Ravens typically unfriendly hosts

09.23.2009

The numbers game says the Browns' offense is facing one heck of a challenge this week.

**It's been 37 games (and 33 months) since the Ravens last allowed an opposing running back to rush for 100 yards.

**The Ravens have at least 1 sack in 14 straight games and 5 so far in this young season. That type of consistent pressure on the quarterback is a big reason the team has a plus-31 turnover margin this decade and a jaw-dropping plus-42 interception differential since 2002.

**Not only do the Ravens feature at least two future Hall of Famers on a defense that consistently ranks among the league's best, those guys tend to bring their best when the Browns are on the opposite sideline. Ray Lewis has 6 career sacks against the Browns, the most he has against any team. Ed Reed has 7 career interceptions against the Browns and has returned 3 of them for scores.

**If those guys - and Terrell Suggs, and Haloti Ngata - aren't enough, the group is backed by 70,000-plus very loud, very passionate, purple-clad fanatics who help make M&T Bank Stadium about as unfriendly an environment as the Browns will face all season.

Brady Quinn, welcome to your first AFC North Division start.

"There's always an emotional element when those guys play at home," Quinn said Wednesday. "Those defensive leaders get everybody going.

"If you had a choice, you'd want to score first and be ahead. That's a tough place to come back from."

Dating back to 2003, the Ravens' defense at home has been the league's best in yards allowed, points allowed and interceptions and has the second-most sacks in that that time. That's thanks to a lot of things -- including superior talent and leadership, aggressive schemes, and a penchant for making big plays when they count most.

Stopping the run the way the Ravens do forces opponents into both early deficits and must-pass situations. The Ravens bring blitzers from all over and put their back-line players in position to make plays on the ball, something Reed obviously does as well as anyone.

His 106-yard interception return, then an NFL record, ended a Browns' upset bid in Baltimore in 2004. Not only did he beat that return by a yard last year against the Eagles, he returned another interception to the endzone against the Browns as the Ravens pulled away in an early-season game last September.

"We have to calm the game down and control the game," Browns receiver and return specialist Joshua Cribbs said. "We have to take the momentum from them. They're a momentum team. Ray Lewis gets those guys riled up and they play good when they have the momentum. We have to take it from them.

"We have to match their intensity first, and then we have to create big plays and pick up the blitz. When we do that, they'll stop blitzing, the momentum comes down, they get quiet. We just have to make plays. That's how you combat the momentum, making plays."

Through two games this season, the Ravens again rank as the league's best run defense - allowing just 41 yards per game on the ground - and opponents are converting just 34.6 percent of third-down chances.

The Browns are 3-7 in their previous 10 visits to Baltimore, which actually isn't bad when you consider the Ravens have won 73% of all their home games this decade and stand just one win from being the league's best home team in that time. Bigger than that, though, is the fact that the Browns just need a win - however and wherever they can get one.

"We take it as achallenge, but it's also a good opportunity to go out there and show what we can do," offensive lineman Eric Steinbach said. "That team is going to be rallying around their defensive leaders like always.

"They're 2-0, we're 0-2, we're going to their place in a hostile environment. I think it'd be great to be able to put everything together in an environment like that. It's going to be a great test for us. We're excited about it."

"Having a solid running game always make a quarterback's job easier," Quinn said. "Going against the number one rush defense doesn't help that, but we feel confident about our game plan going into the game. It's exciting. Anytime you can go against a tough opponent with those future Hall of Famers and that environment, you get excited about that opportunity."