“Go coach!!!” — Why Ravens fans everywhere should want to see Tennessee in the Wild Card Round
© Andrew Sgroi. All Rights Reserved
What would you do if someone outside of your family came into your house and told you where to sit?
What if you didn’t do anything about it and a few months later they did it again?
That’s what the discord between the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens looks like in 2020.
The long-seated rivalry dating back to their AFC Central days of the 1990s—when Tennessee was a renamed clan of nomads from Houston and Baltimore a repurposed squad from Cleveland, forbidden to carry on the football traditions belonging to that Rust Belt town—has been built on a dizzying exchange of bully-like behavior.
Right now, that bully resides in Tennessee. That was first evident back in January of this ill-fated year, when Coach Mike Vrabel’s band of merry thieves stole into Baltimore—after stealing a Wild Card game from New England—and humbled the top-seeded Ravens by handing them a stunning, one-and-done playoff exit.
And just last month, when the Titans returned to Baltimore for a clash in Week 11, Coach Vrabel brought his team en masse to the Ravens’ midfield crest before the game. Such bravado rightly angered Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh, enough to send him onto the field to protest the brash stunt.
“It’s disrespectful,” Harbaugh barked.
“Go coach,” Vrabel dismissed him repeatedly.
Later that afternoon, his Titans would dismiss the Ravens in overtime, on a walkoff Derrick Henry touchdown run.
But of course, it hasn’t always been this way.
What Ravens fan of a vintage age doesn’t recall that 2000 season, when the team used remarkable late-game heroics from (of all players) journeyman quarterback Trent Dilfer and wide receiver Patrick Johnson to steal a midseason victory in Nashville?
It was after that game when Coach Brian Billick praised his players for their grit by declaring, “I’ve got a cover of Sports Illustrated here. It says, ‘Titans are the NFL’s best team.’ Maybe they are…but not today.”
Then just 56 days later, the Ravens returned to Adelphia Coliseum to battle the top-seeded Titans in the AFC Divisional Round. Someone in their organization thought it would be cute to play Coach Billick’s earlier postgame remarks on the stadium video board for all in attendance to see(the).
Well the gameday bulletin board trick certainly worked—for the Ravens—as they dominated the TItans, 24-10, propelling them to the conference championship game.
Famously, Coach Billick reportedly told his players after that contest, “When you go into the lion’s den, you don’t tippy-toe in. You carry a spear. You go in screaming like a banshee and say, ‘Where’s the son of a bitch?”
Note to Mike Vrabel: that’s real coach speak.
In 2001—as the Ravens were defending their first-ever Super Bowl title (and exactly one year to the day after the miraculous comeback that arguably started that championship run)—a Monday night date in Nashville brought the franchise yet another memorable victory (16-10) when the Ravens stuffed Titans quarterback Steve McNair’s sneak attempt at the goal-line in the final minute.
By the time the 2003 postseason pitted the two bitter rivals against one another, the back-and-forth affair that played out in Baltimore was ultimately settled when Gary Anderson nailed a game-winning 46-yard field goal. Finally, the Titans were able to exact some revenge, 20-17.
Look forward five years to the 2008 postseason and the Titans, once again the conference’s top seed, welcomed Baltimore back into Nashville for another high-stakes playoff. What amounted to a physical game of limited scoring opportunities eventually broke the Ravens way, 13-10, when Matt Stover’s 43-yard field goal served as the exclamation point in the final minute.
Yes, in just eight short years, these two teams had become arch enemies.
Only Baltimore was very much the bully back then.
Now with the 2020 postseason looming, the Ravens and Titans are potentially on a collision course for their next great battle.
And let me be clear—if SI cover disses, video board revelations, lion’s den speeches, physical one-score games, and dismissive retorts are indicative of just how much these teams hate each other—that’s what every Ravens fan should want.
What did Coach Harbaugh do when someone outside his family came into his house and told his team where to sit?
Last month, we saw what he did.
Next month, it’s time to answer back.
Go coach.