BALTIMORE - The Baltimore Ravens didn’t have Ray Lewis on Sunday. They don’t have a playoff-caliber team anymore and they didn’t have much in the way of offense.
But the one thing the Ravens still have is the Tennessee Titans’ number – which is now five and counting after Sunday’s 13-12 victory at Ravens Stadium.
The loss ended the Titans’ five-game winning streak, dropping them to 6-5 overall and out of first place, as Indianapolis knocked off Denver Sunday night.
Sunday’s loss to the Ravens was in some ways a lot like the Titans’ other four failures against Baltimore the past three seasons. Tennessee was derailed by an opportunistic Baltimore team that lost big on the stat sheet, but won virtually every critical play in the ballgame.
Many of the names and faces were changed on Sunday for the Ravens, but the scheme and the result were still the same. The Baltimore Ravens are still a riddle the Tennessee Titans have yet to figure out.
That was evident even to a Titans newcomer like safety Lance Schulters, who was among Tennessee’s most vocal players in the post-game locker room.
“That’s without question. This is a new year. I wasn’t playing last year. I could care less what the [expletive] happened last year,” Schulters said. “This year is a new team. It seems like we didn’t play to win. It seems like we played not to lose. We should have blown those guys out. We should have killed them. It shouldn’t have even been [expletive] close. You know what I’m saying, man? We played not to lose, but it’s a team thing. It’s the whole team.”
Actually, this one could be laid more at the feet of the special teams, which misfired on the first series with a blocked punt return for a touchdown, and the offense, which, as per usual against Baltimore, self-destructed with four turnovers.
After their latest loss to the Ravens, some Titans even admitted that, yes, perhaps the Ravens are a mental stumbling block for Tennessee.
“You would think there would be, considering we’ve lost five straight games to them,” said running back Eddie George, who had 61 yards on 16 carries, but spent much of the fourth quarter benched in favor of Robert Holcombe. “It’s just one of those deals where we came in and had opportunities, and just didn’t get it done.”
That has been a familiar refrain for the Titans in their futility against the Ravens, and it began early on Sunday when Ed Reed raced around Rich Coady on Tennessee’s first punt, blocked it, scooped it up and ran 11 yards for a 7-0 Ravens lead just 1:01 into the game.
It would turn out to be the game’s only touchdown, but not because the Titans did not have opportunities. Tennessee ventured into Ravens’ territory six times, but came away with only four Joe Nedney field goals, and fought an uphill battle throughout the game after Reed’s blocked punt, the first against the Titans franchise since 1996.
“We managed to lose this about any way you can today,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. “Special teams with our first blocked punt in a number of years for a touchdown. When you can’t score touchdowns it’s hard to win, even though your defense didn’t give up any touchdowns. It was not our best effort.”
Evidence of that was everywhere, and even when the Titans did make something good happen, a bad play or bad break served to ruin it.
The Titans mounted a strong drive on their second offensive series, going 57 yards in eight plays to the Ravens four. However, on third-and-goal Bart Scott intercepted a Steve McNair pass intended for Drew Bennett in the end zone.
On the very next series, the Titans had seemingly retaken momentum when Andre Dyson stepped in front of Travis Taylor and returned a Jeff Blake pass 28 yards for a touchdown. But, as seems to happen against their house of horrors, the touchdown was nullified when Keith Bulluck was flagged for roughing Blake on the play on a questionable call.
“I did make contact with the quarterback, but I pulled up as I made contact with him,” Bulluck said. “I looked at the ref and said, ‘Ref, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ He just shook his head.”
But not nearly as much as the Titans were shaking theirs over their play Sunday. McNair was plagued by three interceptions, two critical overthrows of a wide open Derrick Mason – one that would’ve been a touchdown – and a fumbled exchange from center that led to a Matt Stover field goal and a 10-0 Ravens lead.
From there, the Titans got two Nedney kicks in the first half to close within four, but wound up in the end getting no closer than the final one-point score, adding two more field goals in the second half. On the final Nedney kick, a 21-yarder with 4:33 to play, the Titans elected to take the points instead of going for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 3.
“It was a field possession game and I needed the points,” Fisher explained.
However, after stopping the Ravens, the Titans wound up with the ball at their own 9 with 2:44 to play. From there, the drive only made it as far as the 33, before fizzling when Frank Wycheck could not corral a fourth-and-2 pass while diving for the ball.
With that, the short-handed Ravens (missing both Ray Lewis and cornerback Chris McAlister), celebrated another win over a team they continue to rule both mentally and on the scoreboard.
“It’s a game we should win, but we just let it slip away,” defensive tackle John Thornton said. “This team has beat us five times straight, and whenever you do that, I guess they have the blueprint to beat us. It’s been working the last five times.”
For the Titans, those five times have been nearly a carbon copy. Tennessee outgained Baltimore in total offense 402 to 199. They did not yield a defensive touchdown against a Ravens offense that was, at times, awful. But four turnovers and the blocked punt made for another horrific sequel for the Titans against the Ravens.
“It’s a heartbreaking loss to us,” said McNair, who was 21 of 43 for 281 yards and three picks. “This is a league that you’ve got to have amnesia sometimes and just forget about yesterday and go on.”
That’s something that, at least as far as the Ravens are concerned, has been difficult for the Titans to do.
Injury update
Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson left the game in the fourth quarter with an injured hamstring after making a 40-yard catch that led to Nedney’s final field goal.
Also, Fisher said Coady suffered a hamstring injury in the game.
By the numbers
George wound up four yards shy of breaking Earl Campbell’s franchise record of 8,574 yards. George rushed just twice for zero yards in the fourth quarter, giving way to Holcombe, who finished the game with 46 yards on 10 carries.
“I just had to play cheerleader and encourage my teammates and watch them go to war without me,” George said. “What else can I do? I’m not going to mope about it or bicker about it.”
Also, McNair’s franchise-record streak of 23 games in a row with a touchdown pass went by the boards. Fittingly enough, the last time McNair did not have a TD pass was last year’s game in Baltimore.