Crash of the Titans

The Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans wanted to prove whose defense was the best, but there’s no way to do that head-to-head.

All they can do is stand and watch the other team do its thing and then try to one-up them, like contestants on “Family Feud.”

So the battle within the battle of this AFC playoff game quickly became Ray Lewis versus Eddie George, the Ravens’ all-world linebacker against the Titans’ stellar running back. George either ran at Lewis or through him. Lewis had 12 tackles and 9 1/2 of them were on George.

There were hard hits, big plays and yapping. Lots of yapping.

“He’s their offensive cornerstone and I am our defensive cornerstone,” Lewis said. “We went at it good today. It was just a great war.”

If this were one of those video games, where you pick an offensive player and your opponent picks a defensive player to control, it would be George and Lewis when the Titans face the Ravens.

Every time I hear George’s name it reminds me of my first up-close look at him. I was standing on the sideline of an Ohio State practice field, and as he took a pitch and started chugging my way the thought was: I sure would hate to tackle this guy.

Same thing with Lewis: He’s the last person I would want to have running after me. He’s fast enough to chase you down and big enough to hurt you once he does.

Both came into the league in the 1996 draft. George, the 1995 Heisman Trophy winner at Ohio State, was the No. 14 pick by the then-Houston Oilers, Lewis the Butkus Award runner-up as a junior at Miami, was taken by the Ravens with the 26th selection.

George has run for at least 1,200 yards in each of his first five seasons and his 5,506 rushing yards during that span are most in the league.

Lewis has led the league in tackles three times and was this season’s NFL defensive player of the year.

In other words, they’ve already shown you something.

And yet they still put on a captivating performance Sunday.

George won the first battle. He rushed six times--all between the tackles or straight up the middle--for 23 yards and a touchdown as the Titans took a 7-0 lead. On Tennessee’s next possession, Lewis made a solo tackle on George to stop him two yards shy of a first down on third and 10.

Then he got in his face and let him know about it. George had something to say back. It was on, the first of several jab sessions between the two.

“He was talking, I was talking,” George said. “That’s how the game is played.”

“It’s always personal with me, with any running back,” Lewis said. “It’s not just Eddie George. Me and Eddie are real good friends. We have a great friendship, we have all that, but when we’re on the field, we’re just at each other. It’s just good.”

George is the focal point of the Titans. Whenever the scoreboard operators want to get the crowd going they show a clip of George waving a towel and urging the fans on. The fans chant his name after big plays. They even chant it in anticipation of plays, as when they yelled “Ed-die, Ed-die” while the Titans huddled up on the Baltimore two.

He never stops working, not even when he’s out of the game; you can usually spot him pacing up and down the sideline.

Lewis spent much of the last year as the focal point of the Baltimore defense.

“The reason why was because ‘quote-unquote’ what I went through this off-season,” Lewis said. “There’s more national publicity on me.”

He was at the center of a murder investigation after the deaths of two men outside a nightclub at the end of a party during Super Bowl week in Atlanta. After eventually pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing justice in the investigation as the murder probe shifted to two of his associates, he now has become known as the biggest defensive force in the game.

“He exonerated himself legally and also athletically,” Raven owner Art Modell said. “He came here determined to prove that he’s the best that ever played the game, and he has. He’s the best middle linebacker I’ve ever seen.”

It has to be the comeback of the year. Last year he sat in a jail cell for 15 days. This January he’s one step away from the Super Bowl.

“People were ready to see me go through something, they were ready to see me hang my head down and say I went through too much,” Lewis said. “But they’ll never see that. For them to see what I do now, it’s just what I’ve been doing the last four years since I’ve been in the league.”

He provided the finishing touch to this game and his war with George midway through the fourth quarter when he grabbed a pass that George tipped and returned it 50 yards for the game’s final score in Baltimore’s 24-10 victory.

“It bounced off my hand, hit my shoulder pad,” George said.

“For me to make that play right there, I couldn’t believe it myself,” Lewis said. “Man-to-man coverage. I saw him bobble the ball. I snatched it out of his hand, I saw the end zone. From there it was history.”

It was sad to see the sure-handed George make such a mistake. He played a valiant game, coming nine yards shy of becoming the first runner in more than two seasons to gain 100 yards against the Ravens.

He’s so critical to the Titans’ success you don’t want to see him associated with failure. But he went out with class in defeat. He walked into the Raven locker room and sought out Lewis for a hug and wished him good luck.

Then they parted.

“I’ll call you,” Lewis said.

Lewis should wait on that call. George has probably heard enough from Lewis for the time being--although the rest of us wouldn’t mind watching the two of them a little longer

“Two competitors going at it, competition,” Raven defensive lineman Tony Siragusa said. “Both of them wanted the spotlight. And I guess Ray won it with the touchdown.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.