By EDDIE PELLS
The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. - The Baltimore Ravens brought brutal efficiency, unbending defense and a dose of explosive excitement to Super Bowl, putting their own distinctive stamp on America’s great football celebration.
The Ravens defeated the New York Giants 34-7 Sunday to bring pro football’s championship back to Baltimore for the first time since 1971.
With the Giants’ only score coming on a kickoff return, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and his defense became part of Super Bowl lore by not allowing a touchdown. Teammate Jermaine Lewis joined them with an 84-yard kickoff return that stifled New York’s only glimmer of hope.
The defense made the Giants look helpless, chasing quarterback Kerry Collins all over the field. It also proved it can do more than just stop people. Duane Starks had a 49-yard interception return late in the third quarter to give the Ravens a 17-0 lead.
Ron Dixon followed with a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and New York’s only points. But Lewis answered with his own score and the Giants were stuck with the same 17-point hole.
Except for that brief flurry, this probably didn’t come off as the most entertaining football, especially to the casual fan who might watch the Super Bowl and no other game each year.
Both the Ravens and Giants came in as defensive-minded, plodding teams, whose most notable players were a recovering alcoholic and a linebacker who stood trial for murder.
Both spent the week explaining their styles - not as entertainers, but as purveyors of great defense and grind-it-out football.
“I’m not a huge baseball fan, but a 2-1 game is, I guess, an exciting game,” Ravens coach Brian Billick said before the game. “The No. 1 criticism that you hear of this game is it tends to be a blowout.”
This one fit the blowout mold, and failed to live up to some of the title games of the recent past. Last season, the St. Louis Rams made a tackle on the 1-yard line on the final play to preserve a 23-16 win over the Tennessee Titans. In 1998, John Elway and the Denver Broncos got their first title with a heartstopping 31-24 victory over Green Bay.
The most interesting stuff may have come before the game.
Woven through the week of buildup were tales of retribution and atonement, bold statements and second chances - in short, it was the NFL at its best and worst.
Lewis was charged with murder, but eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing justice: “I’m not here to try to justify anything that went on, because that’s a story in my book that’s closed,” said Lewis, the NFL defensive player of the year.
Trent Dilfer once played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the same stadium where he won the Super Bowl. He was a disappointment in Tampa, but left this time in a much different light.
He threw the only touchdown pass of the game, a 38-yard strike to Brandon Stokley that gave the Ravens a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Baltimore needed little else, as the Ravens improved to 16-0 this season when their offense scores more than seven points.
