“This year, I’ve never been nervous about Justin Tucker kicking a field goal,” said Haloti Ngata. “I think everyone can tell that he has a lot of confidence, and he kicks really well. I think, with that, people just believe in him.”
Aside from the continuing Last Ride of Ray Lewis, the biggest focus of the week was sure to once again be on Joe Flacco, who was 18-of-24 for 331 yards with three TD throws and, more importantly, no interceptions in Denver on a 5-degree day with swirling wind. He was sacked just once, and his quarterback rating was 116.2. Flacco hadn’t thrown an interception since the Chris Harris debacle vs. the Broncos in Baltimore on December 16th.
And once again, the ancient, absurd debate about Flacco’s lack of emotion and calmness was brought forth by the national media – and piled onto by the Boston hacks – as to whether he was worthy of going to a Super Bowl. Sports Illustrated put him on the cover with this phrase:
DEAR JOE:
Last Weekend You Took Down Peyton.
On Sunday You Get Brady – And the Chance Once and for All, to Rewrite Your Legacy.
All the Best,
8
The Football Gods
And for Orioles fans there was even a bonus above the fold: EXCLUSIVE: Demise of the Red Sox Empire
For a Baltimore sports fan, it was almost like a daily double.
“I’m not a psychologist, so I don’t think so much about his demeanor and how it applies to his performance,” Harbaugh said. “But, it’s got to be a good thing to be even-keeled at that position. And, when you look at the guys who have played the position over the years – you can go back and look at all the great quarterbacks – not too many of the great ones didn’t have that. They managed to slow it down in the biggest situations and apply fundamentals and technique and reads. It’s a very complicated position to play; there’s a lot going on. So, guys have to do that.”
What some thought as a weakness was viewed as a strength by those around him. His best friend Dennis Pitta spoke to the consistency of Flacco’s demeanor. “Joe is always kind of the same to me, and that’s what we love about him,” Pitta said. “He’s even-keeled, he’s always poised, he stays confident, and we have 100-percent trust in him – especially in the critical moments. In these critical games in the playoffs, we know he’s going to come up huge for us.”
Anquan Boldin, as a 10-year veteran and the only player on the team besides Ray Lewis who had played in a Super Bowl, had always been effusive in his praise of Flacco. Boldin played with a myriad of quarterbacks in Arizona, but spent four years catching balls thrown by Kurt Warner, who will get Hall of Fame votes when the time comes.
“I’ve never played with a guy with that much talent; I’m talking about physically,” Boldin said. “I think Joe is able to make any throw on the field. Talk about making big-time throws, the deep ball, he does it all. He already has our respect. I’m around the guy every day; I see what he does on a daily basis. So, I think he has the respect in this locker room.”
8Flacco, who endures most scrutiny with a shrug of the shoulders and an I’d-rather-show-you-then-tell-you smile, had the track record of five straight January playoff appearances to show that he was an “elite” quarterback. Even though Bisciotti offered to pay him as the fourth best quarterback in the NFL the previous summer, Flacco felt like the scoreboard would be enough evidence in the end.
“We win a lot of football games around here, and this is actually the third time I’m standing up here in five years getting ready to play in an AFC Championship Game,” he said.
And Flacco knew as much as the scrutiny and the evitable accountability for winning or losing this time in New England would be tied to him. He was smart enough to realize it was the offensive line’s strong play against the Colts and then the Broncos that had allowed the Ravens to get back into this rarified air.
The new-look offensive line was allowing Flacco time to throw and creating monster holes for Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce to roam.
“Our offensive line, they are the heart of our team,” said wide receiver Torrey Smith. “They like to give the quarterbacks, the receivers, and the running backs all of the credit, but if it wasn’t for those guys, we wouldn’t have anything. When they play well, we go well. We build off of them, and they build off of us. There is nothing like going back to the huddle and hearing a play call where we know we are going to have a chance. [Marshal] Yanda and [Matt] Birk are in there fired up like, ‘Come on. We got your back.’ That’s what we’re all about as a team. We love our big fellas, and if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be this far.”
No one knew more about the off-the-field adversity of the team than Smith, who was still in a bit of a fog over the loss of his little brother, which happened on the day the Ravens played the Patriots in September. He had some deep associations with New England and loved the way his team rallied at the lowest points of 2012 to be in this spot yet again in 2013.
“I think we’re definitely a resilient team,” Torrey said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with me individually. Obviously, I have my own personal loss that my team helped me get through, but that is just how we are. You look at the games that we have been in and the games that we have come out on top … Even in the games that we lost, we never laid down for anyone. We continued to fight, and that’s just how we are and who we are as Ravens.
8“I think we are definitely battle-tested, and I think it starts at the top with our leaders, coaches, and players. Everyone’s a fighter. Everyone has heart. When you have leaders like we have on our team, it is hard to not want to follow them and be a fighter and never throw the towel in. We have been through it all – whether on the field or off the field – and we became stronger for it. Our coaches always say, ‘Iron sharpens iron,’ and I think we are definitely a testament to that.”
Ngata, who had played through three different injuries during the regular season and was still making plays without Suggs, Lewis, and McClain in the mix at various points, said the closeness of the team is what held it together.
“I don’t think a lot of people expected us to be here,” Ngata said. “For us to overcome a lot of things, not only injuries but some family problems with Torrey [Smith]’s family, everything that has happened with our team, I think we all just understand that we’re a family here, and we can lean on each other and depend on each other. I think we are such a close team here now that we just always went against the naysayers [of] our team and have overcome a lot of difficulties.”
Ngata knew all about family and had great empathy for teammates who lost loved ones. Many Ravens players had experienced a life with just one parent but Ngata had lost both of his parents by the time he was drafted in 2006.
Etuini Holati Ngata was born January 21, 1984 in Inglewood, California near Los Angeles. His family is of Tongan ancestry and he spent his formative years in Salt Lake City and was considered the No. 2 prospect in the country as a defensive lineman coming from Highland High in Utah in 2002. He selected Oregon over Nebraska, Washington and BYU. As a Mormon, Provo was a local and realistic choice but he decided to go to Eugene and play in the Pac-10. In December of his freshman year, his father Solomone was killed in a single-truck accident. The following fall he blew his ACL covering a punt at Oregon but returned to become a top prospect in the 2006 NFL Draft. After declaring himself eligible as a junior to enter the workforce to support his mother, Olga, who was on kidney dialysis as a diabetic, she died weeks later in January 2006.
Stout against the run and a former rugby player who has great athleticism for his 340-pound frame, Ngata was the No. 12 pick in the draft and played so well in his first five seasons that the Ravens rewarded him with a 5-year, $61 million deal in 2011.
Ngata struggled physically throughout the 2012 season but had been through all of the wars in purple. Only Lewis, Reed and Suggs arrived before him in Owings Mills. Quiet by nature, he understood grief and pain and overcoming adversity.
He had been in the midst of it all year just trying to get onto the field every Sunday with a body full of nagging injuries. Ngata was extremely determined to finish out this season and get past the Brady hurdle. It was his seventh year in the league and he had played into the second week of January in six of those years. Ngata was tired of losing in the playoffs and realized that nothing in the past mattered.
