You don't expect Steve McNair to goof it up like he did Monday night. You don't expect McNair to Snake it up, not even in the snow and rain and gloom of Mile High against the Denver Broncos. But that's the story of Denver's 13-3 victory, McNair's blunders, his two lob-pass interceptions that more than anything else sabotaged Baltimore's opportunity to stay undefeated.
You expect those kinds of bad decisions and bad throws from the other quarterback in this game, Denver's Jake "The Snake" Plummer, but not McNair.
This wasn't just a case of a bad night; it was probably one of McNair's worst. It was Kyle Boller bad, the kind of blame-the-quarterback defeat that has frustrated the Ravens over the last few years and led the club to acquire the savvy McNair in the first place.
But an interception just before the half kept the game tied when Baltimore had in hand at least a chip-shot field goal to take the lead. And a second pick, this one with 6 minutes 47 seconds to play in the game, turned the lights out on the Ravens in a tense if not particularly entertaining "Monday Night Football" affair.
After rallying Baltimore to a pair of fourth-quarter victories, over Cleveland and San Diego, it's not like the Ravens are going to throw McNair back and put the mostly undependable Boller under center. But it's the kind of game the Ravens specialize in winning. Substitute a pair of field goals for the turnovers and the Ravens could have won.
Instead, they drop to 4-1 and return home frustrated. And it's also fair to wonder, even with the pair of fourth-quarter victories, how long it's going to take McNair to feel comfortable in an offense new to him.
Remember, with the defense and special teams the Ravens have, the quarterback doesn't need to win the game — just not lose it. And Monday night, McNair's interceptions lost it.
It wasn't a night for offense, either. It was a night for slipping and falling, for dropping passes, for fumbling handoffs, and for being body slammed. It was a night for defense, 41 degrees at halftime, snow mixed with rain blowing over the roof and into Invesco Field, making it tough to grip the ball. It was a night for creative running plays and screen passes, a night for the tight end and a night for field goals. Also, it's a night for punting.
That would seem to play right into the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. Don't get me wrong, the biggest offseason quarterback upgrade in football was getting McNair to replace Boller. The Ravens are confident they can move the ball in ways they haven't since the 2000 Super Bowl season. The whole team has been uplifted by McNair's fourth-quarter performances. Still, the Ravens are defense, then running the ball, then throwing it. It's a team built for plowing, even in the snow, and making something good from the other guy's turnover.
So when Tatum Bell fumbled the wet ball on a routine running play and Baltimore's Chris McAlister recovered, it was just the kind of mistake the Ravens tend to jump on. And they did, just not to the full extent. Jamal Lewis carried four times. McNair hit Mark Clayton and Todd Heap. But the Ravens couldn't bust anything big and settled for a 3-0 lead on Matt Stover's 24-yard field goal with just under five minutes left in the first quarter.
There are three teams in the NFL whose defenses are so brutally nasty -- the Bears, Chargers and Ravens — that they could actually make a 3-0 lead stand, even on the road against an explosive offensive team like the Broncos. And in Denver's case, there's always the issue of whether the Good Jake or the Bad Jake is going to show up and turn a 3-0 deficit into something bigger.
One week it's 300 yards and a pair of touchdowns from the Good Jake. The next week, it's two interceptions from the Bad Jake and a week's worth of talk about Mike Shanahan having to start the rookie, Jay Cutler, and "Bench Jake" signs all over the stadium. It's been that way for 10 years for Jake Plummer, one all-pro moment followed by one jaw-dropping brain cramp of a moment. It appeared the Ravens got the benefit of the Bad Jake on Monday night, what with the way he threw a crazy interception to McAlister early, and what with the way he threw five yards behind his receivers or short with a man running deep.
Thing is, there's so little room for error in these. The Ravens made one when they couldn't cover Denver's Dorrent Williams and he took a punt 33 yards the other way to set up a field goal that tied the game, 3-3.
Baltimore still should have held a halftime lead after McNair found old friend Derrick Mason for 26 yards to the 11 with a minute to play before intermission. This is where, when you have Super Bowl aspirations and a Super Bowl defense, you have to cash in. And this is why the Ravens acquired McNair, to turn what appears to be 6-3 into 10-3.
It's the kind of game you look back and value winning, at Mile High with the snow falling, with Carolina and the Saints on deck. What you don't expect is for McNair to get Snake-ish on you, to throw one up for grabs. But that's what McNair did in the final seconds of the half. He lobbed one up for Clarence Moore, his 6-foot-6 receiver, hoping he would either get position or out-jump 6-foot Champ Bailey in the end zone. Maybe McNair didn't have a good grip on the ball.
Maybe he didn't have his footing. Maybe Moore couldn't get his. Whatever the case, Bailey grabbed the pass for an interception and the Ravens had nothing at the half but a 3-3 tie.
One problem the Ravens have is they have to throw the ball too much to suit the team's personality. Lewis, two years removed from his 2,000-yard rushing season, is not even close to the back he used to be. Mike Anderson and Musa Smith hit the holes so much quicker. Lewis has turned into a dancer at the line and can't run past or through anybody anymore. A third-and-one situation nearing midfield would never have resulted in a lob pass to the tight end (as happened in the second quarter) with Lewis at his best. At 27, you have to wonder if Lewis is done as a feature back because, from all appearances, his burst is gone.
Lewis's dropped pass on third and six, after Anderson had run for a pair of first downs, stopped a Baltimore drive on the first series of the fourth quarter. And with a great sense of opportunity, the Broncos cobbled together enough of a drive to get Jason Elam within range of a 44-yard field goal attempt, which he nailed for the 6-3 Denver lead.