The 2000 Baltimore Ravens: Best Defense?

Hollia sorry holiday holiday, holiday holiday one. And today we stick in the National Football League by looking back at the year that was the two thousand Baltimore Ravens, a season that started with a cloud of uncertainty and controversy and ended with a debate. Maybe this might be the best defense that we have ever seen in the NFL. I know that's very difficult for you. I know, I know, I know, any buddy, buddy, I know, I know. I

have a list of people that will agree with me. Okay, your members and your brothers and people who lived in Chicago don't count. I have a petition. I think that I made sure before we talked about the Ravens that I got a petition. I loaded up. I got Isabel from down the street. She's very unhappy about this. I got a lot of people who live right outside Wrigley

Field upset about this. Now they're Cup fans, I don't have them, oh well, but but I actually know there's a great bar community there, so I can really get a lot of signatures as there. We're hitting the final call at two in the morning, all right, So I just want to make sure that you all rally around the Bears. I mean, you know, it's the South side for the White Sox. Oh no, everybody rallies around the Bears. Alright, very good. Okay, So with that in mind, we'll get

to the debate coming up later on by podcast. But the year for the two thousand Baltimore Ravens began under a cloud of incredible controversy as Ray Lewis, star linebacker, was involved in a murder charge January thirty one of two thousand, following of the Super Bowl thirty four party in Atlanta. This is when the Rams beat the Tennessee Titans. A fight broke out between Louis and his companions another group of people that resulted in the stabbing deaths of

two people just since Baker and Richard Lawler. Lewis and his two companions Reginald Oakley Joseph Sweeting were questioned by Atlanta police, and eleven days later they were indicted on murder and aggravated assault charges. This fight occurred in the Buckhead Village neighborhood, which is the big downtown area in Atlanta that has seen a lot of activity. The white suit that ray Lewis was wearing the night of the

killings has never been found. The d A said the blood stained suit was probably dumped in a garbage bin outside of fast food restaurant. There was a knife found at the scene, no fingerprints or DNA on it. Lewis subsequently testified that Oakley and Sweeting had bought knives earlier in the Super Bowl week when Lewis was signing autographs, and the blood of one of the victims was found

inside of ray Lewis's limousine. Two weeks into the trial, ray Lewis reached a plea agreement in which the murder charge was dismissed in exchange for his testimony against Oakley and Sweeting. He wound up getting a year's probation, also fine two fifty thousand dollars by the NFL, which was then probably the highest fine levied against someone for something that wasn't involving drugs or or something else like that. So now ray Lewis is okay to play football. Oakley

and Sweeting were acquitted of the charges in June. No other suspects were ever arrested for the incident. This is something that is very high profile that everybody knows about this ray Lewis story. What I can't believe is that this happened and ray Lewis was allowed to play in the NFL this season. He was involved in a murder charge, he negotiated a plea agreement. All of this evidence was out there, and this is back when Paul Tagley was running the NFL and it was hey, whatever you whatever

you do, but you can still play on Sundays. I can't believe that he was allowed to play in the NFL to go right back to play, because if that happened now, he'd be out of the league for at least a couple I'd like to think the NFL would say, hey, you're out of the league for a couple of years because there's protect the Shield, and there's hey, guys who were killed, their blood is in your limousine. What was your involvement in this, which we never know. We have

never known. Even the relatives of the two victims say it's hard to watch ray Lewis, hard to watch him play football because he knows more about these deaths, and no one's ever said anything. I can't believe they would have allowed him to play different NFL under Roger Goodell, it's a much different time and if nothing else, you go on the exempt list and there you sit. I mean part of this is also, look how swiftly it got resolved in terms of getting to a plea agreement. Right.

It happened in an off season, so he was able to get back in. I not often do you have a case move so swiftly either, So I mean that that's kind of an outlier in that regard. But from the NFL perspective undertag lebou and that's just the way they operated, you know, it was as long as you're literally on the field, suited up and ready to go, it didn't matter. And that was one of the things

as Goodell took over, trying to clean it up. Hasn't been imperfect, absolutely hasn't been an unmitigated disaster in certain circumstances, no question about it. But there was at least an attempt too, and I hate the term, but protect the shield to where there is some standard, some code of conduct, uh, to where you're you're held to at least a bit of a higher standard with this, I mean. And it's

always bad, right. It remains something that if you watch any NFL show that Ray Lewis is part of, you're gonna see commentary on social media about it. Just like you know, in terms of Captain c for a Pro Bowl, you have Michael Vick, you know, for for the season. It's the same thing or for the Pro Bowl when it's actually played, but just that same idea that these things still stand and people wanting to get to an answer but also trying to figure out where that fandom stops.

He's allowed to play, he goes back and he has one of the great all time seasons in NFL history, which also I think bears a lot of the brunt of boy nothing ever really happened to this guy, because not only was he able to go back and play, but he goes back and plays is he leads his team to the super Bowl. It's one of the great defenses of all time. And here's ray Lewis a year after Hey, dude, you were involved in a in a

murder to hey, I'm going to Disney World. You know that that's a very difficult optic to be able to go from one year to the next. And hey, he was all we talked about for a while and then it was oh no, now he's playing and now he's a hero. Didn't Trent Jifer actually got to do they I'm going to Disney World tech But yeah, they didn't go to ray Lewis part. But the whole thing wasted. Celebrated DP to Bonham and and especially because this has

become such an historic team. So all this is going on, the Ravens are getting set for their season and they make two big moves, one in draft and one in free agency. They signed Shannon Sharp to play tight end and they draft running back Jamal Lewis out of Tennessee. Brian Billick, the offensive genius that he was, was hired away from the Minnesota Vikings in his second year now with the Baltimore Ravens, and it's kind of odd that he winds up being a guy that wins the Super Bowl.

He was an offensive genius and he wins on the back of one of the greatest defenses ever and an offense that barely scored enough points over the course of the sea. And that's that's such an odd thing for a coach to come in and go, yep, it's me. My offense is coming in. This is what we're gonna do, and we're gonna light the world on fire. And it no, no, no, it's it's really the defense and defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, who is gonna wind up being the guy getting most

of the credit. Well, that's it. I mean, you had five games where you didn't score an offensive touchdown, as we'll go through the regular season and their run to the playoffs, but five games without a an offensive touchdown. You got Trent Dilfer under center. Wide receivers most couldn't name any member of that receiving corps except for Shannon Sharpe that's Hall of Fame tight end. And then you've got Jamal Lewis and a young guy named Priest Holmes

getting after it. So you know, offensively, you had a couple of guys who made their mark and certainly want a number of fantasy titles for people both in in Ravens uniforms and out. But yeah, Brian Billick knew what he had. You know, run the ball, played good defense, and do what you can to protect the football. So all those are your quote offensive weapons. Also included Jermaine Lewis, who we're gonna get to in a bit, Brandon Stokely.

That star studded defense. It wasn't just Ray Lewis. It was Sam Adams and Rob Burnett and Michael McCrary, Tony Sira, Goose, Dahlias Thomas, Peter Bullware, Dwayne Starks, Chris McAllister, Rod Woodson

the secondary. And when you look and see these were the guys they had, it really kind of makes sense they had that kind of season because you would expect to succeed when you have eight guys of that caliber playing and you're starting a Hall of famers, pro perennial Pro Bowlers, guys who went on to great careers in media because of their celebrity and their success with the

this team and rolling through their NFL careers. I mean, you just go back and watch, just do yourself a favor of a quip a couple of quick YouTube highlight videos and watch how these guys hit It's a different NFL in because this was still a bit of the throwback and a couple of those names you mentioned when you have Obviously we talked about Ray Lewis, but when you get into the way, you know Woodson played or

or Sharper at the other linebacker position. I mean, you've got guys that were heavy hitters and really set the tone for a game on that first possession. So while the Ravens are getting set for what they hope is going to be a great year, let's take a look at some other things that happened in the year two thousands.

Back when Conan O'Brien was on TV a lot and everybody watched him kind of a big deal, you know what I mean now, the whole TBS thing, But back when you know he was Conan O'Brien was whoa Conan O'Brien. He was that guy that was writing for the Simpsons, and everybody was excited about leaves and a the Y two K bug was all the rage. Remember, everybody thought every all machinery in the United States was gonna go down.

When we turned the calendar from two thousand, I lost three days of my life being locked in the Yahoo facility in case something really bad really did happen. I got a lot of free meals out of here, you did, But what a miserable Hey, you gotta be there, why this? Because if it goes to hell, we've got to be there to fix it. The Florida election recount, which then spawned an HBO movie as we didn't know who was going to win the election between Al Gore and President

George Bush. Gladiator. One best picture that when Russell Crowe was like the Star, the beautiful mind and Gladiator, that was like his two or three year run of being He's the biggest star in the world. And now Joaquin Phoenix laughs at him and you stab me, And now I have a We sequalize that in uh, you know, the Afterlife sequelized Gladiator. Gladiator too. In The Afterlife done

the most popular song of the year, Breathe. Faith Hill had to run of being the hottest woman on the planet for a little while, and she was waiting all day for Sunday night. That's that's you better get ready and I her whole tight yeah, And I celebrate all of Tim McGraw's catalog and and obviously they've been aread forever. So that's great. Breathe again and breathe again. Now that's that's a song, isn't it. I can hear you breathe.

I can hear you breathe logic and I don't remember all the lyrics, but it's not yours breathe, a different breathe again. You're channeling somebody else. I can hear you breathe. I can feel you need Yeah, Okay, that's the breathe. There's a there's a couple of breathe songs, and there's just just Breathe by Pearl, just that breathe. Okay, there's that too. Okay. So that's where we are in the

year two thousand. Coming up next, the big touchdown drought a big quarterback change, and the drama continues for the Baltimore Raven Special Teams with Jason Smith in my card. All Right, you've looked it up on the computer, No, I I remember, I didn't, you know, Butcher? The song can feel no breathe because I can feel you breathe. It's washing over me and suddenly I'm mounting into you.

Breathe again. There's nothing left to prove, baby to be he Well, you know what if if Faith Will ever stops doing concerts, I think you can step in fourth. I mean, I'm not singing full throaty. Let you know you let me go in front of a crowd. We take this show on the road. Let's get this guy in front of a crowd. Let's get it. So. The Baltimore Ravens start the year two thousand with three shutouts in their first five games. They blank Pittsburgh sixteen nothing,

Sincinnati thirty seven nothing, Cleveland twelve nothing. In the middle of that, a big win over the Jaguars thirty six, and everything looks great. But then that's when the problems start. As you referenced earlier, the Ravens go five games without a touchdown, five games, and quarterback Tony Banks loses his job to Trent Dilfer after the loss to Tennessee. People forget Tony Banks started the season as the Ravens quarterback and he lost his job midway through to Trent Dilfor.

I remember being high on Tony Banks fantasy wise going into this year, thinking, Oh, I like, Tony Banks had the big game against Jacksonville and I'm like, oh, Tony Banks, Tony Banks. I remember really liking him in fantasy, and then he lost the job, and it was what Tony Banks has done well, some of the metrics we didn't we didn't look at necessarily the same way back then.

Fifty four point seven percent completion rate. That wasn't awful, right, I mean, it's a different and that was kind of all right, that's the middle of the pack, or maybe a little below, but certainly not the train wreck it would be perceived as now as you know, when so many guys completing two thirds of their passes, as you get more of the tight end running backs involved and

and less shots down field. But eight touchdowns, eight and receptions had the five and three record, but they weren't generating much at all as we got to this stretch, uh, not moving the ball effectively. The run game obviously then bogs down, and now you've got a self fulfilling just a cycle and that happens, and you make the change. But I remember Tony Banks and trying to figure out whether he was going to be able to just come back and steal the job back. But the door never opened.

He winds up playing against the Jaguars and beating them fifteen ten game without a touchdown. Then they lose to the Redskins ten three. They lose to the Titans fourteen six, and he came out of the game, and that was when they decided, Okay, Trent Dilford is gonna be our guy. Well, Trent Dilfor didn't like the world on fire his first start. They lost to the Steelers nine to six. So now

suddenly a season that began. Look at this all world Baltimore Ravens defense there at the midweight point of the season five and four, and it's like, are they ever gonna score a touchdown? But that's the funny thing about it, right in that three game losing Street, they gave up thirty three points. Unfortunately they only scored fifteen. He's thinking about what what would happen now? I mean, look at what team doesn't score twenty four points in a week's

offense is bugging man? You know, you know the miskick or you know this red zone opportunity, and everybody's losing their minds this type of offense in the middle of what was a promising start to a season, you're calling for heads roll. It's amazing that they were able to stick together but then after Dilfer got through that first start against Pittsburgh, the Ravens started rolling and they won games. They scored over twenty points in the next five weeks

to win five in a row. They beat Arizona thirteen seven. They're eleven and four. They get to the final game of the season. They play the New York Jets. They're playing at home, and the Jets needed this game to potentially get into the playoffs. And it started off great because I remember this game. I remember the Jets scored two touchdowns in the first quarter. Testaverdi was playing really, really well, and I thought, hey, we're gonna get the

Ravens here. The Ravens were unbeatable after they solved their mid season problems because they beat everybody. And now Trent Dilfer's putting points on the board. We're gonna get them.

We're up fourteen nothing. Well, but look at the points again. Happened, Yeah, points against Once they started getting things together, seven a narrow victory over Tennessee Dallas zero points allowed, seven points allowed to the Browns, sending the bye week, and then they come back San Diego beat them three, give up seven to the Cardinals and then all of a sudden, you've got Diedrich Warren and Richie Anderson running free, and he's like, wait a minute, what's going on here? You

had turnovers by the Jets. You had Jermaine Lewis returning a kick for a touchdown, which was one of the other storylines of the season that people don't really remember when it comes to this Ravens because when you look at the nuts and bolts, it's okay, it's the Ray Lewis murder trial, it's the great defense. Oh yeah, that's right.

They had trouble scoring. Trent Dilford was the quarterback. But as good as their defense was, their special teams were phenomenal, and Jermaine Lewis and one of the all time great seasons returning kicks for them. They relied on him and Jamal Lewis to do everything for that offense. It's Jamal Lewis on the ground and he had a great season, he said, And Priest Holmes, who you know, hey, who knew he was gonna turn to the running back he did.

But Jermaine Lewis, it seemed like every week would have a big return for a touchdown, would spark things with a big play on special teams. And when you had those three facets working defense, working number one, special teams working right behind it, that greases things up for the offense a little bit. In the offense doesn't have to do way too much. They just had to do enough. And that's what they did. Yeah, I mean winning the

battle of field position. We'll talk about Kyle Richardson all right, his efforts, Matt Stover taking care of business. Uh that you're kicker, But Corey Harris your kickoff for earned specialists averaging twenty three a return. That's that's unheard of in today's NFL. Likewise, Louis was averaging over sixteen yards a punt return. They finished twelve and four, but they finished behind Tennessee, who had had a phenomenal season, so they have to play three games who advance the Super Bowl.

But before we get to that, this is where the Ravens defense sat following the regular season. Fewest points per game allowed in NFL history, three, fewest rush yards ever allowed, nine d and seventy didn't allow a thousand yards rushing on the season. Forty nine forced turnovers, not twenty nine forty nine forced turnovers. You don't get to that number very often. You'll get you'll get up to you to fifty turnovers. You're talking about three turnovers a game. I mean,

who averages that three turnover game? We saw it in with the Bears. Yes, they had to go there one of the outlines because every week Khalil Matt had a strip sack in a fumble. So that that's why it works. But you see how much different. Uh, you know, one or two injuries, changes, I'm scheming to try to take a guy away, But I mean this this team from the defensive front, from Sara Goose and all those guys

to the to the back seven. I mean, they were just opportunistic and then once they got up on you forget about it. So that's where the Ravens are and they're already getting the Hey, is this the best defense we've ever seen? Conversation? As we get into the playoffs again, three games they had to play to win the Super Bowl. Their first wild card game was against the Denver Broncos, and this game is known for one play, the Shannon Sharp tip touchdown pass off of Jamal Lewis that goes

for fifty eight yards that really won the game. For Baltimore. It's a pass in the flat that Trent Dilfer throws and it goes off the hands of Jamal Lewis. Now for him, reason, well, it's the Ravens. It's their offense wasn't that great. But for some reason, Shannon Sharpe was right there. He grabs the ball a little bit outside of the flat where Jamal Lewis was, and because he catches the defense flat footed, he takes it all the way down the sideline and into the end zone for

a touchdown. And that really just won the game because you could tell that the will of the Broncos was like, come on, really, you know that that's the play they get. They get a big tip play like that, it goes their way. They win that game twenty one to three. The Broncos never really threatened and it was a very

typical Ravens game in which the offense did enough. The defense was able to keep the Broncos, who had a pretty good offense back then, I was able to keep them off the board except for a field goal in the second quarter, and this game was never really in doubt. Gus fro Yard gust Farrott hundred, twenty four yards in an interception in this forget gust Farrott played for the Broncos, didn't he just play for the Redskins. It was him and Heath Shulert. No, no, no, started that playoff game

for the Broncos. Four sacks and then Jerry's Jackson actually got some time as well, five and ten fifty four yards Notre Dame. Right, Yeah, he absorbed a sack as well. I man, just really nothing going. This was the Mike Anderson year when he was the thousand yard rusher and Shanahan's system. Every guy they put it, whether it was him or orlandis Gary, how we're gonna run for fifteen hundred yards and be a superstar. Whoever they put in

there was great and that carried the offense. Thinking about those guys now, they'd be getting ten million dollar contracts off those years. Different times, different doesn't matter. You're not gonna resign him, no or let him go, because be another guy coming in who's gonna play even better. Shark Steve Man, take a fight, it falls out. Next one goes in line awaiting the Baltimore Ravens. Following this game

the Tennessee Titans. This was some kind of battle. We'll get to that, the a f C Championship game in which Tony Siragusa sits on rich Gannon and the Ravens go to the Super Bowl, and then the dominant performance against the New York Giants. All that and more coming up next right here on Special Teams. The Baltimore Ravens were now two games away from the Super Bowl, awaiting them a date with the Tennessee Titans, who were absolutely loaded this year. Jason Smith Mike Harmon taking you through

this magical year of the Ravens for Special Teams. This game was ten ten going into the fourth quarter. It could have been a bigger, larger lead for Tennessee, but in the first half, Al del Greco, one of the most reliable field goal kickers in NFL history, missed a field goal, but there was a penalty, got another chance, got it blocked, had another miss in the second quarter

as well. Then in the fourth quarter it looked like the Titans We're finally going to get a field goal to give them a thirteen ten lead, and maybe that was gonna be enough. But the field goal gets blocked. Anthony Mitchell runs it back for a touchdown and that gives them a seventeen to ten lead. Like we talked

about all season long with this team. Hey, the defense was great, but boy, look at the special teams making the play of the year to that point early fourth quarter looks like a chip shot field goal thirty seven yards right Al del Greco. We talk about the different announcers and the way they'd say his name. Here he comes, it's Al dal Greco, like he was the guy from the neighbor to us. All so, here he comes out and you get a block, and here we go again.

But you could see it on the side if you don't know what's going through his head because he's already missed a bunch of three times today. And it's what do I needed? Did he do something different? Did he tries something that they wind up getting the block and it goes in for a touchdown? That is typical Ravens this season. And you see the Tennessee sideline after that play off. All right, they got us, like they finally got us. Say it was inching to there and and

even a narrow lead wasn't gonna be safe. But nobody had really been able to punch Baltimore in the mouth. I mean, you had a couple of loss in the middle of the season when they had their sputtering, but even the defense and special teams were able to carry them here and you were just waiting for it to happen again. Their last gasp effort goes into the end zone for the Ravens again. Ray Lewis picks off a pass that goes through running back Eddie George's hands. He

goes in for a touchdown. Final scorers twenty four to ten, and once again you say, well, the offense did barely enough, but look at the special teams in the defense. It's a broken record. But I mean, we want to talk about this to spotlight just the dominant ear that the Ravens had. They win this game, and now they go to the a f C Championship game, and this was the battle of the Titans, not the game with the Titans.

It's the game after because the Raiders. This was in the middle of their run of boy, look how good the Raiders are. Rich Gannon had completely taken over this team. They had his personality, John Gruden's personality. This was a three year run the Raiders had where they were one of the top teams in the a f C. But snake bit year after year after year, you had the tuck rule. That hurt that I know, and it hurts

you to say it. That's why there was a dramatic clause as your Jets love himself and I don't want to talk about it. You just bleeped yourself without saying a word. You had this great Raiders team fall victim to the tuck rule, to Tony Siragosa sitting on rich Gannon, which we'll get to, and then losing to Jon Gruden in the Super Bowl because John grud knew all the plays, everything the Raiders were gonna run. When he jumped from the Raiders to Tampa Bay as their head, did he

tape things? I don't know that he did. But the fact that Bill Callahan didn't change a lot of the hand signals that rich Gannon using all those things that kind of helped Tampa Bay respect him. The whole dopiness of the hand signals. I know you've got the transmission through the head, head set and and helmet and everything these days, but not changing your signals. And you coach kids soccer and softball, you're changing them. You can't change it.

But you change them up enough in professional football that they don't come on, man, I mean they just think about this three year run for the Raiders for a second, where it was Saragosa and it was Brady in the snow, and then it was Gruden leaving the only coach you probably would have beat them in the Super Bowl. And that's what that could. This team could have went on and maybe one three super Bowls, but those three things kept them out. And now they're just known for leaving

a dump after all these years for the second time. Wow, look at you, Well, aren't we gonna do a special teams the post boredem on the Oakland Elamy County Coliseum. I do, I do miss the baseball field. I miss. That's one thing I do miss. As a guy who spent a lot of time in that stadium when I lived in the Bay Area, I'm not gonna miss it. It was terrible. This was a battle of irresistible force.

It's a movable object. It was the Ravens defense against the Raiders offense that was averaging twenty nine points a game. This game had the Ravens fire the first salvo Shannon Sharp's nineties six yard touchdown on third and eighteen. It looked like it was a play where maybe the Raiders were gonna stop them, they were gonna have to punt, Raiders are gonna get on the board. But early on it's that slant pass over the middle of the Shannon Sharp And you've seen this play many times and what

gets overlooked. Brandon Stokely we talked about a little bit ago, a terrific block that launches Shannon Sharp into the end zone, and it was, Oh, my goodness, you're gonna look back and say when at the end and go, what are the what are the Ravens offense do in the playoffs? Well, they had the ninety six yard passed to Shannon Sharp.

They had the tip pass to Shannon Sharp against Denver, and those are really the two only plays the offense made in the player stands out, its defense, special teams, and a lot of Matt Stover matts. He had a big here in fantasy that huge. He was huge. Then Tony Siragusa sacks Rich Gannon later in the first or hits him, knocks him down and sits on him. Basically, Gannon comes out of the game. Bobby Hoyan comes in, legend Bobby Hoyen. You know he did he win a

playoff game for the Eagles. He played in the playoff games on Yeah, I think he did when the Eagles. That was back when the Eagles are going. But we got Ti Debtmer, We got Coy debtmer We and anybody else named Debtmer. We got Bobby Hoyan coming in and playing. I mean, you know, they struck it rich finally with Donovan McNabb, but boy, they really had some quarterbacks to

go through in the nineties. You really just wanted to get the Syracuse in there, and a little bit, just a tiny bit, just wanted to make sure actually he had no you know, actual record as a playoff passer, Bobby Hoyne, no record. We got no record for him. He appeared, but he did not have any record. Hoyan's first pass was picked off, matched over kicked the field goal tend nothing was the lead and and that was

really it. From there. They go on to win this game six team to three and shut down a Raiders offense that was that good. But without Rich Gannon, what did you really expect him to be able to do? All? Right? Gannon goes out, he was eleven of twenty one eight yards. He'd been sacked four times, two picks Hoying with two interceptions. Uh, just a miserable run. Overall you look at offensively, they

weren't able to generate anything on the ground. Tyrone Wheatley twelve carries seven yards and remember Tyron Wheatley, all he had to do is fall forward. That was about two and a half yards. He was a giant man. Uh, you gotta make it past the line of Scrimmagey when you fall forward from three yards back of the line of scrimmage only gaining ahead, that's just it. You know, getting hit in the backfield with regularity not gonna work.

But you know, I guess the Raiders should take some consolation. They didn't give up a special teams or defensive touchdown in this one atory victor that so we'll take one here. It's still a loss and all the would it could have showed us, But away we go. The Ravens move on. They had two Super Bowl thirty five awaiting them, the New York Giants, and at this point the Ravens defense was it was like when they walked around, there was an are about them, as if you just had to

stay away. It was what are they gonna wind up doing to the New York Giants and the Super Bowl? Just how bad is it gonna get? And it got pretty bad for the New York Giants, tell you that much. But but this was one of those what's gonna happen when they actually kick it off? And for the time going between the games, a lot of the talk was here's Ray Lewis back at the Super Bowl a year

after what happened. It became a big topic of conversation and that's really what dominated everything those two weeks going into Super Bowl thirty five. Well, one of the things though that did help out radio road was had not yet really become what Radio row is, right, and the build up to what the Super Bowl has become. Media exposure and and the global view that you have, and really the circus that the media night became. I mean, it's paired back a little bit now that it's in

the evening prime time viewing and all. But you had a run where for a number of years, even when when Lewis got back there that there was some problems, shall we say, with certain questions being needing to be asked because that time, it was about deer antler spray performance and answers, etcetera. But for ray Lewis and this one just there's a lot of folks that weren't going to ask the questions that need to be asked either or about that history, because what answer were you going

to get? Right you, It wasn't something the NFL really wanted to address, and ray Lewis became very good at deflecting away from any of the questions related to that event. Yeah, his his answer was always he had the one big answer of God is never gonna put anybody in this situation to do something bad, and and you know I I will put someone like me in that situation to do something that bad. And he would he would always kind of blow it off by by giving those oblique comments.

Well because when the the repeat right when they were facing the forty niners became a the first question he was about the dear Antler spray, and I stood and listened for about seven minutes as he started to sermonize as like, Okay, I'm gonna go get one on ones with the rest of the team. You guys, you guys,

update me. If he ever actually addresses the question that was being asked here, and look, it's it's you can't fall to good strategy, as you always say on the show that we Just wee DIT's on Fox Sports Radio. It's like, you may not like it, you may think it's really disingenuous and crazy, but it got people to just say, Okay, once he's done with this, we actually have to talk football, because he's now taken up twenty five minutes of the allotted forty five or fifty minute

interview session. When we got to the game, it was exactly as it was expected. First quarter, Trent Dilford throws a thirty eight yard touchdown to Brandon Stokely. Okay, seven nothing, and already you could feel this game is getting away from Kerry Collins and the New York Giants. Well, he got that reward for the big block in the last time I'll throw you on. Okay, Matt Stover kicks the

field goal. It's tend nothing at halftime and already this is well, the Giants offense really has not been able to do anything, and this is the best the NFC has to offer. Baltimore puts the next points on the board. Dwayne Starks returns to pick forty nine yards for a touchdown. But this actually begins one of the more exciting sequences in Super Bowl history, touchdowns on three consecutive plays. Starks returns the interception for a touchdown. Make it seventeen nothing

early in the third quarter. Everybody's packing up, time to go, This is over. And then Ron Dixon returns the ensuing kickoff ninety seven yards for a touchdown. Now it's seventeen to seven. Okay, maybe the Giants are getting back in on this. And then what do we get, Not a defensive play, not an offensive play, but Jermaine Lewis putting the Super Bowl away on that ensuing kickoff eighty four

yards for a touchdown. And I remember Brian Billick screaming down the sideline seeing the NFL Films video after going j lu j lu j lu, because he knew that was winning the Super Bowl for them. He goes in for a score. It's seven. The Giants don't put up a fight after that. Jamal Lewis would had a touchdown run in the fourth quarter on his way to a hundred yard day for Kerry Collins, a miserable day for him, fifteen out of thirty nine for a hundred and twelve

yards and four interceptions. That was what the Baltimore Ravens did to him on defense for the game. The Giants offense total just a hundred and fifty two yards, turned the ball over four times, and Carry Collins got sacked four times. Baltimore's defense allowed one touchdown in four playoff games. So all that stuff I just said, think about that

one touchdown in four playoff games. Your defense allowing one touchdown in four games, ineptitude of your opponents, or do you just say you're swarming, uh and taking care of business? And because obviously you can look at the Super Bowl, it's one that you kind of fast forward through a lot of it. And for the Carry Collins side, just

a miserable experience under Darrest all day long. You go through all the stats and just all right, tackle for loss here, tackle for loss there, this guy with a you know, past defense, Uh, he's got three, he's got another. I mean there was just no room to breathe. I like that call back three for the Giant nor wrong song celebrate Faith Hills catalog A tiki Barber ran for forty nine yards. That was it. I mean this this Giant's team was pretty well rounded. Was it the greatest offense? No?

But were they interous enough yes? Was the defense good enough? Yes? But they weren't even a match. And Pete Mitchell sit there for a minute. You know, I'm waiting for top gun two just like everybody else's. I'm just waiting for it. Soon enough, my friends, soon enough. So that was your victory for the Baltimore Ravens. They win the game, thirty four seven, and they put a punctuation on what could

be the greatest season ever for a defense. Now, let me throw this out here before you give me eighty five Bears, because I remember how great the Bears were and what they were able to do, and how they really changed the game defensively with the forty six defense and different pressures on the quarterback. I get all that this is more of a modern era of the NFL, where you had to stop quarterbacks and running backs equally. Eighty five was still team's gonna run the football, and

that's what we gotta stop and stop that. How many quarterbacks are really gonna go crazy unless you're playing somebody like Dan Marino or Joe Montana, It's going to be an easier thing to do to shut teams down. It's a little bit harder in two thousand. You also have more free agency, playing havoc with with rosters. I look at this and I go, it's hard for me to argue against them being the greatest defense of all time.

Certainly it's up for debate, as you're always. As you mentioned, the change of the game just in those fifteen years is immant. I've seen a numerous articles and breakdowns looking at the quarterbacks played during this stretch. Let's have a little fun, shall we. Uh, Well, you got McNair, okay, cool, Mark Brunel, Jamie Martin, good times. Go back to Mark Burnell, Scott Mitchell, Achille Smith. Wait a minute, Achille Smith. Drew Rosenhouse talked the Bengals into picking him third over. There's

a good job by him. Tim Couch, Doug Peterson and Spurgeon win Hey. Doug Peterson is a Super Bowl winner. That he is has a head coach. He's a super Bowl winner. Ken Graham and Cordell Stewart. Cordell Stewart was really good for about a year exactly. Jay Fiedler, Ryan Leaf. These are Vinny Testaverday. These are all high draft picks. You are talking about Brad Johnson the final year of Troy Yankman. Brett Johnson won a Super Bowl. This is

a couple of years later. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's not like he did a lot, but he won. And Jake Plower, he had some high draft picks. You beat Theater Brock to go to the Super Bowl and we did. He beat Tony Easton to win the Super Bowl. But you know how how I always describe it, Jason, it's you can only beat He's not the schedule. I just felt like some of the names and watching a video I don't know going through, I thought that was fantastic. Outside of spurge in win, I think all those guys

would like number one, number two, top ten picks all around. Yeah, look how many teams missed on quarterbacks. Here here's some guys I mean, but I mean that's certainly the mark here, right, Achille Smith, Ryan Leaf, and um Tim Couch. That's just three of them. Number one, number number from there. Let's do it. So it's just an interesting run. I love the debates across time because you could just argue too your blue in the face and never come to any

sort of resolution. It's like all the inane goat conversations we have in the NBA, and certainly that we have in the NFL with Drew Brees, Tom Brady and you know Peyton Manning in often doing Peyton Manning things and commercials, but always in the record books that we have these debates all the time. It's uh, it's nice and it's a safe little world. What really baffles me? Do you talk about something that happened now in the NFL that

had the way it happened back then. Rex Ryan was in his second year as defensive coordinator for the Ravens, and he puts together a defense that is arguably the best all time. Right, you want to say, argue between them in the eighties. It's him and his old man, and those are the defenses that we're talking about. So he puts this defense together, he doesn't get a phone call for a head coach, coach until the Jets call

him in two thousand nine. How how long do you think it would take in the NFL normally for a guy in his second year as defensive coordinator. You put this kind of defense out there that teams aren't. We gotta have him. We gotta look at the defluquid he just put together. We gotta go get this guy. And fifteen minutes after the final game, and yeah it took No. I think it's actually during the fourth quarter. Okay, listen, we're gonna give you a hat to put seven. Come on,

you're killing him. Let's let's just put this on. I mean, really, it's that it's that fast that he becomes a head coach and it took him till two thousand and nine to get that phone call. I've always wondered, and this is just me spitballing as we talked about those two defenses. How much people gave Buddy credit for what Rob was

doing and Rex were doing. All he's doing is seeing the play as old man hasn't, which no, no, no, But but if they were picking his brain and he wasn't a de facto right, so like the Ryan brothers, like and Rob, who was with us for at Fox Sports Radio for a little bit, but for for Rex and the job they were doing here, I was wondering if maybe that was held against him, that maybe it wasn't all just him at least for a little ways. Yeah, I don't know, that's enough to say you're not gonna

be a head cover for nine years. No, I mean that that's a lot because you know, look, you know, Brian Billy didn't do anything defensively, you know, you know, he was the head coach in charge of the offense. Of the defense is the defense, and that's how things are gonna go. But how he does it takes him that long. It's baffling because they had other great years another great yeah, absolutely, and then and he still took

him this long. Well, because you just think about the way a hot coach comes up nowadays, right, all you need to have is one quick run in college or a good year as a coordinator, and the phone's ringing because we're looking at what six to eight coaches on average year. I mean, the carousel does not stop spinning. So his number would have been called a lot faster and today. But again we also look at a lot of teams go to the offensive route thinking that that's

what they need to fix. In his nine years with the team, the defense never ranked lower than six in the NFL. And it took him that long. I mean, obviously showed that he had some potential, but he had shortcomings. As well. But I mean, really to not get that chance when you're always looking for the next great young O C or d C. How do they not get rated for for these guys coming off this performance. I

don't know, personality. I mean, I'm thinking of a number of things, Like you know, I've had conversations with with Rex years ago. I mean, I don't I don't know in an interview process does something go awry? Is just not a field that they wanted him as a head coach, Like he's a coordinator and not a headman. He always wonder where the disconnect happens, especially on teams like this that are sustained. Right, they weren't a blip on the radar because if you said, okay, look at the personnel,

he's gotten two thousand plus special teams. Everything worked, so all right, we'll give it a mulligan. We'll see if it happens another year. But if you have that kind of sustained run, eventually people are knocking down the door saying, all right, we'll cobble together whatever because they also won and and I don't do it with the same you know, bile like everybody else. Trent Ifer was the quarterback a guy who was a replacement for Tony Banks, right, so

that his defense carried the day. So it's very much like, well, go back to theirs. All right, let's take a look back now at the two thousand ravens. Where are some of them? Now? My car? All right? We got Kim Herring, head of Field Operations. You like this sports at clear me dot com. What is clear me dot com? They are a security screening at airports, sporting events, etcetera. With that, does he do the wand I gets, hey, Kim Herring, you were on the two. I don't know he's the

head of field opt Probably not. Maybe he does that once in a while. I don't have a one like an undercover boss kind of thing. None, he goes in and sees that to day. Listen, kid, I'm not a one guy. Okay, sorry, but all right now. Of course, we've always got coaches Jamie Sharper at Georgetown, after the Poindexter is at Purdue. You've got Chris Redmond, business dev business manager at Game on Mouth cards. So there you go,

protecting the grill as you go. Kip Vicker's epic business solution so accounting I T web design a bunch of other things you've got. Kyle Richardson mentioned him a little bit earlier the Punter. He's a VP of sales and marketing for a place that helps with screening calls for people in need of medical care. Screening calls for people in need of medical care, like making sure that's real people falling well, that that things get processed properly, and

and that you're sensitive to maybe different needs. Right, So training if if you're dealing with maybe a here in and certain things they may have faced in the field, so you know how to come at it from a psychological perspective as you start asking questions of what can I do for you? That? All right, just try to get a little more background information that he's part of that process. Well, if you work as like local cable companies and and uh dry cleaning, my dad would love that.

He needs he needs someone to help with that could be a guy that helps cables out. Again, I need I need help on this, all right. Yeah, I don't know that they go that far, Okay, but I'm sure you can apply the same principle that would that would help my dad to get to that level. I was on the phone waiting for forty five minutes today. He's a guy who helped run support and build games and such at Yahoo. We we faced a lot of curious calls and emails through our time there. Uh Walt probably

was among them. So there's our look Special Teams, the two thousand Ravens, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. You can hit us up on Twitter at how about a Fresca? Mike at Wollen Dome and the ideas. Who would you like to see on a future edition of Special Teams. We had a couple of requests did the uh ninety three bills not too long ago, and so now yeah, you get a big request in we get enough want for it to day maybe we'll get it up there for you. Get on Twitter at how about a frest Cup? Mike

at Swollen Dome. Our show has heard nightly on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday, ten to two am on the West Coast on the East coast, seven to eleven on the West Coast. We'll talk to you next week for another episode of Special Teams. Before you go, rate and review the show. Whether you're listening on I Heart Radio, I Heart Radio, apps, Apple, whatever it is, give us a rate, Tell us. You like it, we will love you forever and ever and ever. Ye Special Teams is

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