BALTIMORE — On the bright, slightly breezy afternoon of Nov. 2, 1997, the professional relationship between the Jets and the Baltimore Ravens was born. Sixty degrees, relative humidity of 93 percent, and a full house at the old Meadowlands to watch the ninth game of Bill Parcells’ tenure in green.
Vinny Testaverde — still a Raven — drove Baltimore down the field for a tying touchdown in the fourth quarter, but John Hall ended things in overtime from 37 yards out and the Jets had a 19-16 win, a 6-3 mark and there hadn’t been a giddier time among Jets faithful in quite a long time.
That was the first time the Jets ever beat the Ravens.
It is also the only time the Jets ever have beaten the Ravens.
The Jets, we know, made their bones and their reputation thanks to the city of Baltimore, thanks to beating the mighty Colts in Super Bowl III. Soon thereafter, they became tenants of the same division — the AFC East — and playing 27 times, with the Colts taking a small measure of revenge, winning 15 of those games.
It has been the Ravens, however, who have answered whatever ancient residue of disappointment might still linger near the Inner Harbor. How do we put this nicely? The Ravens own the Jets. The Ravens stone the Jets. The Ravens have beaten the Jets with Joe Flacco and Trent Dilfer — their two Super Bowl winning quarterbacks — under center, and with Eric Zeier and Anthony Wright calling signals.
The Ravens beat the Jets like a drum early in New York’s second-best season ever, Parcells’ second year of 1998, which wound up 12-4 but sat at 0-2 after the Ravens drilled the Jets 24-10 in the home opener. The Super Bowl-bound Ravens beat the Jets two years later when they had nothing to play for and the Jets had everything to play for, racing out to a quick 14-0 lead before crumbling on the season’s final day.
The Ravens won the season opener of what was probably the Jets’ third best season, 2010, a 10-9 squeaker that was also the Green’s first-ever regular season game at MetLife Stadium. A year later, they provided a blueprint a year that would soon be religiously copied of how to baffle Mark Sanchez, stalking him all across a 34-17 Sunday night game in Baltimore forcing two fumbles that were returned for touchdowns and inducing a pick-six for good measure, too.
So, yes: this hasn’t been a kind rivalry for the Jets.
And that’s despite the fact that across the past few years, the teams have mirrored each other thanks to the presence of Rex Ryan on the Jets sideline, Ryan having had a hand in four of the Ravens’ seven wins since ’98, with some help from a slew of Baltimore imports from Jim Leonhard and Bart Scott to the latest import, Ed Reed, one of the cornerstone names in Ravens history.
So it is into this cauldron the Jets will step this afternoon, when they try to do as they have done all year, to follow a loss with a win, to nudge themselves a thin game over .500 before ever having spent a second south of it. It will be an enormous task even if these Ravens are barely a whisker of the team that won it all in February, are themselves 4-6 and navigating a slipper path to retain playoff relevance.
“I spent 10 great years there, but this is my team,” Ryan said earlier this week, recalling his time on the Other Side. “This is my team. I’ll always cherish my years I had there, without question. I had a lot of fond memories there. There are a lot of people in that building that I learned a lot from and some of those are guys that helped me get in this position today. So, I’ll always be thankful and grateful for that.”
Sunday, he would be more grateful to dance out of the way of an imposing piece of history. Since the first encounter, quoth the Ravens: nevermore.