But before Harbaugh could consider the “next man up,” he was asked about his emotions regarding Webb’s popularity and the sadness if this were the last time we’d see Ray Lewis in a Ravens uniform, and the suddenness of these major changes for the team moving forward in a season full of hope.
“I would rather not characterize my emotions, because I’m disappointed for those guys,” the head coach said. “It doesn’t matter how I or somebody else feels about it – it’s their thing. These are guys that put so much effort, heart and soul into what they do. Lardarius, yesterday, was distraught. I could see it when I walked on the field on his face. He kind of knew, because he’s been through it before. I just felt like he knew. He was just beside himself. Ray in the locker room afterwards, we didn’t know, but he was worried about it. He said some things about his faith. He goes back to his faith, and he said some things that I’ll never forget. When you face adversity … You look at his situation and what he’s accomplished and what he was hoping to accomplish this year … He’s going to have to accomplish those things in different ways, because that’s the way it’s gone. He puts his faith in providence. That’s where he’s going to go with that. Your heart goes out to those guys.”
With Houston next on the schedule and a healthy Matt Schaub slinging the ball, the Ravens would be asking for a tall order from their “next man up” to find ways to defense Andre Johnson and the rest of the Texans receiving corps at Reliant Stadium in just six days. The Ravens had three young players – one a first-round draft choice – that they believed would compete to earn those snaps on game day by proving on the field that they could compete.
Jimmy Smith was a first-round pick from Colorado in 2011, who’d been nursing a series of injuries since joining the team. Usually young corners need time to adjust the speed and physicality of NFL receivers not to mention how quickly and accurately quarterbacks at this level can deliver the football. Chykie Brown, in his second year, offered great speed and closing ability, but lacked support in the run game. He was improving, but he was going to make mistakes. Smith had more physical ability, but was inconsistent.
The wild card was five-year NFL veteran Corey Graham, who the Ravens coveted as a draft prospect in 2007 from New Hampshire and wound up being drafted by the Chicago Bears with 168th pick of fifth round. Graham signed with Baltimore on March 12, 2012, as a free agent after five years of playing on special teams in the Windy City for Lovie Smith. Newsome knew he needed depth at the cornerback position and when Graham, who went to the 2011 Pro Bowl as a gunner, was available, the Ravens jumped at a chance to add him. Graham was candid: he felt like he didn’t get a chance to play cornerback in Chicago and only wanted an opportunity to be more than a special teamer.
“You always want an opportunity to show what you got,” Graham said. “Over the last couple of years [in Chicago], I’ve been doing special teams, doing really well at it, and sometimes, you tend to get labeled as a special teamer. There’s really nothing you can do about it. I feel like last year when I got an opportunity to play, I played nickel for three games with Chicago, and I ended up with three interceptions in those three-consecutive games. It just seems like I couldn’t get over the hump. … I was just happy to get some new eyes to see me [in Baltimore] and get an opportunity to play. You just try to make the best out of every chance you get.”
Graham was a track star sprinter, a kid from Buffalo’s Turner-Carroll Prep who played football at Division I-AA New Hampshire. “I played against Flacco,” he laughs, telling the story of the 52-49 game in Flacco’s junior year when he returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. Like so many Ravens, he also experienced the harder side of life growing up in the inner city. “A lot of ups and downs and a lot of stuff going on,” Graham said. “Everything wasn’t always peachy and great, so I think it just pushed me to be a harder person. I went through a lot of trials and tribulations but it’s made me a tougher person. I went through everything from my family, to bad injuries, to my brother being incarcerated, people being gone, my father not really involved in my life. It was a lot of stuff, but it’s made me the person I am today.”
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He had a great career at New Hampshire, where he loved going to school, and was disappointed to be 5th round pick. He would have been selected earlier had he not broken his ankle while still choosing to run on his Pro Day. He ran a poor time that seemed to follow him to Chicago, where even when he performed well in spot duty on defense he couldn’t break the lineup. In the NFL, even if you’re the third cornerback – commonly called the “nickel” back, lining up against a third wide receiver – you’re playing 60 percent of the downs.
Unlike Brown or Smith, who were in their second year in the league, Graham had been to a Pro Bowl and thought more like a veteran. He was also getting older and fighting the stigma of only being a special teams player. He chose to not go back to Chicago and Newsome and the Ravens sold him on a chance to compete for a job and do it with a team full of veterans who wanted to win a Super Bowl. He was about to get that chance.
“Corey Graham was a guy that we brought in because he was a special teamer,” Newsome said. “He had been to the Pro Bowl, but when he had played [defense] for the Bears, he had played very good football. Corey Graham is one of the better people, as a person, that I’ve been around. When he came into this building and this locker room, we got better because of Corey as a person. He wanted an opportunity, and we saw some things during the OTA’s and minicamps that he could play. He has the height, weight, and speed that we look for at the position, but then when he got his opportunity, he stepped in.”
Graham loved what he saw in Baltimore from the moment he arrived and saw Webb’s injury as a chance to step up and earn a role as a starter.
“Well, I was with the Chicago Bears for the past five years and coming here and being in Baltimore, I’ve seen that it’s a different group,” Graham said. “It is an amazing group of people here. Guys believe in each other. Guys are accountable. Guys hold each other accountable. Guys trust each other. Guys do well for the guy next to them. It’s just a different group of guys. When you have people on your team like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Matt Birk – guys with so much faith and belief – it pushes you. It helps you be a better person. It helps you play to the best of your ability.”
What all three of these cornerbacks had in common was special teams and their ability to stay on an NFL roster by participating and dominating on kickoffs and punts. Clearly, Harbaugh believed in special teams. As a coach it allows you to fully evaluate a player – if they’re coachable, if they can make plays. You find out if they’re football players, whether they practice hard and give a full effort. Or as Harbaugh would say, “We find guys who love football” or sometimes Harbs simply calls it “ball.”
It was the Ball So Hard University dean Terrell Suggs who became the story of the week as he rumored to be getting closer to playing, but Harbaugh gave no clues in his Monday press conference. Suggs, whose story regarding how he injured his Achilles in Arizona was shrouded in secrecy and questioned universally, had been tweeting for weeks that he would be returning before anyone expected him to be back on the field. He issued the word to not bet against T-Sizzle. Suggs was always crowing about something and no one knew if he was serious.
Now, with a bye coming and the Ravens at 5-1 with Lewis and Webb out and Ngata dinged up, would Suggs be back for the Houston game?
Houston had developed quite a reputation in the ninth months since the cold day in January when the Ravens eliminated them from the NFL playoffs with a less-than-inspiring 20-13 win that advanced Baltimore to the AFC Championship Game in New England. As inspired as the effort was against the Patriots, it was equally as unimpressive the week before in Baltimore when the Texans started a third-string quarterback, T.J. Yates, and managed to hang around all afternoon. Regrouping during the offseason, Houston won their first five games of the 2012 season, including road wins in New York against the Jets and in Denver, before losing at home the previous week to Green Bay at home.
