Commentary: Finally, Titans Can Ruin Things for Ravens

Baltimore is the team with much to lose in Saturday's divisional playoff game, which is unlike some previous postseason encounters with Titans

NASHVILLE – Of course it’s the Baltimore Ravens. What other team would it be?

Every time the Middle Tennessee football faithful start to feel really good about the Tennessee Titans, the Ravens show up. And usually they ruin everything.

Make no mistake: Following last Saturday’s 20-13 wild card victory over the New England Patriots, belief in and support for the Titans from the local fan base is as high as it has been in more than a decade. So, (to repeat) of course it’s the Ravens who are up next.

This time is different, though.

There’s really nothing Baltimore can do to spoil things. After a 2-4 start, the fact that Tennessee is in the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs means that the team and everyone associated with it are playing with house money.

It is the Titans who have the chance to ruin it for the Ravens.

Baltimore, after all, is the team that was the NFL’s best during the regular season. Baltimore is the team that enters the playoffs on a 12-game winning streak. Baltimore is the team that has the most exciting young player in the game, quarterback Lamar Jackson who also is all but certain to be named Most Valuable Player. Baltimore is one of two clubs (San Francisco is the other) with an offense that ranks in the top five for yards per game and a defense that ranks in the top five for yards per game allowed. Baltimore is the only team that averaged better than 30 points per game in 2019. Baltimore is the team that set an NFL record for rushing yards in a season. Baltimore is the first team in NFL history to average at least 200 rushing yards and 200 passing yards per game.

There’s more, but you get the picture.

The Ravens are the ones most expect to win Super Bowl LIV. That means they have the most to lose among the eight teams in this weekend’s divisional playoff round.

The whole situation is in stark contrast to 2000. That’s when Tennessee was the NFL’s best team in the regular season and a Super Bowl favorite. Then Baltimore showed up in the divisional round and ruined things when it won 24-10.

It is different than 2008, when Tennessee once again was the NFL’s best team during the regular season. Then the Ravens arrived in the divisional round and ruined things when they topped the Titans 13-10.

It is not simply Super Bowl aspirations that Baltimore has crushed either.

The Ravens were the first visiting team to win at Nissan Stadium. Their 24-23 victory on Nov. 12, 2000 ended the record-setting streak of Titans’ wins in their first 12 games at Nissan Stadium, which also has been known – at times – as The Coliseum, Adelphia Coliseum or LP Field.

The Ravens were the first visiting team to win a prime-time game there. That was a 16-10 Monday Night Football affair on Nov. 12, 2001 that ended in controversial fashion after it appeared Tennessee had scored a touchdown with three seconds to play.

Even in 1999 when the Titans made it to the Super Bowl, their worst loss of the regular season – and their only defeat in 11 contests prior to Super Bowl XXXIV – was a 41-14 butt-whipping at Baltimore.

Sure, Tennessee got some satisfaction out of its 20-17 wild card victory at Baltimore on Jan. 3, 2004. In that case, though, the Ravens (10-6) were the worst of the AFC’s four division champions and the Titans, at 12-4 during the 2003 season, had the best record of any of the league’s wild card teams. Truth be told, that was one time they got the best of Baltimore when they were supposed to do so.

None of that means anything to Mike Vrabel, Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, Jurrell Casey, Kevin Byard and the rest. They didn’t experience all – or any – of that disappointment. Their only concern is to try to figure a way to win a football game against a very good team.

For those who support these Titans, though, this is an opportunity for payback (partial, at least) for all the misery inflicted upon previous versions of this team by a single opponent, one that always seems to ruin things.