| | | | | | | | Friday, November 9, 2001
MNF Past, Present and Future: Week 9
By George Hill and Malibu Kelly Hayes
Special to ABC Sports Online
Monday Night Football's spotting and statistical gurus, George Hill and Malibu Kelly Hayes, view the game from a unique perspective, which the duo will share each week on ABC Sports Online, giving an in-depth preview of the upcoming MNF game by looking at the matchup from the past, present and the future. Here is the latest installment, leading up to this Monday's game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans (ABC, 9 p.m. ET).
The Past: A look at some past performances on MNF by this week's teams.
The Present: The next layer looks at some of this Monday's key performers.
The Future: Chat with George and Kelly this Monday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Click here to send in a question.
Monday Night Past
While this is the first time that the Ravens and the Titans are meeting on Monday Night Football, these two teams did meet three times in their previous incarnations as the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Oilers. The third and final meeting took place on Nov. 7, in Week 10 of 1988 season, when the Browns traveled to Houston to face the Oilers in the Astrodome, known as the "House of Pain" during Jerry Glanville's tenure.
|  | | Warren Moon manned one of the most potent offenses in Houston. |
The season had also been a house of pain for the quarterbacks of both teams. Cleveland's Bernie Kosar suffered a torn right ligament in his elbow in the Browns' opener against Kansas City and missed six weeks. His replacement, Gary Danielson, fractured his left ankle in Week 2, ending his season, followed by Mike Pagel, who separated his right shoulder four weeks later.
For Houston, Warren Moon was also injured in the season opener, fracturing his shoulder blade and missing five games. His backup, Cody Carlson, dislocated his thumb in Week 6.
When healthy, Kosar and Moon were two of the premier players in the league. That night, both were effective, and each tossed a touchdown pass; Kosar to tight end Ozzie Newsome and Moon to Ernest Givins. However, the Oilers won the game, 24-17, behind the bruising running of Mike Rozier and Alonzo Highsmith, each of whom rushed for a touchdown, and the crushing "House of Pain" defense that held the Browns to just 44 yards rushing. The Houston victory snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Browns, which made Moon very happy, as he had been the Oilers starter during that seven-game stretch.
Both teams would finish the 1988 season 10-6, two games behind the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Central, and earn wild card berths. On Christmas Eve that year, these two teams met again in the wild-card playoff game, with Houston winning 24-23. Three days later, Marty Schottenheimer resigned as Browns head coach.
Monday Night Present
|  | | Wycheck |
TITANS TE FRANK WYCHECK
As the "other" tight end in this game, Frank Wycheck may be even more important to his team than Shannon Sharpe is to the Ravens.
Wycheck has led the Titans in receptions in each of the last five years. This may be a testament to the Titans inability to find a quality wideout, but it is an equal testament to the consistency Wycheck has shown since joining Jeff Fisher's bunch in 1996. He has caught at least 60 passes in each year as an Oiler/Titan. So far in 2001, the former Maryland Terrapin has 27 receptions -- not a very impressive number over seven games, but it again leads the Titans.
Wycheck has been selected for three straight Pro Bowls and has emerged as one of the most respected tight ends in the NFL. Last year in three Monday Night Football games, Wycheck caught 15 passes and two touchdowns.
Amazingly, until three weeks ago, Wycheck had never reached 100 receiving yards in a game. He finally conquered that milestone when he got exactly 100 yards against the Lions in a victory. Last week in the Titans 28-24 win over the Jaguars, Wycheck caught six passes for 43 yards.
This week Wycheck will face the ferocious Raven linebackers. His ability to make key third-and-short receptions will be critical if the Titans hope to get a victory and remain alive in the AFC playoff race.
|  | | Grbac |
RAVENS QBs GRBAC & CUNNINGHAM
Following their Super Bowl winning season, the Ravens jettisoned their two quarterbacks -- Tony Banks and Trent Dilfer -- despite the fact that Dilfer had a perfect record as starter. Planning for the future, they signed ex-Chief Elvis Grbac to become their starter and planned on second-year quarterback Chris Redman (who, get this, wears No. 7 and was born on 7/7/77) to back him up and be the future. Oh yeah, they also signed the journeyman marble-cutter Randall Cunningham to back them both up in case of emergency.
When Grbac suffered a rib injury against the Browns three weeks ago, Cunningham came off the bench. The Ravens lost that game, but in the last two weeks he has led the team to victories in critical ball games, and in doing so, has inspired confidence in his teammates. However, Baltimore has scored just 31 points in those two wins.
Now, Grbac is ready to play, and in the words of coach Brian Billick he is the starter "plain and simple." This, despite grumbling, that the players would like to see Cunningham at the helm. Cunningham says he knows his role is to sit and wait until he is called. He has exercised patience before.
|  | | Cunningham |
After sitting out a season in 1996 Randall was signed by Dennis Green and the Minnesota Vikings to be a back-up. He actually backed up punter Mitch Berger and filled as a kicker when Berger was injured during the first two weeks of the '97 season. After eight weeks on the inactive list he became the starting quarterback and was effective enough to win the starters job for the 1998 season. All he did was win 13 of his 14 starts that year.
So far Randall is 2-0 as starter for the Ravens. His success will only put added pressure on Grbac to produce. If he cannot, it could be déjà vu all over again for Randall. Plain and simple.
|  | | Sharpe |
RAVENS TE SHANNON SHARPE
The "mouth that roared," Shannon Sharpe, has said that when he grew up he wanted to be Ozzie Newsome. Well on Monday he will probably pass Newsome as the most prolific pass catching tight end in NFL history. Sharpe needs two receptions to tie the Hall of Famer with 662 catches and he expects to use the Monday Night stage to pass him.
In the first meeting this year between the Ravens and the Titans, a 26-7 Baltimore victory, Sharpe became the first tight end to reach 8,000 receiving yards in a career -- surpassing Newsome as the all-time leader.
Sharpe, a 12-year veteran, is coming off a performance against the Steelers last Sunday, which saw him score the Ravens' only touchdown on a 13-yard pass from Cunningham. The play followed a critical 17-yard catch on a scoring drive in the second quarter that proved to be the difference in the game. Baltimore held on for a 13-10 victory as the Ravens moved to a 5-3 record, keeping their AFC Central hopes alive.
The TD catch, Shannon's first of the season, was the 50th touchdown grab of his career, tying him with Ben Coates for third place on the all-time touchdown list for tight ends.
Sharpe has played six games against the Titans but has never scored a touchdown against Tennessee. That could change this week.
Monday Night Future
It was just about this time last year that the Ravens went on a tear, winning their final seven games of the season, plus four in the playoffs to win Super Bowl XXXV. Midway through this season, despite high expectations, the Ravens have produced only mixed results. They are 5-3 and have won their last two games. However, their scoring average is down three points per game compared to last season, and their defense is allowing nearly a touchdown more a game in 2001 than last year's Ravens did.
The Titans also had very high expectations for this year, after finishing 13-3 in each of the last two seasons and returning the core of a defense that finished ranked first overall in 2000. With injuries to Eddie George and Steve McNair, the offense has struggled this season, but, unfortunately for Jeff Fisher, so has the defense, which comes into this game ranked just 27th in the league.
This Monday marks one year to the day that the Ravens traveled to Nashville and handed the Titans a 24-23 loss, becoming the first team ever to defeat the Titans at Adelphia Coliseum, ending Tennessee's NFL record of 12 consecutive victories to open a new stadium.
We expect Nov. 12 to be good to the Ravens again, as they will defeat the Titans for the third consecutive time at Adelphia (counting last January's playoff win), 21-17.
MNF Past, Present and Future with George Hill and Malibu Kelly Hayes appears each Friday on ABC Sports Online.
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