Ravens Give This One Away

The Tennessee Oilers got the victory they desperately needed, beating the Baltimore Ravens, 12-8, on Sunday, mainly because of a shoddy effort by the Ravens.

The Oilers (2-3) were penalized 13 times for 141 yards and scored the game’s lone touchdown on a broken play. Tennessee was four for 16 on third downs and could muster only two field goals in the final 46 minutes.

“The bottom line is that we won,” Oiler Coach Jeff Fisher said. “I don’t even want to think about the alternative, based on the way we played.”

The Ravens (2-3) were even worse, going one for 15 on third downs and getting a team-record low 36 yards on the ground. Even punting became an adventure for Baltimore, as Harper LeBel sent five bad snaps to Kyle Richardson.

Raven running back Priest Holmes, who ran for 173 yards in his starting debut against Cincinnati two weeks earlier, gained only 29 yards in 14 carries.

“Offensively, we never got into sync,” Baltimore Coach Ted Marchibroda said. “We just couldn’t totally find ourselves and we couldn’t get any drives going. I think third down[s] hurt us as much as anything.”

Eddie George ran for 121 yards and quarterback Steve McNair had a 40-yard touchdown run for the Oilers. But that was the extent of Tennessee’s offense.

“We’ve got to score. That’s the disappointing thing about what happened today,” Fisher said.

With 8:19 left, Holmes was stuffed on a fourth-and-one at the Oiler 41. The Ravens’ next chance came in the waning minutes, but Blaine Bishop intercepted Eric Zeier’s desperation pass near the end zone as time expired.

“They played better than we did,” Marchibroda said.

On this day, that wasn’t much praise.