NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It was a word you wouldn't dare call a Baltimore Ravens defensive player -- not if you didn't know them or, more important, want to live too long.
Yet there it was flying through the air Saturday night in their locker room following the Ravens' 13-10 victory against the Tennessee Titans in an AFC divisional playoff game.
What was said means soft and it can't be said at the family dinner table. You get the drift. The man who said it was linebacker Jarrett Johnson and he fired it at fellow linebacker Terrell Suggs because Suggs left the game in the first half with a shoulder injury.
"You -----," Johnson said.
Suggs stopped talking to the media for a second, laughed, and then kept on talking.
"Nobody on the outside can do that," Suggs said of the name-calling. "We can do it because we're brothers. You're not allowed to get hurt on this defense. They told me right now, I'm a -----."
And if somebody on the outside said it?
"It'd be a bar fight," Suggs said.
Sort of like the one the Ravens had with the Titans. There were bodies flying everywhere, casualties going off all day long. No one would dare call this Ravens group a nasty name after this one if they were serious.
There isn't a soft player on the defense. They showed that toughness again against the Titans, forcing three turnovers and limiting Tennessee to 10 points, despite giving up an uncharacteristically high 381 yards.
That defensive effort, coupled with two big passing plays and a game-winning 43-yard field goal by Matt Stover with 53 seconds left has the Ravens 60 minutes of good football away from a Super Bowl.
As the sixth seed, they will be trying to duplicate what the New York Giants did last season, winning three consecutive road games to get to the Super Bowl and then win it all. Beating the top seed is a good start, especially since it's the second time that a six seed has defeated the top seed.
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| LenDale White and the Titans face constant harassment from Ed Reed and the Ravens' defense. (US Presswire) |
They're also following history of a different sort, an all-to-familiar history. In 2000, the Ravens were a four seed. That season they went to Nashville and upset the top-seeded Titans. They also went on to win the Super Bowl
That Super Bowl was in Tampa. The one coming up in three weeks is as well.
That 2000 team ran the ball, made some timely pass plays, and played as good a defense as the modern era has seen, setting a scoring record for a 16-game season by limiting opponents to 165 points.
So what does this team do? It runs the ball, makes some timely throws and plays great defense.
The footprints they're following are already in the sand.
"I don't like to do the comparison because those guys are the greatest ever and they have a Lombardi Trophy," Suggs said. "The only way to compare this team to that team is if we finish it."
Two more victories and they are there. The will play the winner of Sunday's San Diego-Pittsburgh game on the road. Whoever they get will be getting a big dose of Ray Lewis and that defense.
Tennessee moved the ball on the Ravens through the air, getting 281 passing yards from Kerry Collins. But he was picked once and the Titans lost two fumbles in scoring territory.
The first came with the score 7-7 at the end of the half when Johnson punched the ball free from LenDale White at the Baltimore 17 and it was recovered by safety Jim Leonhard. The second one came with the Ravens leading 10-7 in the fourth quarter and the Titans driving.
With a second-and-9 at the Baltimore 13, Collins hit tight end Alge Crumpler on a short delay route. Crumpler appeared on his way to a first down, but linebacker Bart Scott and Leonhard combined to force the fumble, which Fabian Washington recovered.
"I had to come up there and throw everything in there because it was my fault he was wide open like that," Scott said. "I tried to make up for it."
The Titans eventually tied it up on a 27-yard field goal by Rob Bironas with 4:23 left, but that set the stage for rookie quarterback Joe Flacco to lead the Ravens on a game-winning drive.
He hit Todd Heap for 23 yards on a third-and-2 play to the Titans' 45. That play should have been blown dead for a delay-of-game penalty, but the officials missed the call. The next big play was a third-and-9 throw Flacco completed to Mark Clayton to put the ball on the 25 and make it a 43-yard field goal instead of a 51-yard try, which Stover nailed with 53 seconds left.
Flacco, who hasn't turned it over in two road playoff games, wasn't special, but he made plays when needed, including a 48-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Mason for Baltimore's only touchdown.
That late-game drive showed just how calm he is as a rookie.
"It's the same as any other drive," Flacco said.
Not for a rookie. Then again, they don't treat him like a rookie.
"There are no more rookies anymore in this locker room," safety Ed Reed said. "That's for only knowing what year you came into the league."
The defense, as expected, closed it out when Collins' fourth-down pass fell to the ground.
"Our philosophy is always the same: They don't score, they don't win," Lewis said.
Lewis and Stover are the only two players who played Sunday who are left from 2000. Lewis said this run has a familiar feel to that one. But nobody wants to say it's the same until the deed is done.
"We're a different team, a different bunch of guys," Reed said. "This is 2009. It's nowhere near 2000. This is a different story. We're not here to compare. It is a different team. It's not the same team, but you can make the comparison."
You can because of that defense. It is a unit playing without three projected opening-day starters in corner Chris McAlister, nose tackle Kelly Gregg and safety Dwan Landry. Yet it is a unit that finished second in scoring defense (15.2 points) and second in total defense during the regular season.
In two playoff games, they have given up 19 points so far. The 2000 unit gave up 13 in its first two playoff games and 3 points in the third.
So this one can't duplicate that success, but that doesn't mean it's not close. It is a unit that features stars and plenty of toughness and an attitude.
"We knew what kind of men we had on our football team," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "Warriors, mighty men, all those thing that you guys chuckle about."
And no ------- (softies).
