OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- The heck with style points. The
Baltimore Ravens don't care if their offense is boring, as long as
they put decent numbers on the scoreboard.
Unfortunately, that's been a problem this season for a plodding,
run-oriented unit that averages a touchdown a game.
One touchdown was more than enough last Sunday against the New
York Jets and third-string quarterback Brooks Bollinger, but coach
Brian Billick knows Baltimore can't reach the playoffs with an
attack that has totaled 30 points over three games.
"We have got to make more consistent plays down the field,"
Billick said Wednesday.
In its 13-3 win over New York, Baltimore ran 45 times and threw
21 passes. Jamal Lewis gained 81 yards on 29 carries, and Anthony
Wright completed 15 throws for 144 yards and one interception.
The Ravens played not to lose, and fulfilled their objective --
even though the home crowd jeered them as they ran out the clock to
end the first half.
"I can't ask more from my quarterback in terms of his
efficiency," Billick said. "Now, we need to have more
productivity when we commit to the run that way, and we've got to
have more explosive plays down the field. The profile we showed is
very good, but there's got to be a great deal more if we expect to
get where we want to go."
The Ravens (1-2) want to go to Detroit for the Super Bowl.
They'll be heading there Sunday for a game against the Lions (1-2),
co-leaders in the woeful NFL North.
The last time they went to the Super Bowl, the Ravens combined a
stout defense with the running of Lewis. Baltimore hoped the
addition of wide receivers Derrick Mason and Mark Clayton would
enable them to open up the offense, but right now, the team's
offensive framework is strikingly similar.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. It's a
very easy method: We run the football very well and we play
hard-nosed defense," linebacker Ray Lewis said. "The day we get
away from that is the day things don't go our way.
"The business likes high-scoring games. The business likes
flash. We're not flashy. We're old-school. I try to tell everybody,
behind a good man there's always a good woman. Behind a good
defense, there's always a good offense."
Jamal Lewis missed most of training camp after serving time in a
halfway house this summer, the result of a guilty plea to using a
cell phone to set up a proposed drug buy in 2000. He was held to 57
yards in Baltimore's first two games, and although he picked it up
against the Jets, he knows he could have done better.
"I slipped on one play, and on another one I think I tripped on
a lineman's feet," he said. "I left some yards on the field, but
that game wasn't about Jamal Lewis getting 200 yards. That game was
about trying to get a win."
The defense took care of that, limiting the Jets to 152 yards on
48 plays.
"You can't live on scoring 13 points a game. The defense did a
great job this past weekend, but there has be a time where as an
offense you have to pick it up," Mason said. "You're not going to
run into too many teams that are down to their third-string
quarterback. We have the talent to put up a lot of points; we've
just got to do it."
Until starter Kyle Boller returns from a toe injury, it will be
up to Wright to bring the offense around.
"We want to put more points on the board, but the bottom line
right now is winning games," Wright said. "It's still early in
the season; it's not Week 10. We're still working, and we still
have time to get all the crinkles out of the offense and get things
exactly where we want to have them."
Wright knows the Ravens have long counted on the run to win, and
he expects to stay true to that philosophy.
"I'm not saying we can't throw the ball, because obviously we
can," he said. "But the profile of this offense is being able to
run first. If we have to throw the ball we will, if not, then we
don't have to."