' ten. Jamal Lewis, the league's top rookie running back, rushed for 126 yards and scored Baltimore's lone touchdown. Matt Stover, the league's top scorer, connected on a pair of 42-yard field goals to give him a remarkable 34 of 37 field goal attempts. The Ravens' road record of 6-2 was one of the best in the league. Brian Billick saw a silver lining in the win. "Having to show the character they did, being on the road and playing a team that was obviously fired up, to do what we had to do in a number of different ways, were things that were of some real value for a team heading into the playoffs."

Pro Bowl balloting was conducted before the final week of the regular season, and the Ravens had five players picked, including kicker Matt Stover and defensive tackle Sam Adams for the first time. Ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden made it for the fourth year in a row and free safety Rod Woodson was elected for the ninth time. Michael McCrary and Shannon Sharpe were voted as alternates. The biggest omission was defensive end Rob Burnett. The 11-year veteran was dominant at his position but failed to get the recognition from his peers.

A Christmas Eve home game with Vinny Testaverde and the Jets completed the regular season, and, despite already qualifying for the playoffs, there was plenty to play for. The Ravens could still win their division, grab a first round bye and home field advantage with a win, coupled with a Tennessee loss to Dallas on Monday night. Plus the league's top ranked defense had a chance to set an NFL record for fewest points allowed in a 16-game season. The Jets had more on the line than the Ravens. A loss would eliminate them from the playoff hunt.

In stark contrast to the week before, the Ravens and Jets hooked up in an old-fashioned shootout with the Ravens winning 34-20. It was their seventh straight win and upped their record to 12-4. The Ravens defense allowed only 165 points, eclipsing the 1986 Bears record of 187. They also allowed only 970 yards on the ground to set a new NFL 16-game standard. Jermaine Lewis tied his own NFL record with two punt returns for touchdowns of 54 and 89 yards. Lewis was playing with a heavy heart, as just 11 days before, his infant son, Geronimo, was delivered stillborn. He and his wife, Imara, were comforted by the concern and compassion displayed by both the Ravens organization and the Baltimore community.

The win over the Jets was also punctuated by Chris McAlister's 98-yard interception return for a touchdown on the last play of the first half. Plus the Baltimore defense forced six turnovers to tie a club record. Testaverde threw the ball 69 times, one pass shy of an NFL record, completing 36 for 481 yards. In some ways it was the same old Vinny as he tossed two first-quarter TD passes and three second-quarter interceptions. Once again Trent Dilfer struggled, but the defense and special teams made up for it.

With Tennessee beating Dallas on the last Monday night game, the Ravens were slated to host the 11-5 Denver Broncos in an AFC Wild Card on New Year's Eve. Denver was 11-5, had won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998, and featured, according to Brian Billick, "the best offense in the league right now." Denver was the only AFC team that ranked in the top ten in both rushing and passing. The Ravens had to prepare for either the injured Brian Griese or backup Gus Ferotte at quarterback.

Baltimore was in a football frenzy in anticipation of its first NFL playoff game since the epic six-quarter loss to Oakland at Memorial Stadium on Christmas Eve 1977. The game shaped up as a battle between Denver's powerful offense, averaging 413 yards and 30 points per game against the Ravens smash-mouth defense, allowing only 10 points and 248 yards a game, just 61 on the ground. Added to the drama was the fact that the Broncos had been a playoff nemesis for Art Modell. In 1986, '87, and '89, the Broncos beat Modell's Browns in the AFC Championship games.

The game would also pit the top two rookie running backs. Jamal Lewis had rushed for 1,364 yards and six touchdowns in the regular season, while Mike Anderson, a Utah grad who had returned to college after a four-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, had rushed for 1,500 yards and 15 TDs. Said Lewis: "I just want to come out a winner. I just want to go in, do my job and hopefully contribute to a win. That's my main focus. I'm not competing against another running back. I'm competing against their defense." Ray Lewis summed up his feelings this way; "This is what you work for. This is what training camp is for. This is what all the blood, sweat and tears are for and when all is said and done, you want to be playing for something like this."

Even though the Ravens were the hottest team in football, the Broncos were still installed the favorite, which irked Trent Dilfer. "We've won seven football games in a row. People are still treating us like we just came out of some slump. We are a really good football team, and we're going to play good this week. This is a great time for this city, for this franchise, for this football team."

Once again the Ravens shocked the doubters and proved that great defense wins out over great offense, humbling the Broncos 21-3 before a record crowd of 69,638 on a gusty day that saw the chill factor dip to five degrees. "Dilfer's Destiny" again played a role. Late in the second quarter, Trent flipped a swing pass to running back Jamal Lewis, but the ball glanced off him up in the air and, fortuitously, into the hands of former Bronco Shannon Sharpe, who, after fullback Sam Gash cleared the way by flattening Bill Romanowski, raced 58 yards down the sideline to give Baltimore a 14-3 halftime lead. In commenting about the play afterwards, Sharpe said he was "in the right place at the right time. Actually, I was in the wrong place at the right time." Sharpe was supposed to run a 10-yard hitch, but cut his pattern short by five yards. At first it looked like defensive back Terrell Buckley would pick off the pass, but Lewis hit him at the last second and Sharpe caught it instead.

Denver's high-flying offense crossed the 50-yard line just once, managing only 177 total yards. The loss snapped the Bronco string of seven straight playoff wins and propelled the Ravens into the Divisional playoffs against their old nemesis, Tennessee. The Raven offense wasn't spectacular, but didn't turn the ball over and controlled the clock. Dilfer passed for 130 yards, 58 of it on the touchdown pass to Sharpe.

The Ravens were looking more and more like the team to beat. If they were to become the second straight AFC Central wild-card team to reach the Super Bowl, they would have to eliminate the team that did it the year before, the Tennessee Titans, on the Titans' home turf. The fact that the Ravens were the only team to beat Tennessee in Adelphia Coliseum, the 24-23 thriller in November, was a huge confidence booster. Because of the big yardage total the Jets amassed in the final regular season game, the Ravens defense slipped to second overall behind Tennessee. That didn't sit well with a proud unit that surrendered only 165 points all season.

While Dilfer bashers were waiting for the old Trent to show up, others were calling the Ravens' gamble on Dilfer the best offseason signing in the league. In Tampa Bay, everything was on Dilfer's shoulders. In Baltimore, he was just one cog in the motor.

At Tennessee, the special teams part of the engine kicked into gear, and the defense was once again stifling, as the opportunistic Ravens scored two improbable fourth-quarter touchdowns on returns to break a 10-10 tie and win 24-10, thrusting the upstart "Purple Gang" from Baltimore into the AFC Championship game the following week at Oakland.

Special teams player and reserve defensive back Anthony Mitchell scored the touchdown to break the tie after defensive lineman Keith Washington blocked Al Del Greco's 37-yard field goal attempt ("Automatic Al" missed three more field goals, including one that hit the upright). It was Washington's second deflection of the day. Mitchell picked up the ball on his own 10 and rambled 90 yards upfield for the touchdown. Less than six minutes later, middle linebacker Ray Lewis picked off a Steve McNair pass and scampered 50 yards for the score. It was Lewis' first career touchdown and helped nail shut the coffin of the favored Titans.

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Ted Patterson with photography by Edwin H. Remsberg and a Foreword by Raymond Berry $33.00 hardcover 978-0-8018-6424-7 (16 ctn qty) 2000 304 pp. 190 halftones and 48 4-color photographs

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