The Ravens Most Impressive Win Ever?

Let's define "impressive" before we begin:
1. Big win by points
2. Over a good team
3. Bonus for doing it on the road
4. Great comebacks need not apply
5. I don't care if the game meant nothing to us

To start, I think it's their most impressive shutout.

The Ravens have administered 9 shutouts, but the only team among those that outscored their opponents for the season or had a winning record was the 2000 Steelers who went 9-7. Their other shutouts:
3 bad Cincy teams at home 99-01
2 bad Browns teams at Clev., 00 and 03
1 terrible Cowboy squad 00
TB in the opener 06

Subjectively, I'd say this Pitt team is better than the team they fielded in the 2000 opener (Graham at QB, remember?), but that Pitt team came back to beat us in Baltimore and finish 9-7 with a 321-255 edge in points, and that shutout was on the road.

Other impressive regular-season non-shutouts:
1996-1998 Their most impressive win in this entire period was a 31-17 home win on a soggy field in 1996 vs. Pitt. I can't put that in the same league as the one today.
1999 41-14 Drubbing of Tennessee who would go on to win the AFC
2000 Amazingly, that team had no one-sided wins vs. good teams, although they beat the crap out of a lot of bad teams.
2001 26-7 win over Tennessee at home in week 4 was most one-sided win, and that Tenn team was not good enough. They also beat Chicago 17-6 in week 1 before anyone had an idea they would be pretty good.
2002 IMO, the win over Denver on Monday night 34-23 ranks among their most surprising results, and the first half (31-3, capped my the McAlister return) was probably the most dominant half ever played in the regular season.
2003 26-6 blasting of Denver looks good on the surface, but they started their 3rd string QB in the game. The 2 wins over Cleveland were both very impressive defensive efforts (Jamal's 295 game, then the 35-0 shutout at Cleveland), but that Cleveland team was very bad.
2004 The 30-13 win over Pitt in week 2 was the season's most impressive win. They ran the ball 9 straight times on the first drive. Tommy Maddox was knocked out by the Ravens in that game, ushering in the Big Ben era in Pitt, and a season that would not see Pitt lose again.
2005 GB finished 4-12 and was outscored by their opponents by 46 points on the year, but the Ravens contributed 45 of that in their 48-3 Monday night win. This has to go in the big win vs. a bad team category for me, and the team benefited from Aaron Rodgers frist significant NFL playing time.

OK, for what it's worth, here is my top 5 for the regular season:
1. 1999 Tennessee 41-14 at home
2. 2006 Pitt 27-0 at home
3. 2000 Pitt 16-0 at Pitt
4. 2004 Pittsburgh 30-13 at home
5. 2003 Cleveland 35-0 in Cleveland

Add in the Post season and it looks a lot different:
1. SB XXXV 34-7. Let's see, we beat a very good team by 27 at a neutral site. Forget the importance of this game, the Ravens have never beat anyone this good, this thoroughly. Boring answer, but think how lucky we are to have our most dominating ever performance come in the franchise's biggest ever game.
2. 2000 at Oakland for the AFC championship. A 5-turnover defensive throttling that is not accurately reflected in the 13-point win. I know you are going to say the game was in "doubt" till Sharper's interception in the final minutes, but the Ravens then ran the ball right down the Raiders throat for 2 FD's that closed out the game.
3. 1999 Tennessee
4. 2001 20-3 win over Miami in the playoffs. A good team, beaten by 17 on the road. In no other game in their history have the Ravens beaten a team with a winning record by 17 or more on the road.
5. 2000 21-3 trashing of Denver in the playoffs. Wow, that was some playoff run.
6. Honorable mention to today's Pitt game.

Great post as always - 2 non-shutout slammings of bad teams to add:

2000 @ Cleveland - They score, then the team wakes up (44-7?)

2003 @ SF - (another 44-7 game?) Noteworthy because a vile 49er team accused the Ravens of running up the score at the end. Unusual not only for the depth of whining, but for the Ravens (of that period) finding themselves in a position to be accused of running up the score.

BS

Always love your posts, Filmstudy.

Great post Filmstudy!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Filmstudy

OK, for what it's worth, here is my top 5 for the regular season:
1. 1999 Tennessee 41-14 at home
2. 2006 Pitt 27-0 at home
3. 2000 Pitt 16-0 at Pitt
4. 2004 Pittsburgh 30-13 at home
5. 2003 Cleveland 35-0 in Cleveland

Add in the Post season and it looks a lot different:
1. SB XXXV 34-7. Let's see, we beat a very good team by 27 at a neutral site. Forget the importance of this game, the Ravens have never beat anyone this good, this thoroughly. Boring answer, but think how lucky we are to have our most dominating ever performance come in the franchise's biggest ever game.
2. 2000 at Oakland for the AFC championship. A 5-turnover defensive throttling that is not accurately reflected in the 13-point win. I know you are going to say the game was in "doubt" till Sharper's interception in the final minutes, but the Ravens then ran the ball right down the Raiders throat for 2 FD's that closed out the game.
3. 1999 Tennessee
4. 2001 20-3 win over Miami in the playoffs. A good team, beaten by 17 on the road. In no other game in their history have the Ravens beaten a team with a winning record by 17 or more on the road.
5. 2000 21-3 trashing of Denver in the playoffs. Wow, that was some playoff run.
6. Honorable mention to today's Pitt game.

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I would place yesterday's game just behind SB XXXV as the most impressive.

I think beating a 13-3 Tennessee team on the road (24-10) after they had a first round bye in the playoffs is tops for me for quality. Not the biggest asskicking, but for what we were up against, solid gold.

This Pittsburgh team was just a shell of itself. Not very good.

For all-out asskickings, I like the 2004 SF game (44-6), and of course the CIN away game in 2000 where Burnett took Akili's head off. I think that was the site of Corey Dillon's "no mas" as well.

Quote:

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2000 @ Cleveland - They score, then the team wakes up (44-7?)

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The best part of that was on the Browns Rant board I can recall Art Bietz posting about how quiet our stadium was after their TD, as if this gave him solace in the 44 unanswered point drubbing the Clowns took. He implied we were all scared while I believe most of us were yawning. All they did was wake the D up and really piss them off. They might have had 50 yards the rest of the game.

And indeed the 44-6 beatdown of the Bengals was Dillon's "no mas" day.

Great recall, Filmstudy

All I know is that I haven't felt this good and impressed with the team after a Ravens win since the SuperBowl. I'll take it one game a time and hope the team does as well. We'll see soon enough whether we can keep our focus -- the next 2 games will be tough!

Was one of the best wins ever. Even more since it was a big win over the Steelers. This team made me very proud yesterday. They kicked Pitt all over the field.

:jester: :jester:

Camdenyard,

Have to say I have never had more fun at a football game than at the Ten 2000 playoff game. I've watched the game at least 25 times since, which is a ton, even for me. But that game was too darn close to fall in this category made for drubbings. Del Greco missed 4 field goals (including 1 wiped off the books by penalty), and we got only 5 first downs. A great win to be sure, but it wasn't an eye-popping domination like the other 3 playoff games.

good job Filmmeister. I agree with T; this was a huge one. NOW we can say the Squealers aren't that good, but all week the sports cognoscetti (sp?) warned of a Pitt team that might win out, defending their honor, still a shot at the playoffs, etc; more than one picked Pigsburgh to win. This was a will-breaking beat-down of our biggest rival in front of a huge crowd. Lots of folks did pick Baltimore to win, but how many predicted this sort of blowout? before the game I was hearing a lot of 20-16 type scores.
Big Win as it's against Pigsburgh, fairly late in the season, with playoff implications.

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Originally Posted by camdenyard

I think beating a 13-3 Tennessee team on the road (24-10) after they had a first round bye in the playoffs is tops for me for quality. Not the biggest asskicking, but for what we were up against, solid gold.

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That was the Superbowl right there. Also the worst loss in Titans history.