MIAMI — MIAMI - The real playoffs start Saturday for the Ravens, when they travel to Tennessee to play the Titans in the AFC divisional round.
The Ravens' 27-9 victory over the Miami Dolphins in a wild-card playoff game was just a warm-up. The real contenders start playing next weekend with the Titans-Ravens rematch and the San Diego Chargers traveling to Pittsburgh. They all have real defenses and real quarterbacks who can make plays. They all have run-oriented offenses and play smash-mouth football.
The Ravens joined the best of the NFL two weeks ago when they beat the Dallas Cowboys, so they did what was expected yesterday. They physically pounded Miami for the second time this season, and you knew it was going to happen unless the Dolphins had found a supply of steroids on the beaches in Fort Lauderdale during the previous two months. Tough guys, the Dolphins aren't.
The Ravens made Miami look like pretenders, exposing the weak arm of quarterback Chad Pennington and the gimmicky Dolphins offense. They pushed Miami's run defense around, and afterward you had to wonder how Miami won 11 games this season even in the watered-down NFL.
But it won't be that easy against Tennessee.
"Come on, let's not kid ourselves," said Ravens fullback Lorenzo Neal, in his 16th season. "It's great to win any playoff game, especially on the road. But if we leave our defense exposed like that on the field next week with no points, we're in trouble."
"Our defense gave us the ball at the 40 once, and the 50 twice, and we didn't score any points," Neal said. "Those are the kinds of things that Lorenzo Neal, Derrick Mason, Le'Ron McClain and Joe Flacco better be concerned with. We play a team next week that likes to run like us, play great defense like us and will smack you around. If you don't score points off turnovers, those points will come back to haunt you in close games."
No surprises
The Ravens certainly won't be sneaking up on the Titans. Tennessee beat the Ravens, 13-10, on Oct. 5. LP Field is also where former Ravens coach Brian Billick delivered his best post-game speech when asked about his team coming into town with so much mouth.
"You come in kicking the door down, screaming like a banshee and asking, where is the son of a b - -?" Billick said.
Safety Ed Reed let the Titans know the Ravens were coming.
"Tennessee, here we come," Reed said. "Here come the Ravens. The team you don't want to see."
