As the Ravens marched down the fieldin remarkable fashion for their opening drive at Tampa Bay on Sunday, it became quickly evident that the team had not shown its full potential during preseason.
Quarterback Steve McNair moved the team efficiently, but it was the effort of the offensive line and running back Jamal Lewis that really spurred the series. After nine minutes of offense, Lewis plunged into the end zone for a four-yard score. It was one of two red zone touchdowns for the Ravens? offense in a 27-0 blowout.
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Suddenly, this newfangled offense, with McNair in charge, looked like the bruising offense of old.
“It?s important,” McNair said of the opening drive. “It would have been disappointing if we would have gone nine minutes and not scored. It?s important to us to finish drives when we work that hard. I was telling the guys in the huddle, we don?t work this hard not to score six points. The guys did a magnificent job. Even in the run game and passing game, we were able to mix things and keep the defense off-balance, to where they didn?t know where we were coming from.”
The early success of the Ravens? running backs ? surprisingly, the team only accumulated 103 rushing yards in the game ? was due in large part to tackle Jonathan Ogden and guard Edwin Mulitalo, the left side of the line.
“As modest as it sounds ? 103 yards rushing, it?s modest ? but since [Tampa Bay] only gave up four or five [100-yard games] last year, we are going to feel good about that,” Ravens head coach Brian Billick said Monday. “We set a temperament that we really wanted to set, and I think that was a big part of what happened [Sunday], as well.”
Ogden, who missed most of the preseason following the death of his father, came away pleased with the offense. Ogden himself did not look like he missed a beat.
“We did well today,” he said. “We came out running the ball well. We had to jump onto eight-man fronts trying to stop us. We were able to keep them off-balance.”
Billick said of Ogden: “Jonathan, like Steve [McNair], was very critical of himself. He realizes he is probably not quite there. Obviously, [Sunday] took him a long way towards that.”
After being heavily criticized last season, Mulitalo entered 2006 in the best shape of his professional career.
“Until today, we are the Ravens of 2005, and so that was the biggest thing about this game, was to show people and tell that we are the Ravens of 2006,” Mulitalo said Sunday. “Whatever happened before, that was who we are, but we wanted to say this is us [now]. We?re excited to do it in a good way.”
