Ravens Set Sights On Brady

Baltimore Up to Challenge Against Top-Ranked Passer

The Baltimore Ravens, particularly under defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, have sought to demoralize quarterbacks however they can, bringing pressure, delivering hits and forcing turnovers. Tonight they face one of their biggest challenges in hosting the undefeated New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady.

Making sure a quarterback has to pick himself off the ground repeatedly "is huge, and that's more our goal when we're attacking quarterbacks," linebacker Jarret Johnson said. "Yeah, we like sacks, we like that stat, but the main thing is to disrupt timing and get into the quarterback's head. Sacks are the benefit of it. The main thing is getting in his head."

Few teams, if any, have been able to do that to Brady, the league's top-ranked passer (127.9 rating). He has thrown 39 touchdown passes with just four interceptions. He has been sacked only 13 times, and the majority of them came against four teams: San Diego (two), Dallas (three), Indianapolis (two) and Philadelphia (three).

In last week's 31-28 victory over the Eagles -- the Patriots' closest game thus far -- Brady said he absorbed some of the hardest hits he has all season. He completed a season-low 63 percent of his passes (34 of 54). Of course, he still threw for 380 yards and one touchdown, and didn't commit a turnover.

"You just try to make sure he doesn't have a whole bunch of time," said linebacker Terrell Suggs, who leads the Ravens (4-7) with four sacks. "You don't want to put that pressure on your secondary, because they can't cover forever."

Baltimore's secondary is expected to have cornerback Samari Rolle, who came back last week after missing six of the previous nine games because of treatment for epilepsy. Cornerback Chris McAlister, who has missed four of the past five games with a knee injury, will be a game-time decision.

It's difficult to get to Brady because he gets rid of the ball so quickly, and because the timing he has with his receivers is so precise.

"The main thing is, everything is tied in," Ryan said. Brady "knows the route, how long it's going to take to get rid of it, and he knows the protection because he's setting the protection. Now if a guy just gets beat clean, that's when he's going to get hit. The few times he has been sacked and things, guys have missed protections. Nobody's really come clean on him as far as a missed assignment or something like that. Actually, he's fast enough, I've seen a defensive end get turned loose, and he still gets the ball out of his hands."

Defenses have to choose wisely against the Patriots, who make very few mistakes (league-low nine turnovers). New England has potent offensive players, starting with wide receivers Randy Moss (71 catches for 1,095 yards and 16 touchdowns) and Wes Welker (81 catches for 878 yards). When the Ravens faced Moss last season when he was with Oakland, they always made sure they had two players accounting for him, and that extra attention meant they couldn't run all of the blitzes they wanted to, according to Johnson.

"You can always get to the quarterback if you want to," Ryan said. "The only thing is, they've got Randy Moss out there, [Dont¿] Stallworth, Welker, Ben Watson, whoever else they throw out there. Those matchups are probably not in your favor, where if they were, [Brady would] be getting hit a lot more. It's easy to design zero blitz to get there, but you're leaving everybody vulnerable. That's why very few people have done that and have the guts to do it. It's probably not the smartest things. Though if you really get [ticked] off, you could go ahead and do it."

Baltimore's defense, led by the confident Ryan, is not afraid to do or try anything. But he said he learned a lesson in Baltimore's last appearance on Monday night, a 38-7 loss at Pittsburgh on Nov. 5 in which quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw five touchdown passes.

The Ravens thought they could get to Roethlisberger, but they were unable to bring him down, and he picked apart a secondary that was without its starting cornerbacks, McAlister and Rolle. Roethlisberger slipped out of Trevor Pryce's grasp on one touchdown, and stepped away from a diving Suggs on another.

"You have to look at those things and do what's best for your people," Ryan said. "Even though your first instincts are to say, 'You've got a great quarterback, let's go try to knock him to the ground a few times.' "

But the Ravens know they have to do something to try to get to Brady. They feel like they have the personnel to harass him, even without Pryce (on injured reserve with a pectoral muscle injury).

"We gotta get the pressure on him, no matter what, and try to get the sacks," defensive tackle Justin Bannan said. "We're going to find out Monday night. They obviously are who they say they are, but I believe our defense is who we say we are, too. We got to come out and show 'em."