Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis laid out Michael Pittman with the ferocity of a man in his prime in the team?s 27-0 win at Tampa Bay Sunday. Fellow linebacker Bart Scott sacked Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms and batted balls with ease. Even rookie defensive tackle Haloti Ngata returned an interception 60 yards.
With those images dominating the Ravens? season opener, it was difficult not to flash back to Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa Bay, the day the Ravens? defense cemented its status as one of the greatest units in the history of the NFL.
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For the last five years, the team has had one of the top defenses in the league. Some might say, however, that the unit was living off the luster of the 2000 unit in terms of intimidation and swagger.
But Sunday?s win was one of the more dominant performances since the Super Bowl season. The Ravens tallied three sacks and three interceptions (one resulting in a touchdown by Chris McAlister) and held Tampa Bay to 142 total yards.
“[We] had a great plan ? give the defensive coaches great credit,” Ravens head coach Brian Billick said. “They had a great idea on how to balance this up. The players executed it beautifully. The way they were communicating, it was just a great win.”
The team shut down every conceivable offensive weapon Tampa Bay had, most notably running back Carnell Williams, who finished with eight rushes for 22 yards.
“We knew the type of coach Jon Gruden is,” Lewis said. “We knew he was going to try to establish the run with [Nos.] 24 [Carnell Williams], 40 [Mike Alstott] and 32 [Michael Pittman]. Our thing was to get 11 men around the football. Bottom line is that we don?t care who is guarding who. If your man missed, somebody else better get back. And that is Raven football. We are not claiming anything else. Next week, Monday, we will watch tape and start again.”
Simms was hurried throughout the afternoon and lived up to his reputation for having passes batted down. The Ravens deflected 13 on the day. It was the first shutout for the Ravens since 2000, when the team defeated Pittsburgh, 16-0, and snapped a four-season-long opening-game losing streak.
“A shutout, that?s always our goal,” Scott said. “Our goal is to hold anyone to 17 and under. But you know when the offense runs down like that, eats up nine minutes off the clock, that type of rest enables us to play three quarters of football with four quarters in the tank.”
Indeed, the Ravens? offense set the tone for the day by marching down the field on their opening drive with a Jamal Lewis touchdown.
“We knew our offense was playing against one of the top defenses in the league,” defensive coordinator Rex Ryan said. “We never knew that our offense was going to drive the ball for 10 minutes for the first drive of the game. Obviously, that was a huge help, but our players are really into this.”
