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 Comments and analysis from the Ravens' Super Bowl victory.
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 Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis speaks with ESPN's Andrea Kremer.
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Trent Dilfer talks about some peoples beliefs that the Ravens won despite having him as their quarterback.
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ESPN's Ed Werder talks with Shannon Sharpe about the Ravens' defense and his third Super Bowl title.
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Brian Billick tells ESPN's Andrea Kremer how he feels about winning a Super Bowl in only his second season as Baltimore's coach.
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ESPN's Ed Werder catches up with Baltimore's Rod Woodson after the Ravens' win in Super Bowl XXXV.
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Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis is this week's Sunday Conversation.
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Kerry Collins gives the Ravens credit for taking him out of his game plan.
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Tiki Barber and the Giants came up short all night against the Ravens.
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Jason Sehorn says the Giants could not turn things around in the second half.
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| | Monday, January 29
No doubting Ravens' defense
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com
RECAP
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BOX SCORE
TAMPA, Fla. -- A year ago, Ray Lewis was involved in a street fracas that
would come perilously close to ending his brilliant NFL career. A year ago,
Trent Dilfer wasn't sure where he'd be playing quarterback this season, if
anywhere at all.
|  | | Ravens wideout Brandon Stokley, right, beat out Jason Sehorn on a post pattern to give Baltimore a 7-0 lead. |
Whomever emerges from the Australian Outback in Survivor II will have
nothing on Lewis or Dilfer. Together they led the Baltimore Ravens to a
muscular 34-7 victory over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV Sunday
night at Raymond James Stadium.
Lewis, the 25-year-old linebacker, seemed to contest every ball that
came into his startling wide range of influence. He was the epicenter of a
savage defense that throttled the Giants and, fittingly, he was named the
game's Most Valuable Player. Dilfer, the 28-year-old quarterback who wasn't
even a starter to open the season, was typically efficient, sometimes even
spectacular, in guiding Baltimore to its 11th consecutive victory.
"It's overwhelming to look around and see this team, the way we won,
the way we worked through adversity," Dilfer asked. "Listen, we're better
than we play. Even after winning the world championship, people might not
believe me."
Oh, they'll believe.
It was the first Super Bowl victory for this Ravens franchise that has
been in existence since Art Modell relocated his Cleveland Browns after the
1995 season. It was the second title for a Baltimore team, going back to the
Colts' victory in Super Bowl V.
These 16-4 Ravens will go down in history as possessing one of the
league's greatest defenses ever. They limited the Giants to a single
touchdown, and that came on a kickoff return against the special teams unit.
Giants quarterback Kerry Collins, following in the dismal tradition of Drew
Bledsoe, Jim Kelly and Craig Morton, was bullied and harassed into tying a
Super Bowl record with four interceptions.
Hey, Giants coach Jim Fassel never guaranteed his team would win
the Super Bowl, did he?
When Lewis -- who will not be going to Disney World in the usual manner
of MVPs for a variety of complicated reasons -- was asked by an accidental
journalist how he would react to the spotlight cast by the MVP, he laughed.
It was a genuine, breathless kind of laugh. It might have been the last
laugh.
"Not to be funny," Lewis said quite seriously, "but I've had an
intense spotlight on me all year. When you put somebody on a pedestal before
the game, all eyes are on you. I played a hell of a game, but that's how I
play every game."
Lewis finished with five tackles and, most important, four passes
defensed, three more than the entire Giants defense.
It was a quirky game. With 4 minutes and 36 seconds left -- in the third
quarter -- the two teams tied the record for most punts in a Super Bowl. The
defense on both sides was oppressive. And then, in a 36-second slice late in
the third quarter, three touchdowns were scored.
Dilfer is asked to do less for his team than any quarterback in the
NFL. He reached tight end Shannon Sharpe for touchdowns of 58 yards and 96
yards in two previous playoff games, and a mere eight minutes and 10 seconds
into the game, Dilfer had fulfilled his limited obligation.
After the two defenses forced four consecutive punts, Dilfer shrewdly
looked left and threw over the middle to wide receiver Brandon Stokley, who
was a few steps ahead of Giants cornerback Jason Sehorn. Stokley dragged him into the end zone with the longest gain of his two-year career. At that
early juncture, the Ravens' voracious defense probably felt like it was
playing with house money.
Lewis was simultaneously sublime and ridiculous, tipping all
four of his passes in the first half alone. The third bounced through his
hands -- he is a linebacker, afterall -- and was reeled in by teammate Jamie
Sharper at the Ravens' 47-yard-line.
And then Baltimore got lucky; Dilfer had a momentary lapse into his
musty Tampa Bay history. His screen pass into the left flat was intercepted
by Giants linebacker Jessie Armstead, who took it the distance for an
apparent 43-yard touchdown. But instead of gaining a foothold in an even
game, the Giants were flagged when tackle Keith Hamilton put a hold on
running back Jamal Lewis coming out of the backfield. It was only a 5-yard
penalty, but it erased the most significant plays the Giants' underrated
defense would make.
"A big play," Armstead said. "It was a play that probably changed the
game. It got called back and you have to live with it."
And then Dilfer went beyond himself. He actually made a second big
play. On third-and-2 at the Baltimore 20, he dropped in a sweet spiral to a
streaking Qadry Ismail, who left Giants corner Dave Thomas in the blocks.
The play was good -- superb isn't too strong a word -- for 44 yards and it put
the Ravens in position to ice the game.
With 1:41 left in the half, placekicker Matt Stover did precisely what
Buffalo's Scott Norwood could not a decade ago a quarter-mile away in
now-defunct Tampa Stadium. Stover's 47-yarder (also on grass) did not slide
wide right; it fluttered, but it cleared the cross bar and the Ravens led
10-0.
The Giants picked up two first downs and 43 yards in two plays, but the
third time paid for all. Collins might have gotten a little greedy, because
when he saw Ike Hilliard momentarily behind the Ravens' defense he heaved
the ball toward the end zone. But again, the touchdown vanished. Cornerback
Chris McAlister leaped high and snagged Baltimore's second interception of
the half.
And just when the Giants' defense seemed to hand its offense an
opportunity to climb back in the game, Collins (literally) threw it away.
With Dilfer heading to the Ravens' locker room holding his left hand -- the
Giants' Cornelius Griffin and Michael Strahan collided with Dilfer in the
middle -- Collins threw his third interception in just more than 36 minutes. With
Hilliard surrounded by three Ravens, Collins forced in a bad ball and strong
safety Kim Herring, who seemed to be sitting back in a passive-aggressive
zone, came up with the interception.
The Ravens, with Tony Banks under center for a single series, failed to
put the Giants away when Stover, the league-leader with 35 field goals in
the regular season, missed a 41-yard field goal wide (surprise) left.
The coup de gras was Collins' fourth interception. With the Giants,
almost impossibly, still in a 10-0 game, Collins threw another dreadful
pass. Wideout Amani Toomer had barely broken across the middle when Collins'
pass hit cornerback Duane Starks between his matching 2s. Starks' subsequent 49-yard run gave the Ravens a comfortable 17-0 lead.
That lasted all of 18 seconds. That was how long it took the Giants'
Ron Dixon to traverse the field for a 97-yard touchdown return. It was the
rookie's second return for a score in the playoffs and the Giants, it
seemed, were back in it.
Not so fast.
Baltimore's Jermaine Lewis returned the favor, going 84 yards the other
way -- the first time a Super Bowl had seen back-to-back kickoff returns for
scores.
Make that 24-7, Ravens. The defensive struggle had been interrupted by a
36-second hiccup that produced three touchdowns.
When Jamal Lewis ran over linebacker Michael Barrow for a 3-yard run
with 8:45 left, the game was unofficially over, at 31-7.
And so the Ravens became the latest NFL team to come from nowhere to
win the championship. Last year, Baltimore went 8-8; this year the total was
twice that.
Quoth Edgar Allan Poe's raven: Nevermore! Nevermore!
Maybe the Bard of Baltimore was prescient beyond his time. Maybe his
raven, in a back-to-the-future way, was answering the critics of Dilfer and
Lewis.
Lewis' defense -- and make no mistake, its his defense -- allowed 165
points during the regular-season a record for a 16-game season and a mere 23
points in four playoff games. That's less than two field goals a game.
Dilfer? His 12-for-25 for 153 yards worth of statistics fell short of his
true impact. In four playoff games, Dilfer threw exactly one
interception. He was an eerily mediocre 38-38 in six cathartic seasons in
Tampa.
Now, appropriately, he is 39-38.
Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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