With less than nine minutes to go in Super Bowl XXXV, the Baltimore Ravens led the New York Giants, 24-7, and had first-and-goal at the Giants’ 3-yard line with a chance to put the game away.
Ravens running back Jamal Lewis took a toss to the left from quarterback Trent Dilfer. Fullback Sam Gash sealed the edge. Lewis took on two would-be tacklers just ahead of the goal line and stuck the ball out in an attempt to break the plane. He lost the ball, but the nearest official immediately signaled touchdown.
Replays indicated it was very close. So … did Lewis really break the plane?
“I knew it was a touchdown. At least I was praying and hoping it was,” Lewis said on Glenn Clark Radio Jan. 28 on the 25th anniversary of Super Bowl XXXV. “But I think the refs [were] like, ‘This game’s been put away anyway.’ My dad argued with everybody for years that, ‘Hey, that was a touchdown.’ It turned out to be.”
Lewis finished with 102 yards on 27 carries as the Ravens nursed a lead throughout most of the contest.
“I just wanted to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl,” Lewis said. “It was tough sledding. That defense was a good run defense. They had some great guys over there. I think how I got to the end zone, that was the most incredible thing because I think I had to go through a few people to get there.”
Lewis, now 46 and a member of the Ravens Ring of Honor, led the way for the offense in 2000 after being taken with the fifth overall pick in the NFL Draft that spring. The 5-foot-11, 245-pound back out of the University of Tennessee ran for 1,364 yards and six touchdowns and caught 27 passes for 296 yards as a rookie.
Lewis arrived to Baltimore not knowing anything about the Ravens because he didn’t watch football growing up. In fact, his agent had to get him up to speed on the teams that were interested in him ahead of the draft. Lewis found out about a certain middle linebacker in the first live period of preseason work.
“We had fourth-and-1 [at the goal line]. Coach just kept dialing up the same play back to back to back, and I found out who 52 was,” Lewis said. “I remember coming back to the huddle and I asked the line, ‘Hey, who’s got No. 52?’ They were like, ‘Nobody, that’s Ray Lewis.’ I was like, ‘OK, all right, I guess I’ll just deal with it.’ Somebody please get this guy. He’s free. Who’s supposed to block him? They’re like, ‘No, that’s your guy.’ So I found out real fast who he was, I can tell you that.”
Baltimore’s offense struggled mightily at times in 2000, famously going five consecutive games without a touchdown at one point. Twenty years later, members of that squad pointed to defensive players’ refusal to point fingers as a key reason why the team was able to make a Super Bowl run.
The Ravens established an identity after Dilfer took over as the starting quarterback after a three-interception performance by Tony Banks against the Tennessee Titans in Week 8: Run the ball, play well on special teams … and unleash a historic defense.
Lewis remembered that defensive unit fondly.
“That defense, not only were they impactful on the field but off the field and just confidence-wise and practice and the morale and getting everybody up and confident,” Lewis said. “We just knew we were the baddest boys going into the game. The offenses we had to face, our defense didn’t want you to get a yard. They didn’t want you to complete any passes. They operated like that. That energy just drove us.”
So just how confident were the Ravens in a Super Bowl run?
“I had no doubt, man,” Lewis said. “It got to a point where I can recall talking to Ray one day and he just went through the rest of the season. He was like, ‘They can’t beat us, they can’t beat us, they can’t beat us, we’re in the Super Bowl.’ Confidence was an all-time high, and we had the right coach for it, too. [Brian] Billick didn’t sell us short.”
For more from Jamal Lewis, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens