With a pair of games in the headlights against woeful Cincinnati and Cleveland the following two weeks, spirits brightened upon arriving back in Baltimore for a shortened week of work.
Everything that had gone wrong the previous week went right against the Bengals at PSI Net Stadium the following Sunday. The Ravens jumped on the Bengals early, allowing them just four yards of rushing on the day and seven first downs, en route to a 37-0 thrashing that would cost Cincinnati head coach Bruce Coslet his job the next day.
The Ravens’ defense, embarrassed by allowing Jay Fiedler and the Dolphins a pair of touchdowns amidst foul conditions, would take out its vengeance on the Bengals. The unit forced four turnovers, including a pair of interceptions by Rod Woodson and Duane Starks, and added four sacks.
The biggest hit of the game – and perhaps the season – came early in the second quarter when defensive end Rob Burnett got through the line of scrimmage untouched and planted highly-touted franchise quarterback Akili Smith into the stadium turf with a thunderous thud.
“I heard the air come out of him,” Burnett would say after the game. “I hope he’s alright.”
NFL Films cameras would later catch the Bengals’ offensive unit on the sideline in complete and utter confusion as to whose assignment Burnett was on that play. Smith, who suffered a concussion on that play, would leave the game and be replaced by former Ravens quarterback Scott Mitchell who didn’t have any more success against the Ravens’ defense than he had in running the team’s offense a year earlier.
“Everything we did worked,” Billick would say. “That Burnett hit on Akili said one thing to them. It said, We’re not only going to beat you, but we might do physical, bodily damage today. It was a helluva hit.”
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The game was also a coming out party for Jamal Lewis, who rushed for 116 yards on 25 carries, chewing up the clock for a large stretch in the fourth quarter as the Ravens played out the string.
“I think Coach Billick wanted to prove that we can run the ball,” Lewis would tell me at The Barn the following night. “By the third quarter they kind of wore down and kind of tired out just trying to keep it together. The defensive backs were arm tackling, and I think I kind of got them early and just kind of broke their will. That’s my mentality. That’s what I try to do. That’s how you want it to be in the third and fourth quarter. That’s where you get most of your yards and how you stack it up.”
The loss the week before was also bothering Lewis, who wasn’t used to losing while at the University of Tennessee where he had won a national championship in his sophomore season.
“Everybody has that wake-up call,” Lewis said. “I think Miami was a wake-up call for us and we know we can’t just get relaxed and just lay down. We’ve got to go out every week and just play and play hard.”
Two things happened late in the game that afternoon against Cincinnati that would have repercussions far into the championship season.
When Obafemi Ayanbadejo crossed the goal line on a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:39 remaining in the game to put the Ravens up, 34-0, it would be the last sniff of a six-point play they would have for more than a month.
After that score, with the game already won, Billick sent out his first-team defense to finish the game. With linebacker Ray Lewis inciting the rest of the squad to not give up the shutout, the Ravens clearly were sending a signal to the rest of the league. They were not good guys. They were not about being popular. Like the big cats on the African Serengeti, they were about going for the kill and finishing the job. And they did.
8Four games into the season and about to head for the road for three consecutive games in Cleveland, Jacksonville and Washington, the Ravens were 3-1 with a pair of shutouts.
Continuing the dominance they showed against Cincinnati the week before, the Ravens’ defense showed no mercy at Cleveland Browns Stadium the following Sunday.
The Ravens allowed the Browns just 11 first downs on the day and 230 yards of offense. Three Ravens – Lewis, Woodson and Starks – managed interceptions off Browns quarterback Tim Couch, and despite the 12-0 win and second consecutive shutout of the season, the day would be remembered for only one thing.
“It was the beginning of the drought,” Billick said.
The drought that would last almost 21 quarters, span for six weeks and put the Ravens on the nightly news for ineptitude almost didn’t get its start that day in Cleveland.
Early in the second quarter with a 3-0 lead, Jamal Lewis crossed the goal line on a 2-yard run that was nullified by a holding penalty. Even with the penalty and the lack of a touchdown, the Ravens’ offense was productive against Cleveland, holding the ball for an almost inconceivable 10:04 period of time to begin the second half, scoring on a 22-yard field goal by Stover after driving 76 yards on 19 plays.
“We controlled the game in every area,” Billick would later say. “Offensively, it was a prototype of what you want to do on the road. Control the clock, move the ball. We did everything but score, so there was no real reason for alarm.”
8The Ravens ended the game with a time of possession advantage of 36:44 to 23:16 and both Jamal Lewis (13 rushes for 86 yards) and Priest Holmes (20 rushes for 82 yards) had banner days in a shared rushing role.
In their second game of the road swing, the Ravens had another ESPN Sunday Night special, this time in the swamp of Jacksonville, where the franchise had never won.
Sure, the big come-from-behind win three weeks earlier had built some confidence, but this was a desperate opponent. The Jags, fresh off a 14-2 season when they hosted and lost the AFC Championship Game, had gotten off to a rough start. They were 2-3 coming into the game and had been hit by a series of injuries on the defensive side of the ball. Whereas the previous year, the Ravens were battling the mighty Jaguars for defensive supremacy in the NFL, there was no question who was in charge as they entered Alltel Stadium that evening.
Brimming with confidence from two consecutive shutouts and three in their first five games, the defense set the tone early. A Travis Taylor fumble on the Ravens’ second possession put the defense on a short field, but the unit responded by allowing Mark Brunell and the Jags just two yards on four plays before kicker Steve Lindsay kicked a 49-yard field goal to give the Jags a 3-0 advantage.
The Jaguars wouldn’t score again until deep into the fourth quarter when the game was decided.
