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Ravens LB
Ray Lewis
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Greatness is the most overused word in sports.
Have a good game or two, and people start comparing you to every legend they ever heard
of. Have a good season, and the mantle of greatness is draped over a team’s
shoulders, whether it can carry it or not.
A case in point is the so-called "greatness" of the 2000 Ravens’
defense, a claim I always felt was ridiculous and easy to dispute. A while back, Giants
general manager Ernie Accorsi, who has forgotten more about pro football than most people
will ever know, broke down last season’s Ravens defense and compared it to the Steel
Curtain defense of the Steelers from 1974 to ’78. In his professional opinion, only
two Ravens — MLB Ray Lewis and DB Rod Woodson — would have started on those
Steelers teams. That was enough said about the supposed "greatness" of the
Ravens’ defense a year ago, despite all the barking done by its leader, Lewis, and
its overinflated head coach, Brian Billick.
Playing in a watered-down league where greatness on a team level seldom lasts more than
12 months (and not solely because of free agency), the Ravens were anointed by many last
year as having the greatest defense of all time because they allowed only 165 points in
the regular season, the lowest total in NFL history for a 16-game season.
That record broke the one held by the ’86 Bears, a team with a defense Bill
Parcells contends is the greatest he’s ever seen (and one assumes he saw the
Ravens a time or two last year). Yet, in the weeks leading up to the Ravens’ Super
Bowl demolition of Accorsi’s Giants last January, few listened to Parcells or anyone
else with any kind of historical perspective.
The Ravens were the team of the moment, and their defense the team of the century. The
media grew breathless over the possibility of actually being in the presence of greatness
and rushed to anoint the Ravens as the greatest defense of all time.
Greatness is not achieved because of one flashing burst across the sky. If it was,
Halley’s Comet would be a greater fireball than the sun.
A comet is not the sun, and the Ravens’ defense is not the greatest in NFL history
— and it took just one season to prove it.
Baltimore retained 10 of its 11 starters from its defense of a year ago, losing only S
Kim Herring to free agency. Billick and Ravens director of football operations Ozzie
Newsome did a good job finding ways to retain their talent, so there is no making the
excuse that this is now a team decimated by dollars. Yet, what is essentially the same
defense allowed 262 points going into the final game of the regular season compared to the
188 it gave up in 20 games a year ago.
More significantly, heading into Week 17, the Ravens ranked seventh in the league in
points allowed behind Chicago (190), Philadelphia (195), Pittsburgh (205), Green Bay
(241), Jacksonville (253) and St. Louis (260). None of those other defenses are causing
anyone to rush out and use the word "greatness" with their name.
The Ravens allowed an average of only 9.4 points per game during their 20-game run to
the Super Bowl championship last season, but this season they’ve nearly doubled that
average (17.5) and were 9-6 heading into their Monday-night game vs. the Vikings.
So the evidence is in, and the facts are clear. To be great, you must sustain yourself
for more than a moment. The Ravens, with essentially the same defensive lineup as a year
ago, are seventh in the league in points allowed. From 1974 to ’78, those Steel
Curtain defenses of Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, Donnie
Shell and Co. led the AFC in fewest points allowed four times and topped the NFL twice.
From 1985 to ’88, the Bears of Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, Gary
Fencik and Co. led the entire NFL in fewest points allowed three times.
Heck, the Miami defense from 1970 to ’73 led the AFC in fewest points scored three
times and the NFL twice. The Los Angeles Rams of ’74 and ’75 led the NFL, giving
up only 135 points in the 14-game ’75 season. The Ravens have managed it once in a
row.
The point here is not to argue that the Ravens don’t have a talented defense. They
do. But there is a difference between good and very good and a bigger difference between
very good and great. The Ravens’ defense of a year ago was very good for its time,
and quite assuredly for any time. But it was never the greatest defense in NFL history,
even though it allowed the fewest points in a 16-game season.
In a watered-down age when the talent is spread too thin and too many NFL teams are
painfully ordinary, the Ravens’ defense put together an extraordinary season in 2000.
For that, they deserve credit. What they don’t deserve is being compared to the Steel
Curtain defenses of the Steelers or the Bears’ defenses of the mid-’80s.
Those were great defenses, arguably the two greatest of all time, because they repeated
themselves. Time proved their greatness, not highlight films on ESPN SportsCenter.
This year virtually the same group of Ravens defenders is having a good season, but it
is not even the most effective in its own division. Being stingy one season is something
to be proud of, but it’s a cut below greatness.
Ron Borges is a columnist for the Boston Globe. |
