| TAMPA, Fla. — If the Super Bowl follows form, the
Ravens’ dominating defense will not give up a lot of points. So just how many points
does the offense need to score for Baltimore to win? Not many to hear the Ravens talk
about it.
"I think we only need 10," said Ravens CB Duane Starks. "A touchdown and
a field goal to seal things would be OK."
Ravens LB Ray Lewis said, "If you want to give us three points, if you want to
give us seven points, all we need is something. If we get that, we have the
ballgame."
Ravens QB Trent Dilfer has been under the spotlight, but he didn’t even start the
season as the team’s starter. Tony Banks started the season as the starter before
losing the job to Dilfer.
Imagine what Banks must be thinking as he watches someone else get all the attention
doing the job that once belonged to him.
"I think he’s in a good spot mentally," said Ravens offensive
coordinator Matt Cavanaugh. "I think he’s disappointed that we used him as a bit
of a scapegoat. We were 5-3 at the point when we pulled him, but a couple of those losses
were a direct result of some of his plays and he knew that. … I think he knows that
he’s capable of running this offense, and he’s got the skills and ability to
step in if something should happen to Trent, and he could move the ball for us. He’s
comfortable in his abilities, and at some point he’s going to get another
chance."
There has been a definite difference in the offense since Dilfer took over for Banks,
although it is not entirely due to the man under center.
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Shannon Sharpe
|
"I won’t minimize what Trent has been able to accomplish, but I’ve
always said that it’s the 10 guys around that have to play better," said Ravens
TE Shannon Sharpe. "We’ve stepped up our play. You look at my play, look at
Jamal’s (Lewis) play, look at Qadry’s (Ismail), look at the offensive line.
They’ve played better. Yes, I would have loved for us to play that way for Tony, but
it just didn’t happen. Trent’s come in to the ball game and he takes care of the
football. He realizes that there are certain things that he can do, and there are certain
things that he cannot do. Win or lose, we’re going to win with our defense.
We’re not going to go out there and score 40 points, nor will we attempt to."
Ravens head coach Brian Billick said, "Something had to be done. It really
wasn’t just Tony. I think anybody who has been around us saw that it wasn’t just
a matter of Tony not producing. We just weren’t jelling as an offense and doing what
we needed to do. Typically, the quarterback position is the one that can most dramatically
affect that and Trent has done that for us. I think Tony is a starter in the NFL. The
young man is 10-6 as a starter for the Baltimore Ravens. When you talk about cutting
through it all, and you want a guy who can win for you, Tony has exhibited that for us. It
is unfortunate the circumstances that have laid out. A lot of people may disagree with
that, but I think he’s capable of doing and going beyond what he has done here and
being a legitimate starter in the National Football League."
The Super Bowl hasn’t even been played and already the Ravens are being asked what
they must do to keep from being a one-year wonder.
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Ray Lewis
|
"Now with the free-agent market, it’s crazy," said Ravens LB Ray Lewis.
"People are leaving year-in and year-out. To get back here, you have to keep a
certain chemistry together. Free agency is going to come up soon, and we’re going to
have to deal with it. But I think we’re going to try to build a dynasty for the next
two or three years, and we’re going to have to keep a lot of people here. If you look
at any Super Bowl team or any great team that had a dynasty, they had a great defense that
they kept together."
When the subject is the Giants’ secondary, CB Jason Sehorn is an extremely popular
topic. So let’s change the subject and talk about Giants S Shaun Williams.
"For a lot of players, it’s about getting their opportunity," said
Sehorn. "For Shaun, he got the opportunity to come in and play, and he’s made
the most of it. He’s out there and he’s a wrecking ball the way he hits people
and he knows things. I was talking about a game we play in training camp with pluses and
minuses. When (John) Fox asks a question, the first person to get the answer before he
puts it up on the board, there would be three of us, Sam Garnes, myself and Shaun and the
first person to get it gets a point. If you get it wrong you get a minus. After 30 days of
training camp, Shaun probably won about 18 to 20 of them. He really knows his stuff and
that helps because it puts you in position to make plays. If you don’t know where you
are supposed to go, it is hard to make a play."
When asked what his responsibilities will be on Sunday against the Giants, Williams
said, "I have many responsibilities. Sometimes covering Shannon Sharpe, sometimes
coming down in the box playing in an eight-man front and sometimes back as a safety."
The Giants have a secret weapon. It is a person who does not appear on their roster. It
is a person who does not have a title in the organization’s front office.
It is the wife of Giants LB Mike Barrow, who watches game tape at home with her
husband.
"My wife loves football so it’s just one of those things where she
understands that I pride myself on being a student of the game," said Mike Barrow.
"It’s her way of spending time with me. She kind of gets into it. She’s
really into it. It’s kind of annoying in a sense because after a game she’s
like, ‘You didn’t do this and you didn’t do that,’ and I’m like,
‘Be quiet and leave me alone.’ I remember the first game of the year against
Arizona, and she said "Where were you the first half, you didn’t make any plays.
Were you nervous? What happened?’ She said you came along in the second half. I said
‘Shelly leave me alone, we won the game, leave me alone.’ I ended up telling the
coach, so he watched the game and came back to me and said, ‘You know what? Your wife
is right, where were you the first half?’ She’s very good on game day.
She’s very good at recognizing plays and tendencies that we may do, and then
she’s good at looking at plays. I told Ron Dayne what she said about him, that on
contact he would stop his feet so he was not able to move the pile. So I went to him and
told him what my wife said, and he was like, ‘Maybe she’s right.’ I was
like ‘Wow,’ because I never even noticed."
Watching tape together is not exactly a candlelight dinner and romantic music. So how
did the two start watching tape at home together?
"It’s one of those things that just happened," said Mike Barrow. "I
don’t know the moment where watching tape together started, it’s just one of
those things where it was something that I had to do and she understood that I love
watching film. She said, ‘I want to spend time with you, so I’ll sit there and
learn about it and I want you to teach me.’ She already knew a lot because as a child
she and her father used to watch a lot of football. She pretty much knows what’s
going on. I told her, ‘You need to get one of these TV jobs like Melissa Stark or Pam
Oliver and be on the sideline.’ I said, ‘You’ll do a great job because
you’ve got great insight of what’s going on right there.’ She can interpret
what’s happening right then and there. I don’t know where it comes from, but
it’s good."
A leading candidate for the Look-How-Far-They’ve-Come Award is Giants WR Ron
Dixon.
When asked what the title of his life story should be, Dixon said, "From the
toilet bowl to the Super Bowl. The reason is that I used to work in this gas station and
that was part of my duties, to work maintenance and I had to make sure the bathroom was
clean."
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