By Randy Galloway
rgalloway@star-telegram.com
Baltimore.
Not the city. The football team.
This being Super Bowl week, I'm predicting this is also the week our local football god, Mr. Jones, finally gets around to, yes, Baltimore.
(Follow along closely. Don't stray on me. I'll start making good sense in a minute. Well, maybe.)
I'm just saying it's a guarantee Jerry has Baltimore planted on his pea-size football brain, but he's been very busy lately, firing and hiring coaches, "scouting" for potential studs at the Senior Bowl, getting that shock collar leash firmly attached to Jason Garrett's neck, and hiring a designated driver for Jay Ratliff.
But Baltimore?
That one bugs Jerry. Bugs him bad.
The Ravens are in the Super Bowl. Jerry is wondering "how."
Got to admit, I'm also wondering how. We both saw the Ravens' playoffs wins in Denver and Foxborough, and have to admit to gutty, gutty efforts in both.
But we both were in Baltimore in mid-October to see the Cowboys play the Ravens. On that day, the Ravens were not as good as the Cowboys, but still won the game 31-29.
In judging the 13 opponents the Cowboys played in 16 games, I'd say only Philly was worse than the Ravens.
And now Baltimore is one win away from a world championship.
See, this is the kind of thing that drives Jerry into a reality meltdown. We see it every season. He can look back at his team playing the Ravens on that October afternoon, and he can go to New Orleans this week thinking "we're close, really close."
Actually, if Jerry hadn't already gone on his rampage of "change" before the Ravens won that second playoff game in Denver, you've got to wonder if all the coaches fired would still have jobs here. That's the way it usually works with Mr. Jones.
All I know is the same Ravens defense that was not only crushed but also physically punked in October by the Cowboys' offensive line, went into Foxborough in the AFC title game and snuffed Tom Brady and Co.
I repeat: The dog-cussed Cowboys offensive line crushed and punked the Ravens' defense. Ray Lewis played on that defense, although he was injured that day. His departure because of that injury actually upgraded the Ravens' defense, that's how bad Lewis was being blown off the line of scrimmage.
Granted, the Ravens' defense was missing Terrell Suggs that day, but still...
The Cowboys ran for 227 yards, the most yards ever given up by a Ravens defense on the ground. Tony Romo threw for 261 more yards and a TD.
The game was finally lost when the normally dependable kicker missed a tricky 51-yard field goal in the final seconds. Of course, the lasting memory is how Garrett and Romo had a total clock malfunction on the final drive, getting off one play in the last 26 seconds.
Yes, the Cowboys' defense was awful against the Ravens, one of the worst performances of the season under the now-departed Rob Ryan. Yes, there was a special teams coverage screw-up, allowing a long TD return on a kickoff. Joe DeCamillis, in charge of that area, is also a coach now gone.
The Cowboys, as the better team in Baltimore, didn't get the win.
But overall, Jerry now has Baltimore on the brain. Baltimore is in the Super Bowl this week.
You can say, well, it was only mid-October, and the Ravens' defense simply had an off day.
Except, the next week the Ravens traveled to Houston. I made it known to all my gambling degenerates that the Texans were the lock of the week. Bingo, I was actually right. The Texans blew 'em away 43-13.
After that, I dismissed the Ravens. Did I miss something that was happening later in the season? No, I didn't. The Ravens lost four of their final five games in December and still made the playoffs.
A home-field win over Indy to open the postseason proved nothing (at least to me), and, oh, yeah, I also had Denver as the lock of the week hosting Baltimore in the second round. That same defense that was shredded by the Cowboys made Peyton Manning look like Romo in Washington.
And then that same defense in Foxborough, and what it did to Brady, was a defensive clinic.
You figure it out. I can't.
But I know Jerry. And he's got it figured out.
We're close, he's thinking. Really close.
Is that reality? Heck, no. Every team the Ravens played this season is thinking the same thing. The Texans? They've got to be really stunned. But again, it's not reality for anyone, including the Cowboys.
The Ravens got it done. Nobody else did.
Regardless, this is the week, Super Bowl week, that Jerry will finally get around to mentioning "Baltimore."
It's in him, and it has to come out.
And that's a guarantee.
Randy Galloway can be heard 3-6 p.m. weekdays on Galloway & Co. on ESPN/103.3 FM.Randy Galloway, 817-390-7697
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