BALTIMORE – Thirty minutes into the first game of the season, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis stood before his teammates and delivered an inspirational and insightful speech that set the tone for the entire season.
Baltimore held a 21-7 lead over the defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the identical score at halftime of their playoff game in Pittsburgh nine months earlier. In that one, the Ravens came apart in a 31-24 defeat.
Lewis placed himself in the middle of the locker room and emphatically spiked the comparison.
“Everybody was saying, ‘We’ve been here before,’” Lewis said. “And I was like, ‘We haven’t been here before, because 2010 is 2010, and 2011 is a whole new year.’ If you understand it that way, then you understand that this is a new team.”
And so it is. The retooled Ravens went on to hammer the Steelers 35-7, and they enter this Sunday’s bye with a 3-1 record, alone atop the AFC North and charging toward a fourth straight playoff appearance.
Baltimore general manager Ozzie Newsome retooled the team during a whirlwind offseason shortened by the NFL lockout.
Almost every move he made has thus far appeared to be the right one, beginning with a salary cap purge of
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