Football aficionados wax eloquent about these Baltimore defensive tackles being so adept at stuffing the run. From the looks of things, they're adept at stuffing several other things. Such as four, five meals a day.
Meet 340-pound Tony Siragusa.
Meet 330-pound Sam Adams.
Whether you meet them in a helmet-to-helmet collision or meet them for dinner, it's a real gut check.
"Inside?" Steelers center Dermontti Dawson said yesterday, referring to the beefy Baltimore interior, preparing to face them shortly after lunchtime Sunday in the Ravens' PSINet Stadium. "Some big boys. Big and strong."
Big and strong, but not soft and cheesy. Robust and rotund, but not easy to relocate. Siragusa, the former University of Pittsburgh defensive tackle, and Adams, together with linebacker Ray Lewis, form maybe the most staunch defensive middle in the NFL. After all, the Ravens lead the league in fewest points and fewest rushing yards allowed.
The Steelers know. They got shut out by this unit in the season opener, 16-0. Jerome Bettis got a meager eight yards on nine rushing attempts against this unit, his lowest in a Steelers uniform.
"There's no question they're loads," said Steelers right guard Rich Tylski, who will line up across from Adams Sunday. "They're athletic. Come off the ball. Physical. Play hard-nosed football."
"[Siragusa] plugs up the middle pretty well for them," added Steelers left guard Alan Faneca, who will take his stance opposite the former Pitt player Sunday. "It takes a lot to move him."
Last Sunday, it took a stretcher and a bunch of strong backs. Siragusa was injured four minutes into Baltimore's game with Tennessee and diagnosed with a bruised spinal cord. Reportedly, the vociferous tackle soon after demanded in the locker room, "What do I have to do to get cleared to play again?"
Siragusa, 32, was transported to the University of Maryland Medical System shock-trauma unit. After MRIs and X-rays cleared him, he returned to PSINet Stadium in the final minute of first half and received a greeting from Ravens fans: "Goooooose." He made three tackles in 21 plays, what the team media notes termed a "heroic effort."
Siragusa's health, however, was listed yesterday as questionable, meaning there's a 50-percent chance he will play against the Steelers. He told The Baltimore Sun that a Wednesday MRI showed an infection around the spinal cord and a loss of fluid in the area. "I have tingling in my hands," he told the newspaper. "We'll see how it goes."
More than that, Siragusa has a calf problem. No, he didn't eat one. His lower leg was kicked in the Tennessee game and swelled. The Ravens are approaching both injuries cautiously and readying backup Lional Dalton to start Sunday.
Dalton weighs a paltry 308, by comparison.
"I don't foresee [Siragusa] not playing, unless it's severe" said Dawson, who has faced him numerous times during Siragusa's career with the Ravens and Indianapolis. "From what they said, it was pretty bad, but he came back. That shows you how tough he is."
Adams, 27, was listed yesterday as probable despite a groin injury.
The Ravens added Adams, a former Seattle linemate of Cortez Kennedy, in their off-season free agency splurge and paired him with Siragusa. Side-by-side, they have combined for 59 tackles to help the defense yield the NFL's slimmest rushing yardage: 61.9 yards per game, 2.7 yards per rush. Adams is the one who recovered Kent Graham's fumble after a Michael McCrary thump in that season opener.
That game? Baltimore's big boys prevailed.
"Well, yeah, they won," Tylski said. "We didn't block really well the last time. We didn't execute. They did. I'd like to think we're better than Week 1."
"I think we definitely feel more comfortable about ourselves," Faneca added. "The first game ... , it was the first time we were back together as a front line. It was a little of an adjustment period for us because we didn't have five guys together -- Dermontti missed a lot with his hamstring, and Wayne [Gandy at tackle] missed some time with his shoulder."
Dawson continued, "No excuses. They just flat out beat us. If we don't sustain blocks and stay on them for an extended period, we'll be in trouble. It's just a matter of execution and making some plays. That's what we didn't do the first game."
For Bettis, this Ravens' defense long has provided a wide obstacle to Bus traffic. He has rumbled for just 41, 46, 39 and 8 yards in the past four confrontations. No NFL back has gained 100 yards against Baltimore for a league-long streak of 25 games.
Impress your friends with the answer as to who was the last: Chicago's James Allen, Dec. 20, 1998, 176 yards.
As Ravens defensive end Rob Burnett put it earlier this season: "We're not going to accept someone running on us. We take it personally."
Their defense has pieced together a stretch of dominance that rivals the Steelers' recent run. The Ravens have allowed just three offensive touchdowns in their past five games, a streak that started with back-to-back shutouts against -- sound familiar -- Cincinnati and Cleveland.
But they aren't impenetrable. Washington's Stephen Davis rushed for 91 yards against them, including a 33-yard run for the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter. Last week, when Eddie George got hurt after just one carry, Tennessee backup Rodney Thomas went 53 yards on 18 carries, with a long run of 15.
"It's always a grind when you play against Baltimore," Coach Bill Cowher said. "We've always had that. But everybody has problems with them. It has something to do with the 11 players they line up. You have to be patient, you have to be persistent."
And if you want to run the ball, it all starts against Baltimore's big boys. They're, uh, phat.
Ravens linemen make meals out of offenses 
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