Mon., Sept. 10: Sloppy Ravens Rally, Lose To Bengals, 27-20
By Joe Platania
PressBox Staff
Monday, September 10, 2007
Six years ago, the Ravens lost running back Jamal Lewis for the season to a training-camp knee injury.
At that time, head coach Brian Billick quoted William Shakespeare, stating, "Sweet are the uses of adversity."
There's no way he could have known how much adversity could be packed in one half of football.
Last year's road season opener at Tampa couldn't have gone any better as the Ravens blasted the Buccaneers, 27-0.
But in the first two quarters of Monday night's 27-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals before 66,093 Paul Brown Stadium fans, the Ravens saw the following:
- Quarterback Steve McNair getting his hip and groin taped.
- Future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis wincing through the pain of an injured right tricep -- one that was reportedly torn -- and playing through it.
- Canton-bound left tackle Jonathan Ogden take himself out of the game early in the second quarter after trying to fight through a hyperextended left toe.
Not only that, but safety Ed Reed, nose tackle Kelly Gregg and linebacker Terrell Suggs -- among others -- all required some level of sideline attention during a two-quarter span that saw the Ravens nearly fall completely apart in a key season-opening intra-division road game.
Their opponent in Sunday's 4:15 home opener, the New York Jets, know the feeling, having to sweat out quarterback Chad Pennington's ankle injury as well as pick up the pieces of a blowout loss to New England.
All told, the Ravens committed six turnovers and ten penalties as they self-destructed in a game that they still had a chance to win to break what is now a six-game national-TV losing streak and a defeat skein in Cincinnati that dates back to 2004.
"When you look at the way that game was played," tight end Todd Heap said, "we played horribly most of the time and to battle through all those things, with a lot of guys going down, it was a long hot game.
"It's frustrating that we didn't capitalize, but it really says a lot about our team. I think we can build off it, but it hurts right now."
Reed provided the first in a series of ironies when, filling in for injured return specialist BJ Sams (knee), he cut off a fine seal block from Quinn Sypniewski and returned a Kyle Larson punt 63 yards to give the Ravens -- who trailed the entire game to this point -- an improbable 20-19 lead with 12:08 to go in the fourth quarter.
Sams, playing on the same field on which he suffered a broken ankle last year, is said to have a serious knee injury. He and Lewis will have MRI tests done Tuesday.
But the fifth Ravens' turnover of an error-filled night helped the Bengals pull out the game, their eighth straight September win.
Defensive end Robert Geathers intercepted a deflected pass for Derrick Mason -- a play called on a critical third-and-1 situation -- and ran it back to the Ravens' 24. After the play survived a replay challenge, wideout TJ Houshmandzadeh caught a seven-yard hitch route for the go-ahead score.
Following a pass-interference call on the two-point conversion, Rudi Johnson swept around left end and got in the end zone for his fourth straight Week One touchdown and a 27-20 Cincinnati lead.
Twenty-four of those points came off Ravens mistake, but incredibly, nose tackle Haloti Ngata gave the Ravens another chance when forced a Rudi Johnson fumble that Ed Reed recovered at the Cincinnati 24 with 4:42 remaining.
Backup quarterback Kyle Boller (2-for-6, 19 yards, INT, 3.5 rating) then had to supplant McNair, who finally succumbed to a groin problem, and hit a leaping Mason (seven catches, 76 yards) on fourth-and-three for a 14-yard gain that put the ball inside the Bengals' 3.
Another wild, wacky sequence followed.
Two McGahee runs and an incomplete end-zone pass to Devard Darling brought up fourth-and-goal from the 1. From there, Heap (four catches, 29 yards) was flagged for offensive interference against Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson on a would-be game-tying touchdown.
"It's tough to make a call like that in that situation in the game," Heap said. "I'm not calling the game, they are. From my point of view, he was grabbing my jersey. You have to go with what their calls are.
"Through all of it, Steve goes down, Kyle comes in. We had a lot of guys step up today. We showed some character, but the bottom line is wins and losses."
The Ravens would get another fourth-down play, and ex-Maryland safety Madieu Williams (team-high nine tackles, forced fumble) was then called for defensive holding on Demetrius Williams (three catches, 55 yards).
That gave Baltimore, working with no timeouts, four new downs from the six-yard line at the 1:49 mark.
But on third down, an end-zone pass fired hard at close range bounced off Heap and was picked off by Michael Myers to end the Ravens' last hope and send them to their fifth loss in seven Week One road games.
With the exception of Sams, Ogden -- and, eventually, McNair -- all of the injured Ravens managed to stay on the field and work through their injuries as the Ravens, accustomed as they are to light-hitting training camps, attempted to get used to the intensity of a new season.
Apparently, the Ravens were still getting used to new running back Willis McGahee -- and the opening-night spotlight -- early in the game as a Bengals' defense not known for an attacking style did just that.
The NFL's best team in turnover margin a year ago (plus-17) fumbled the ball three times in a nightmarish first quarter, becoming the first team in the league to do that in nine years.
McGahee (19 carries, 77 yards; three catches, 34 yards) is a University of Miami product known for having speed to the edge. But that very speed on a stretch play forced McNair to miss on a first-quarter handoff, causing a fumble that Cincinnati's Landon Johnson recovered at the Ravens' 41.
However, the Bengals only moved the ball six yards in three plays and kicker Shayne Graham's 53-yard field goal attempt was not only low, but returned by Ed Reed -- complete with a lateral to Dawan Landry -- all the way to the Ravens' 47.
McNair committed a second straight fumble when sacked by Ahmad Brooks. The ultra-busy Geathers (four tackles, sack, INT, forced fumble, two QB hits, two passes defensed) fell on it, and it set up the Bengals' opening score... and an anticlimactic celebration.
Flamboyant wideout Chad Johnson ran a perfect post-corner route that got him matched up with Landry.
Johnson won the footrace and gathered in Carson Palmer's 39-yard touchdown pass, after which he pulled out an oversized yellow Hall of Fame jacket, plumping his own candidacy for Canton whenever he retires. He would limp off the field midway through the second quarter.
Even though Johnson eventually returned to the game, it was proof positive that the Bengals had problems of their own despite their early momentum.
Graham suffered an early-game right hip bruise, so Larson's substitute extra point try was blocked by Dwan Edwards, stunting the Bengals' early momentum.
Not only that, Palmer -- steward of the league's sixth-ranked offense in 2006 -- was often hurried and inaccurate with his early passes, but he eventually finished 20 of 32 for 194 yards with two interceptions, one sack and a 100.3 rating.
His high-tempo, no-huddle offense was victimized by several early drops by Chad Johnson (five catches, 95 yards, TD), Houshmandzadeh (nine catches, 50 yards, TD) and Rudi Johnson (18 rushes, 50 yards; three catches, 26 yards).
But the bad times didn't last for long.
Fullback Le'Ron McClain (three catches, 13 ya
