T AMPA – The Ravens have made it easy for themselves to be viewed as classic young bullies, only one Trent Dilfer interception, a few different John Fox looks or 10 first-period Giant points away from a crawling search of the Raymond James Stadium grass tonight for the chip knocked from their shoulders.
They have talked bigger than most teams that have gotten to this point. And are less balanced than most of them, too. If the Giant offense is capable of even two touchdowns tonight, you wonder how Baltimore can counter against a very confident defense, albeit quieter than the one whose members proclaim it the best of all time.
Brian Billick comes off like a guy who puts everything on a schedule and, overly impressed with himself for his good fortune in meeting it, is cruising for the comeuppance that a lot of young head coaches receiver after an initial burst of success. Ray Lewis, contemptuous of the authority that put him on trial for his life, is nobody to whom you would want to live next door.
If an organization’s attitude starts at its very the top, you can extend the Ravens’ basic arrogance to the owner, who ran a well-supported team into financial ruin in another city, refused to do the honorable thing and sell it, and became a pirate projecting himself a superhero to a new locale. You want to throw up the way Baltimore throws itself at Art Modell’s feet.
The team from New York almost never is cast as America’s team, but this time it is the good guys, no question, in comparison to the swaggering rowdies named after the work of a drug-addicted poet and short story writer.
A spanking of these punks would be soul cleansing and even better than that, make the Giants champions of the world tonight, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the Ravens unravel when the Giants shove back. There is more to Billick’s boys than meets our rolling eyes.
“I think the media is reading way, way, too much into all of this,” said wide receiver Qadry Ismail. “I don’t think this quote, unquote brashness, or as one columnist called it ‘borderline cocky’ [characterization] is really accurate.
“It’s not about disrespecting them or trying to make a false bravado. We’re not edgy, we’ve been having great practices for two weeks.
“This quote might not make the air because it is not what everybody wants to hear. Everybody wants to hear Shannon [Sharpe] say something cute or hear him defend Ray [Lewis] or have Tony Siragusa say something. But while we’re having fun, while we’re confident in what we do, at the same time we respect the Giants and what they’re all about.”
The Ravens didn’t upset Tennessee, the pre-playoff consensus favorite to win it all, on the road by not understanding what they were up against. And they didn’t go into Oakland as underdogs and dominate the AFC Championship by feeling no pain, rather by inflicting it. This defense, tops in points allowed in a 16-game season in NFL history, has killed quarterbacks by dominating offensive lines that are younger and more athletic than the Giants’, if not as likable or as good a story.
Whether the Baltimore defense is the best ever is a prematurely silly debate, what with no Super Bowls championships down and four to go until the Ravens can talk about themselves in the same breath as the Steel Curtain. But when pressed, most of the important Baltimore defenders concede that. And besides, being better than the 1976 Steelers has no importance relative to being better than the 2000 Giants tonight.
What helps give the Ravens as intimidating a defense as has been put together in the NFL in a long time, is the challenge they have taken to be the best, whatever means they use to express it.
Billick primes the pump of the kids full of themselves perhaps dangerously close to the bursting point, but this is a team with mature leadership that makes certain the players play for each other.
“I don’t think we have any selfish guys,” said Siragusa. “We’re not afraid to sacrifice. I eat up a blocker so Ray can make a play.
“The Titans ran an 80-yard drive on their first series and Ray came into the huddle on their next possession and said, ‘I don’t see no smile. You guys aren’t having fun, that’s the problem.’ We all perked up and got to work.”
Lewis, a fanatically-driven player and leader is a monster capable of putting Tiki Barber out of the game, making the Giants completely reliant on passes the Ravens will know are coming. Rod Woodson, a member of the NFL’s all-time all-star team, still plays a wise and more than competent safety.
On the other side of the ball, Sharpe talks trash to the media in an ongoing audition for post-football work, but also speaks sense to the younger Ravens. And he has backed it up with huge plays in every playoff victory.
The quarterback is no great shakes, but the offensive line, anchored by the best left tackle standing, Jonathan Ogden, is going to keep Dilfer from being overwhelmed and Jamal Lewis from being run over.
Whether it was necessary to ad nauseum state the sense of mission, or maturely reflect it as have the Giants, the passion exists in this Baltimore team regardless, along with the better track record for forcing turnovers. Like in almost every NFL game, those will tell the story tonight.
“Swarming bees, killer bees,” said defensive end Michael McCrary, no kid either, an NFLer for nine years. “We’re something you can put together on PlayStation. This defense is awesome. Sometimes you’ll just sit back and it’s hard to believe the talent, the speed and the camaraderie this defense has.”
The Ravens really want to make the world as impressed as they are with themselves, too “In our minds we’re the best defense there ever was and now we’re trying to prove it to everyone else,” said Siragusa.
And they will by making one or two more big plays on defense than the Giants, a very good team up against one sincerely determined to prove itself a great one.
Jay Greenberg appears regularly in New York Post Sports Week.