＂We Hunted Barry Sanders＂ - Ray Lewis Celebrates Ravens' HISTORIC 50-Game NFL Record
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, the Baltimore Ravens are joined by former Ravens defensive lineman and current Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Rob Ray to discuss the upcoming game against the San Francisco 49ers. The guys also discuss the recent jersey controversy surrounding Shad Sanders and how it ties back to one of the greatest running backs of all time.
Transcript
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But I wanted to start off, you know, right, I just want to make sure that your NFL's IQ is still there.
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Rob, if you don't mind pulling out the recent jersey of, I don't know if you've seen this or not,
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if you can pull this up, Shador Sanders jersey.
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Did you see this clip here with, have you seen this or no?
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Drewski, Stephen A. Smith, ESPN, and I want you to see what questions she asks,
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Let's get into it because obviously this ties to one Shador Sanders who balled out in his first
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That jersey is like, that jersey is a, you know, one of those where even now you'll see guys
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This is when we were just starting to build a bully, and he came to us in 98.
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I think it's last year, and he needed something like 48 yards to, like, and it was, like, personal.
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It's like, I love Barry, but he's not getting those yards, and we hunted him.
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If it's the record year, it's 97, because you came in 96.
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Like, yeah, whatever day he came to Baltimore, that was his last run, and it just did not end well.
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What did Barry Sanders, so in that game, so I have won November 9, 97.
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In 97, Barry Sanders played against you during the 97 season.
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In that game, Barry Sanders ran for 81 yards, 20 carries.
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But you're saying you guys also played 98, or you're thinking?
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It's serious business, man, and that's what we was building up to.
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So right before the game, you're like, we're not going to let him get it.
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No, because we had a whole – Barry, no, I love him to death.
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But we had an entire life-size pitch of Barry Sanders when you walk in the meeting.
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And so what is the mindset going into the game?
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Are you just looking for a reason to increase the temperature in the room?
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This is when you can beat people up and just literally beat them up.
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And when he came in there, we was like, look, I told the D-line, I said, look, keep them boys off of us.
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And, man, it was – that group started to build something that ultimately ended up being 2000.
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Rob Woodson had just came to us, Sam Adams, Tony Saragusa, Peter Boulware, Michael McQuarrie, Corey behind us, Dwayne on one side, Chris McAllis on the other side.
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And we're looking at each other and saying, how are we going to lose?
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Like, who can actually move the ball against us?
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So, by the time we got to Marvin Lewis, Marvin was like – I was like, Marvin, stop coaching us.
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Because if you coach us, you're going to have us thinking.
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Like, half of my guys on my D-line, they can't think like that.
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In what setting were you saying this to the coach?
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Like, because – so what would happen is we would put in certain defenses.
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Like, we can beat them in a four-man front, seven-man front.
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Trust me, Sam and Goose, they're going to take two.
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Somebody going to have to find a way to block me, and somebody going to have to find a way to stop Pete.
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So when Marvin came to meet, I told Rob Wilson, I said, Rob, there's one rule.
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Now, remember, we started piecing this team together.
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But we started to feel this thing started to move early 98.
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But then we was kind of struggling offensively, so we couldn't put no pieces together.
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And then that's by the time I went to Oz, and I was like, Oz, man to man, you just got to trust me.
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And this is why I think me and his relationship is what it is.
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When we got to Baltimore, there was no identity at all, right?
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In our division, P, it was Jacksonville, Eddie.
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Eddie George, Steve McNair was in that division, and they were having their way with us.
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We had a lot of old Cleveland Brown mentalities still on the team.
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We had older guys who really, they just stopped.
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Who were the pessimistic guys in the locker room?
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I was like, look, man, I'm not, I come from where we win.
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We're not stepping on the field negotiating if, no, bro.
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So I'm looking at all this, and I'm like, what?
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So then that's when, honestly, it was probably 98, 99, actually at the end of 99,
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where I actually started to ask real hard questions.
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Why do we play him, and why do we make him do this on this?
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So in front of your peers, teammates, you're asking, why is he running this?
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Oh, we, we, this was the transparency on what we had in that locker room is what made
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Marvin allowed what we started to do on the field.
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Marvin was at the house for your birthday, by the way.
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That's what I'm telling you, like, the way we thought.
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Listen, that guy, he, I give all credit to what it means to actually know what you're doing.
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A lot of people could come to work and they can have an awesome talent, but to know what
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Had the ashiest hands I've ever seen in my life.
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So I come in my first two, three years and we're like really not good on the defense line.
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And this man is jumping, climbing up to me so quickly.
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I got, you know, and you're talking about a pulling center.
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But you have that many centers that can actually pull and do all these things he was doing.
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And there was one game where he made me take some real gambles that hurt our defense.
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And it gassed us, threw them, hit us down the pipe.
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And Marvin comes in to me and he's cursing me from ear to ear while everybody's in the room.
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If my linebacker cuts the middle of the defense, I said, look, man.
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So he cursed me a couple of times, too many, and I got up and walked out.
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I was like, look, straight up, like, man, I ain't never had a father in my life, bro.
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So the last thing you're going to do is curse me.
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Oh, man, this is why our relationship turned to be much more than just coach player.
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He really started to understand what I was trying to do.
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And the culture had to be built off accountability.
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Do your job, right, and know what the hell you're doing.
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Now, when you started to learn, when I did that against Damani, he says to me, you can't do that.
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I said, the way this guy comes off the line and climbs to that second level, man, my gosh.
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Just technical, technique-wise, just so skilled.
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So Marvin says, I says, I don't know how to beat him.
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There's nothing that I did not know from a scouting report, from an offensive coordinator,
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There was moments where I got through in my career where I became the one to write up the
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So, before every game, because I started to understand my players, not better than the
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coaches, but I was out there in battle with them.
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Was there moments where you're like, this guy doesn't belong on the team anymore.
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There was a moment that says, we're not using him right.
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J.J. Watt, Derrick Brooks, they got steps coming off that ball.
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But his power and the way T. Sizzle comes off the ball is unseen, right?
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And next thing you know, we're in the meetings, and we're calling the first two, three plays
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of him dropping in the flats trying to fool somebody.
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So, that's when I went to the coordinator personally.
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Give me the first 15 of any game based off my study and to know how my guys hunt.
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And it was a competition with me and coaches because they used to always say, how do you
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So, if you come and you try to disguise a certain thing and you're playing against Peyton
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Manor, you're playing against Tom Brady, cover one, you know, you got to out route,
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Cover two, you know, check, check, check, run the ball because you got a light box.
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Cover three, you're safely going to cheat down when he want to cheat down.
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But how do you disguise that enough so they don't see it?
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You stop disguising and just beat the hell out of them.
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How much of it was psychological games with the opponent?
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When we made that run in 2000, Michael McQuarrie and Rob Burnett.
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I would just purely say men made up their mind that another side that had different colors on was not going to beat us one-on-one.
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When we came in defense, we clicked the button and we said, why is he blocking you one-on-one?
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We're going to play a four-man rush, which means we're going to be light in the box, which means you got to beat your man, then go do something else.
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Then I started this thing at practice where we got to touch the ball every play.
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Every defensive player on that field from 98 to the time I retired.
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Yeah, practice was longer because I don't care if it was a pass.
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If you ever watch the game with me, you'll be like, why are you so mad?
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Everybody, one run in this way, one run in this way.
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If you're a great defense, a great defense, you can be totally wrong as a great defense.
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And if they run a play that y'all ain't never seen, if everybody wrong, you right.
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If we're all playing pass, then you're going to get passed.
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It was just, when the thing that you miss, I think, now in today's games, back then, there
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Rod Wilson was one of the smartest people I've probably ever played in my freaking life,
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Like, he was, and he was the one, when he first got to Baltimore, he says,
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I've never seen leadership from a young man like this.
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And I said, Paco, I called him Paco for a reason.
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I would be the greatest, I would be the most dominant defensive player that ever played
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But then, off the field, had to align with the mentality.
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So, he knew every Friday, the younger guys would go out, right?
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We'd get cars and go to D.C. and whatever, whatever.
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And he's like, we're going to meet in here every morning.
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He said, the next Friday, when you go out, when you go to D.C., I'm going with you.
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He's tapping me on my shoulder 11 this time ago.
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So, you can at least rest Saturday for game Sunday.
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You're basically saying, I'm wasting my time going all the way down there, trying to drop
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Let's say hope, faith, worry, fear, whatever it is.
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