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Sporting News, The, Jan 22, 2001 by Paul Attner

So Trent Dilfer is the quarterback and the offense rarely scores. So the next opponent just won a championship game by 41 points. Doesn't matter. When you have a defense like the Ravens', that's all you need to win a Super Bowl. Baltimore will.

The Ravens will conclude one of the most remarkable, unnerving, nonsensical and incredibly amazing runs in NFL history by winning Super Bowl 35.

There, it's done. Picking such a one-dimensional team to win a league championship defies everything that always has made so much sense about this football universe of ours. But I'm doing it anyway And if the stars are out of whack, so be it.

First truism about the Super Bowl: You never side with the squad that lacks balance. This contest always exposes this imposter as a fraud. But not this time.

Second truism: This is an era of overwhelming offense in the NFL. Aren't we one year removed from celebrating the Rams and their historic victory in Super Bowl 34, in which they set all kinds of offensive milestones?

So here are the Ravens, trying to convince us that even with the roles and trends working against them, they can win a title relying almost entirely on their thumping, bodacious defense And I believe them.

I became a believer Sunday in Oakland when the Ravens took a perfectly formidable offense, the most balanced of the final four playoff teams, and turned it into a wimpy bunch of 80-pound weaklings. Tight end Sharmon Sharpe says all of America is eating crow for not believing in Baltimore. I say, I don't want to find out how crow tastes. So, I believe.

I believe that against the Giants, who also have done their share of mind-changing this season, the Ravens will suppress any hints of a New York running game, will torment and crush a mostly immobile Kerry Collins and will come close to pitching a shutout--as long as their offense doesn't do stupid stuff like toss in too many turnovers ... you know, the Trent Dilfer Effect. Forget all those gaudy numbers the Giants and Collins ran up against, the Vikings in the NFC championship game. Comparing the Vikings' defense to the Ravens' is like comparing Ryan Leaf to Joe Montana.

Yes, I believe that even with the much-maligned, admirably gutsy Dilfer at quarterback, the Ravens will win for the 11th straight time, all with him in the starting lineup. Think about it, Trent Dilfer, Super Bowl champ, winning the title in Tampa, where he was run out of town after last season for ineptness. It will be a long time getting used to that flow of words--Trent Dilfer, winning Super Bowl quarterback--but it's going to happen. And if you don't think this has to be one of the craziest NFL seasons, Dilfer's soon-to-be victory should put you over the top. Way over.

It will happen because Dilfer and his coach, Brian Billick, have bought into the notion--as much as it hurts them to acknowledge it--that just a little offense is enough for this team to win, and if that means passing as infrequently as necessary, so be it. Billick calls it "going over to the dark side." He joked that he might have to burn his BYU degree "because I might never call for another pass ever again." It's good that they have developed the proper offensive mentality in time for the Giants. They had better understand they won't get much going against New York and its wily defensive coordinator, John Fox. It'll be a ruin there, a pass here 'and, if their last three playoff games are any indication, one big completion to Sharpe. How is that for a winning Super Bowl offensive formula? Kurt Warner must be incredulous, thinking of the ridiculousness of it all.

"How would you like to be (Bucs owner) Malcolm Glazer, looking down on the Super Bowl field and seeing Trent Dilfer?" says Bills general manager Tom Donahoe. "He will be shaking his head. It's hard for me to imagine it, too. But my hat's off to him. The way the Ravens are playing, I've got to pick them to win this game, too."

So we are looking at the likelihood of the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ewer, a matchup of teams that wont thrill America and will generate hardly a bleep on the television excitement scale, with quarterbacks who were rejected by their original teams showing all of America never to quit on yourself. Still, a ring is a ring, no matter how you go about winning it.

"To win in Tennessee, then to win in Oakland, you can't over-exaggerate what that accomplishment means," says TV analyst Joe Theismann, who picked the Ravens to win the Super Bowl before they demolished the Raiders, 16-3. "They are just better than anyone else right now. They've come a long way since the beginning of the season, and that defense, it can shut anyone down in the league. They play a physical, kick-your-ass kind of game, and they do it every time out. They put in the energy every game, and now they think they are invincible."

For the past few weeks, Sharpe has asked defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis how many points the offense needs to score tot the Ravens to win. Lewis told him three against Denver, and seven each against the Titans and Raiders. Can't imagine he'll say more than seven against the Giants. Think about it: The Broncos were the NFL's No. 2 offense, the Titans No. 14 and the Raiders No. 6. And they managed 3, 10 and 3 points, respectively. And now you expect the Giants, the No. 13 offense, playing on a neutral field in Tampa, to forge ground untouched by these other three?