Late Touchdown Pass Beats Ravens, Rallies Unbeaten Tennessee to Fifth Straight Victory: Titans 13, Ravens 10
By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 6, 2008
BALTIMORE, Oct. 5 -- Few had the Tennessee Titans pegged as the team to beat in the AFC entering the season. But it has taken only five games for them to establish themselves as a top Super Bowl contender.
On Sunday, they remained unbeaten by riding the rugged play of their defense and one well-timed drive engineered by quarterback Kerry Collins to a 13-10 triumph over the Baltimore Ravens.
"I don't think any of you guys thought we'd be 5-0 at the bye week," Titans Coach Jeff Fisher said before a room filled with reporters afterward. "I did. I don't think you guys did."
Collins made up for two earlier interceptions by throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end Alge Crumpler with just less than two minutes to play. He beat the Ravens in his first start against them since being overwhelmed by their defense in a Super Bowl loss in 2001 while with the New York Giants.
"Today was a big test for us to come in here against a great defense," Collins said. "It wasn't very good for 3 1/2 quarters. But guys stepped up and made plays when we needed it."
The Titans beat their nemesis even on a day when Olympic swimming hero Michael Phelps served as an honorary captain for his hometown team, accompanying Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and guard Ben Grubbs on the field for the pregame coin toss.
Even that couldn't get the Ravens back in the win column, however. They lost their second straight game after their 2-0 beginning and their quarterback, Joe Flacco, looked like a rookie in his fourth NFL start. He threw two interceptions and had a third overturned by an instant replay review.
The Ravens were most upset about a roughing-the-passer call on linebacker Terrell Suggs that kept the Titans' winning drive going. Suggs was called for a blow to the head in what appeared to be, at best, a light touch on Collins's helmet. Suggs said it wasn't even that.
"If anybody can go back and show me something I did illegal, then I would be happy to oblige and say, 'I messed up and I got what I deserved -- a personal foul,' " Suggs said. "But when you are nowhere near his head -- we hit arms. . . . It just goes to show the referee has too much power in the game."
The call came on a third-down incompletion by Collins that would have forced the Titans to punt. However, the Titans were called for a false-start penalty on the play. The officials said they tried to whistle the play dead but both teams continued to play, leading to the call on Suggs after Collins' pass.
"I thought false starts are supposed to stop the play," Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason said. "It's a dead-ball foul. I'm frustrated. I can't say anything. I can't say too much about it. I thought it was a dead-ball foul and you stop the play, and you move on. But I guess that wasn't the case."
Referee Bill Carollo told a pool reporter that "we tried to shut it down and blow the whistle. But the players didn't hear the whistle and they continued to play. [Suggs] came in and hit the quarterback on the side of the helmet."
By rule, a five-yard penalty such as a false start is disregarded on a play on which the other team commits a 15-yard personal foul. Carollo, who made the call, said Suggs hit Collins on the right side of Collins's helmet.
"We're blowing the whistle, blowing the whistle," Carollo told the pool reporter. "He may not have heard that -- and we're going to give him that -- but he still can't hit the quarterback on the helmet."
If Collins did get hit in his helmet, he wasn't saying so with any certainty.
"I think he did," Collins said. "It's hard for me to recalculate every second. The referee made a call and you go on."
Still, the call only gave the Titans a first down at their 35-yard line with 5 minutes 50 seconds remaining. They still had a long way to go. But Collins got them to the end zone, finally finding Crumpler for the touchdown with 1:56 left. It wasn't quite Super Bowl revenge for Collins, but it was something.
"I think Kerry had a little extra incentive because of that Super Bowl," Crumpler said. "I'm happy for him."
Collins's four-interception performance for the Giants in that Super Bowl romp by the Ravens is an NFL lifetime ago now. He's been the Titans' starter since Vince Young's knee injury in the opening game of the season, and he is keeping the job even with Young healthy and on the sideline Sunday as Collins's primary backup.
"They're a great defense," Collins said. "It wasn't pretty today and certainly wasn't my best game, but in the end we found a way to win and that's all you can ask for. . . . It's hard to forget that [Super Bowl]. It obviously wasn't one of my better days. Certainly I wanted to beat them. I wanted to go 5-0 more than anything."
It was a rough-and-tumble game, with 21 penalties and plenty of pushing and shoving after many plays. Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck even delivered a two-handed shove to the chest of his teammate, Cortland Finnegan, after the cornerback became overly exuberant and was called for a personal foul for a late hit on the sideline.
It was 3-all at halftime after the Ravens' Matt Stover and the Titans' Rob Bironas traded field goals and Stover missed one just before the break. The Ravens took a 10-3 lead in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by fullback Le'Ron McClain. But Bironas's 26-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter got the Titans close, and Collins delivered in crunch time.
"We anticipated this kind of game all week," Fisher said. "We knew it would be physical. We knew there would not be a lot of plays to be made against their defense. But we made them when we needed to."
View all comments that have been posted about this article.