Cary Williams

Ravens coach John Harbaugh said the team was going to take a “hard look” at the status of cornerback Jimmy Smith following Sunday's victory over the Oakland Raiders.The result was not what the Ravens had hoped and they're now prepared to be without the second-year cornerback. . Smith, who moved into the starting lineup when Lardarius Webb went down in Week 6 with a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee, had successful surgery to repair a sport hernia Thursday morning in Philadelphia.

The Ravens escaped their first meeting with the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 27 with a 23-16 win, and the game-winning touchdown was provided when cornerback Cary Williams jumped an out route run by wide receiver Travis Benjamin for an interception he returned 63 yards for a touchdown. This week, Williams recalled his perspective on the turning point of the game. What do you remember about that interception? "I just recognized the formation. Once I saw that and recognized the motion, then I knew it was going to be a play that I had seen before in previous games.

The absence of cornerback Lardarius Webb will hurt this team more than inside linebacker Ray Lewis not being in the lineup. Webb was playing extremely well and had forced other teams to stay away from him. He pretty much had shut down one quarter of the field. Without him, teams will start attacking the entire field again. Cornerbacks Cary Williams and Jimmy Smith have shown improvement in the last two games, but opposing teams weren't throwing at them. When you can run for more than 200 yards a game, why throw?

The moment Lardarius Webb hit the turf Sunday, the Ravens assumed they would be moving forward without him. Tests confirmed Monday that Webb, a rare bright spot on the Ravens' fading defense, needed knee surgery and would miss the rest of the season. More bad news came later in the day when the team learned that linebacker Ray Lewis would also be heading to injured reserve. Arguably their most valuable defender, Webb, 27, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the first quarter of Sunday's 31-29 win over the Dallas Cowboys at M&T Bank Stadium.

With his long stride carrying him past defenders, Ravens return specialist Jacoby Jones followed his blocks and rapidly accelerated away from the Dallas Cowboys. Jones didn't stop until he had reached the end zone and entered the NFL record book with a 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown Sunday to tie a league record and set a franchise record for longest kickoff return. "I told him before the game I knew he was going to get a touchdown," cornerback Cary Williams said following the Ravens' 31-29 victory at M&T Bank Stadium.

It was an extremely costly victory for the Ravens, with team officials concerned Sunday night that middle linebacker Ray Lewis and cornerback Lardarius Webb had suffered potentially season-ending injuries against the Dallas Cowboys. Although magnetic resonance imaging exams will be conducted Monday, there was immediate fear that Lewis tore his right triceps and that Webb tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, according to multiple sources. Sources cautioned, though, that nothing is concrete on Lewis or Webb until more extensive examinations are performed.

My, have the footballs been flying. In case you needed more proof that this has become a passing league, six NFL teams have averaged 40 or more pass attempts through four games. The New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions, who have a combined one win between them, are closing in on 50 passes a game. Heck, even the Ravens have thrown the ball 159 times in their four games, which is the seventh-highest total in the league. And trust me, the Ravens defense, which ranks 29th against the pass, is also aware of this continuing trend.

For much of the first three weeks, opposing quarterbacks had found Ravens' cornerback Cary Williams. They watched where he lined up and often threw in that direction. But with the Ravens' holding onto a precarious six-point lead late in the third quarter Thursday, Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden lost sight of Williams and the result was the game's decisive play. Williams stepped in front of wide receiver Travis Benjamin in the flat and took the ball back 63 yards for a touchdown, his first career interception helping the Ravens turn aside the pesky Browns, 23-16, before an announced 70,944 in a game played in a steady rain storm.

One of the areas that the Ravens struggled in with regards to Sunday night's 31-30 win against the New England Patriots was pass defense, and no one appeared to have a tougher outing than cornerback Cary Williams. On New England's first series of the third quarter, quarterback Tom Brady threw to a receiver in Williams' direction four of five times, and Brandon Lloyd caught three balls for 30 yards and Wes Welker caught one pass for 11 yards. Brady went back to Williams three more times in the second half, connecting with Lloyd for 13 yards and Welker for seven before misfiring on another pass to Lloyd.

The Ravens achieved the improbable when they made a remarkable comeback to beat the New England Patriots, 31-30. But that doesn't mean that the guys who play on the defensive side of the ball were entirely pleased with their efforts Sunday night. For the second week in a row, the pass defense surrendered an alarming number of yards to its opponent. After surrendering 486 yards of offense and 371 passing yards to quarterback Michael Vick in a 24-23 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles eight days ago, the defense allowed 396 total yards and 335 passing yards to Tom Brady on Sunday night.