Ravens' Lewis revolts against 'embarrassing' protection of QBs

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Ray Lewis will be fined for his high megaton postgame nuclear explosion in which he firebombed the NFL's game officials and their namby pamby obsession with overprotecting quarterbacks. He'll be called an excuse maker and a cry baby.

Go ahead and rip away, but Lewis is right. The Patriots definitely earned their 27-21 victory over Baltimore but the game showed perhaps one of the NFL's biggest flaws: its constant coddling of quarterbacks at both the expense of other players and even the game itself.

Ray Lewis makes his voice heard after the Ravens' loss to the Patriots. (US Presswire)

This phenomenon reached an almost unbelievable level during Sunday's highly entertaining and gritty game which again demonstrated coach Bill Belichick's defensive brilliance and his abilities to frustrate almost any quarterback on any given week.

The Ravens were averaging 35 points a game and quarterback Joe Flacco was one of the hottest quarterbacks in football. Baltimore scored only two offensive touchdowns and Flacco's quarterback rating was a pedestrian 78.7.

But that's not the main story to emerge. It was Lewis' eruption and how he has firmly put the microscope on an almost manic overprotection of Tom Brady and other superstar quarterbacks. That protection of Brady angered every player in the Baltimore locker room, but Lewis became the main spokes-vent.

"Without totally going off the wall here, it's embarrassing to the game," Lewis said to a small group of reporters. "You can't do that. Brady's good enough to make a play. Let him make his own play. You can't end the play like that, and then throw the flag. No, man. The embarrassing part is when he understands that, and he walks up to one of us and says, 'Oh, that was a cheap one.'"

"That's not football," Lewis said. "And that's the embarrassing part about it. Two great teams going at it, let them go at it. But you can't stop drives like that, you can't throw flags and say, 'Oh, you touched the quarterback.' Put flags on them. Put a red buzzer on them, so if we touch them, they're down."

Lewis said repeatedly how the roughing the passer penalties called on the Ravens were an embarrassment to the game. He used that word -- embarrassment -- over and over. He really wanted people to know that the officials were embarrassing. They were embarrassing and embarrassing some more. Got it? Embarrassing.

"Both of the drives they got touchdowns on -- personal fouls that kept the drives going. That's embarrassing to our game," Lewis said. "Fine me, do whatever you please. I'm not speaking against anybody. It's embarrassing, for them to treat one person on the football field different than everybody else.

"That's what's embarrassing about this game. You cannot do that. You gotta let the game take care of itself like it just did. But when you call penalties like that, it takes away from the love of the game, because you can get a Tom Brady to walk by you and say, 'Oh, that's a cheap one.' Wow."

It was classic rage against the machine that will lead to Lewis getting a big fat fine from the NFL but also generate massive conversation around the sport and in the media about how much quarterback protection is too much protection.

When asked if Brady literally said "that was a cheap one" Lewis exclaimed: "You do a double take. It's embarrassing -- that [the Patriots] even know it. They even know, 'If you get close to me, guess what? I can look for a penalty.' Did that win or lose the game? No. But it damn sure helped them get 14 points. People work too hard for that. And the embarrassing part about it is you see it constantly, constantly every week. Emphasis on protecting the quarterback. We're men, we put our pants on the same way. I got kids, just like Brady got kids. Every man has kids. Treat them with that same respect.

"It's embarrassing for us to even keep a game going like that, give them momentum, after they go three-and-out. We stop them, see a flag for a personal foul and Brady's laughing? That ain't no personal foul if you're still smiling. Bottom line."

That should be the league's new mantra when it comes to penalties on quarterbacks: That ain't no personal foul if you're still smiling.

"It's embarrassing to see it," Lewis said. "I can say it a thousand times. It's embarrassing. Did it lose the game? Absolutely not. But it's just embarrassing to go in there and play a game the way we did and you get that."

As Lewis exploded, another Ravens player walked by and said, "It ain't flag football." Lewis repeated, "Put a red buzzer on them."

More Ravens chimed in later. It was Officiating Bashing Day inside the Baltimore locker room.

It was also great theatre. It rivaled Allen Iverson's "You talking 'bout practice," rant.

The specific calls that angered the Ravens led to two New England touchdowns. On one, the Ravens stopped the Patriots on third-and-9 after Brady threw an incompletion to Benjamin Watson. Defensive lineman Haloti Ngata was called for roughing the passer and the Patriots' drive continued, ending in a touchdown.

In the second quarter, Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was called for roughing Brady. That penalty occurred on a second-and-11.

It wasn't just the Ravens players complaining about some of the officials' calls. Coach John Harbaugh was penalized 15 yards during the game for something he said to the officials. Harbaugh wouldn't state specifically what he said to earn the penalty but he likely wasn't asking them for a hug.

"I mean, I saw it," said Harbaugh of the Ngata play. "I'm not allowed to comment on it and I think you guys saw it too and you make those judgments for yourself."

Quarterbacks are certainly vulnerable but not more than an interior defensive lineman or a few other positions. Yet quarterbacks are treated much more gingerly. The protection given Brady against the Ravens by the officials was borderline obscene.

Ravens players say on one of the penalties the official wasn't going to make a call but Brady complained and then the official tossed the flag. That scene is the crux of Lewis' claim that Brady told the Ravens "that was a cheap one."

Lewis didn't exactly make his protest eloquently but he's not incorrect. The officiating overall (for both teams) was terrible and the protection of the quarterbacks in this and other games has reached ridiculous proportions.

Lewis made clear several times that he wasn't making excuses for the loss even though at times it sounded like he was. Lewis might've been but that doesn't make him wrong.

It will just make him a lot lighter in the wallet.