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Sunday, January 28, 2001

By Ron Cook, Post-Gazette Columnist

TAMPA, Fla. -- The first thing Baltimore Ravens Coach Brian Billick did when he arrived at Super Bowl XXXV was attack the national media. "Reprehensible," he called it. "Sensational."

	Brian Billick of the Ravens. (Bob Galbraith, Associated Press)

You can argue Billick did a disservice to the person he was trying to protect, the person who motivated his rant, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. He turned the media's interest in Lewis -- the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year, one year removed from double-murder charges -- into an obsession.

The Ravens look at it another way.

"Brian had my back," said Lewis, who ultimately was convicted of obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor, for his role in two stabbing deaths after Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta.

"He's one of us," tight end Shannon Sharpe said.

"A players' coach," Lewis added.

That term has become an overused cliche in sports. But in Billick's case, it's true.

This is a coach who hasn't practiced his team in pads in more than two months. Once the Ravens qualified for the playoffs as a wild card from the AFC Central, he explained to his players, "I want you fresh when we get to the Super Bowl."

Notice that was before the Ravens' playoff victories against Denver, Tennessee and Oakland.

Do you think that load, Tony Siragusa, appreciates the easy practices? Especially when the Ravens had to play three games, including two on the road, to make it here?

Siragusa, a defensive tackle who's been known to overindulge on some of life's finer temptations, also must have liked Billick's decision not to have a curfew last week.

"We've never had a curfew except on the night before games," Billick said. "I trust these men. Never in two years have they given me a reason not to."

"I'm 35 years old," safety Rod Woodson said. "I appreciate that Brian treats me like a man."

There's no doubt the Ravens have taken on Billick's personality. They were widely criticized for being so brazen last week. At a time the Giants were professional and business-like, they were talking about their place in history. Asked how many points the great Ravens' defense needed to win today, cornerback Chris McAlister said, "Seven." Added Lewis, "I don't think a shutout is beyond possibility."

Billick didn't mind the talking. He encouraged it, actually.

"When you go into the lion's den, you don't tippy-toe in," Billick said after the Ravens beat Tennessee in the playoffs. "You carry a spear. You go in screaming like a banshee and say, 'Where is that son of a gun?' "

"I think Brian's personality probably fits this team more than any other coach's personality fits their team," Sharpe said. "He loves to talk. He's brash. We love that because we show our ego."

It looked like it might get the Ravens in trouble before that Tennessee playoff game. After the Ravens became the first team to beat the Titans at their Adelphia Coliseum with a 24-23 win Nov. 12, Billick was caught on tape gloating about the victory and disparaging the Titans. He had no idea at the time his words would be shown on the Adelphia Coliseum scoreboard before the playoff game.

Do you know how loudly a crowd of 68,527 can boo?

And you're worried the Ravens might be distracted today by the whole Lewis thing?

"The bottom line is that Brian believes that whatever he says, we're going to go in there and back him up," Sharpe said. "And we will."

It didn't happen the way he thought it would when he took the Ravens' job before the 1999 season. He came from the Minnesota Vikings with the reputation as an offensive genius. In 1998, with him as offensive coordinator, the Vikings set an NFL scoring record.

But the Vikings had Randall Cunningham handing off to Robert Smith and passing to Randy Moss and Cris Carter. When Billick got to Baltimore, he found Scott Mitchell, Stoney Case and Tony Banks as his quarterbacks. There wasn't much of an upgrade at the position this year with Banks and Trent Dilfer.

Give Billick credit. He didn't allow his ego to get in his way. He simplified his high-powered offense, made it much more conservative. He realized the Ravens' best chance to win was running the ball and playing great defense and special teams.

"Old-time football," said Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens' vice president of player personnel.

The Ravens survived a five-game period at midseason when they didn't score a touchdown.

They won their three playoff games with Dilfer completing no more than nine passes in any game. They won on the road at Tennessee and Oakland in the playoffs by scoring just one offensive touchdown.

"We are what we are," Billick said. "I'd like to have the big numbers and win, but we're playing to our strength."

That doesn't mean Billick won't get defensive about his offense.

"I'm not saying this is the greatest offense since the invention of the forward pass," Billick said. "But it has done what it's needed to do to win."

It doesn't matter to Billick if you think his offense is dysfunctional. What's important to him -- what saved the Ravens' season, actually -- is that he was able to keep his defense believing all season. "This team never fragmented," he said, proudly. He never allowed a defense-vs.-offense split to develop, not even during the five-game scoring slump.

The Ravens were lucky to beat Cleveland and Jacksonville with Matt Stover field goals. But then, they lost to Washington, Tennessee and the Steelers. Billick benched Banks after the Tennessee loss and started Dilfer.

"After the second or third loss, I went to him," said Cavanaugh, a former Pitt quarterback.

"I asked him, 'What do you want to do? Fire me? Hang me? Kick me?' All he told me was to hang in there and keep calling the same plays I was calling. 'I believe in this system,' he said. 'It's worked before and it will work again. And once we score that first touchdown, it's going to snowball for us.'

"That's exactly what happened."

The Ravens beat Cincinnati, 27-7, the week after the loss to the Steelers, then went to Tennessee and won. Those two wins started a 10-game winning streak that's brought them all the way to Super Bowl XXXV.

Billick said he started thinking about today after that first win in Tennessee.

"Not just because we had beaten Tennessee and could say, 'Geez, we are now a playoff-caliber team.' Because we had stared into the abyss. We had faced the dire challenge that would have destroyed a lot of teams and we came through it.

" 'I've seen the toughest that there is. So what can you do to me now?'"

Do you think maybe there's a challenge somewhere in there for the Giants?

Know this about Billick:

He doesn't care if there is.