Oakland Raiders

OAKLAND, Calif. - To reach the playoffs for the second straight season, the Ravens today have to do something they've always done under coach John Harbaugh - beat a team with a losing record. The Ravens are 11-0 against those teams in Harbaugh's two seasons because of pizazz on offense, domination on defense and a little-known secret. Asked why the Ravens don't overlook such teams, tight end Todd Heap essentially put his finger to his lips. "The key thing is we don't talk about it," said Heap, whose Ravens (8-7)

OAKLAND, Calif. - To reach the playoffs for the second straight season, the Ravens today have to do something they've always done under coach John Harbaugh - beat a team with a losing record. The Ravens are 11-0 against those teams in Harbaugh's two seasons because of pizazz on offense, domination on defense and a little-known secret. Asked why the Ravens don't overlook such teams, tight end Todd Heap essentially put his finger to his lips. "The key thing is we don't talk about it," said Heap, whose Ravens (8-7)

The Ravens followed their season script to perfection, using a smothering defense and timely offense to dominate the Oakland Raiders, 16-3, on Jan. 14, 2001, to reach the Super Bowl for the first time. It was the 10th straight victory for the Ravens, who would face the New York Giants in Tampa in two weeks. The defense battered Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon, who had to leave in the second quarter after a hit by defensive tackle Tony Siragusa. WHAT HAPPENED: : A 96-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Trent Dilfer to tight end Shannon Sharpe, still the longest scoring pass in NFL postseason history, stunned the Raiders just when they had gained field position and momentum in the second quarter.

PITTSBURGH -- Next stop, Oakland. The Ravens can't wait to get there. Missing a golden opportunity to secure a wild-card berth in the AFC playoffs, the Ravens self-destructed in the second half Sunday and dropped a wrenching 23-20 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Asked how the Ravens would respond to the difficult loss, a terse John Harbaugh set the emotional tone he wants his players to follow this week before traveling to the West Coast to play the Oakland Raiders. "I know how they'll respond," the coach said.

The Ravens have seen this sleight-of-hand trick before. For the second time in three weeks, the defensive game plan has been altered after an opponent made a change at quarterback. But unlike the Week 11 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers when the switch from Ben Roethlisberger to Dennis Dixon wasn't announced until the day before the game, the defense has been working since Wednesday making preparations for the Detroit Lions' Daunte Culpepper. "That way, you get a whole week to prepare," defensive tackle Kelly Gregg said.

The Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers have the easiest remaining schedules of the AFC wild-card contenders: Team Opp. rec. Pct. Ravens (6-5) 22-33 .400 Pittsburgh (6-5) 22-33 .400 Houston (5-6) 23-32 .418 Denver (7-4) 27-28 .490 Tennessee (5-6) 29-26 .527 Jacksonville (6-5) 29-26 .527 Miami (5-6)

Many people are saying that Shawne Merriman is back. The San Diego Chargers' outside linebacker insists he never left. "People are always going to forget everything," Merriman said during a conference call Wednesday. "My thing is to come out and do the things I do best, and that's better than saying, 'Look, I can do this or I can do that.' We've got a game Sunday, and people will sit back and watch." The former Maryland star played Monday night in his first game in nearly a year - a 24-20 win over the Oakland Raiders - after undergoing knee surgery and missing most of last season.

SILVER SPRING - First came the euphoria for Darrius Heyward-Bey, then the sucker punch. When the Oakland Raiders made Heyward-Bey the seventh pick - and first wide receiver - of the draft Saturday, a group of 30-plus close friends and family exploded in delirium. Scant moments later, with Heyward-Bey still seated on the brown, L-shape family room sofa, already wearing a Raiders cap, ESPN's Todd McShay delivered the punch. "To me, this has bust written all over it," McShay said, more in declaration than analysis.

Darrius Heyward-Bey has elite speed, a prototypical NFL body and a fervent desire to excel. But will that be enough to warrant selection in the top half of Saturday's draft for a wide receiver who disappeared in some Maryland's games, who could make the difficult catch and drop the easy one? Heyward-Bey is the epitome of risk-reward in this year's draft. The team that selects him could be getting, over the next few years, the league's next big playmaker, a wide-out capable of turning a game on a simple slant pattern.

Sometime early in the process, Darrius Heyward-Bey removed the mystique from the NFL draft and reduced his interminable offseason to a series of job interviews. Less than two weeks from a destination, the 6-foot-3 wide receiver from Maryland with 4.3 speed in the 40-yard dash has handled it all - the workouts and interviews, the poking and probing - with good humor and a keen sense of responsibility. It's almost as if Heyward-Bey, 22, has been preparing for this all his life. In a way, he has. When he was 14, he left his mother, Vivian Heyward-Bey, and his safety net in Silver Spring to attend McDonogh in pursuit of a better education and a future in basketball.