When Game Is on Line, Reed Is the Safety Valve

Ronnie Lott, Rod Woodson, Ed Reed.

It may be premature, but it’s tempting to check the list of Pro Bowl/Hall of Fame defensive backs who were big-hitting, ball-hawking game-breakers and wonder how and where Ravens safety Ed Reed stacks up.

Two weeks. Two games. Two Ravens’ wins, courtesy of No. 20.

That doesn’t even account for the sack, forced fumble and recovery Reed ran back 22 yards for a touchdown in the Ravens’ win over the Redskins, a score that commenced a string of 17 unanswered points for the Ravens.

Pretty amazing.

You expect those types of successive clutch and game-clinching plays in baseball, where Barry Bonds or Jim Edmonds can hit a walk-off homer on back-to-back nights. You see them in the NBA, where Tracy McGrady or Kobe Bryant can sink jumpers at the buzzer in two different cities on two different nights. A single player can dominate and force results in those leagues.

But in the NFL? The law of averages, not to mention the chaos and complexity of 22 players on the field, make it downright outrageous for a safety to do what Reed has now done over the past two Sundays.

“Sure, he studies film. But people watch him, study him, do things to fool him. They pump-fake to get him going the other way. When things don’t look right, he knows,” Ravens secondary coach Johnnie Lynn said.

Years ago, Lynn played at UCLA. Lott was at USC, before he went on to become a Hall of Fame safety with San Francisco.

In 2000, Lynn was a coach with the Giants, the same season Woodson and the Ravens throttled them in the Super Bowl. The similarities are plentiful, but so is Reed’s unique brand of playmaking.

“Ed’s setting his own road. He’s the same kind of player (as Woodson and Lott). High intellect, knowledge of the game, great athleticism,” Lynn said.

“He can create things. He camps in the weeds and sets up those quarterbacks. Not just on the pass, he stops the run. He’s got the intellect and the athleticism, but he takes it to the next level. Some guys just can’t pull the trigger.”

In a league where Terrell Owens earns a lot of headlines, Reed is the exact opposite.

On a team where fellow Miami Hurricane and mentor Ray Lewis and head Coach Brian Billick get miked up for Ravens’ national TV games, Reed is the exact opposite.

He doesn’t seek praise or adulation, nor does he want it, even when it tends to be heaped upon an “undersized” NFL safety who, basically, has embellished an already stellar reputation by securing back-to-back wins with two sensational plays for his playoff-driving Ravens.

Praise is for God, whom Reed says gave him the blessing of talent and who gives him a foundation.

“I’m here for his purpose,” Reed said. “I’m just doing my job.” Reed does not want gaudy statistics nor NFL records, one of which he set against the Browns last week with his 106-yard touchdown return to earn him Defensive Player of the Week honors. Now, he leads nomination lists for Defensive Player of the Year.

If the Ravens make the playoffs, there’s little way to oversell Reed’s candidacy, considering that victories Nos. 5 and 6 over the Browns and Jets were sparked by Reed’s ball-hawking knack for turning the Ravens’ defense into its most reliable source of energy, momentum and points.

“Is that what they say?” Reed said with a dismissive chuckle. “That’s just me being where I’m supposed to be.”

Guess that means Reed was supposed to be in the end zone scooping the football into his arms just before it kissed the grass or the top of his cleat. Don’t tell that to Cleveland quarterback Jeff Garcia, whose valiant drive was crushed by Reed’s pick and touchdown jaunt.

Guess Reed was supposed to be in the end zone again this past Sunday, arms outstretched to catch a pass by Jets running back LaMont Jordan. Not even a holding penalty on teammate Will Demps that nullified Reed’s 104-yard pick return could diminish the luster of Reed’s brilliant and game-altering play.

“A penalty doesn’t take away the person I am,” Reed said, who was more concerned with consoling Demps: “He kept saying, ‘I’m really sorry, man.’ I said don’t worry about it. It happens. It’s all part of the game. We scored. We won.”

It was a 10- or 14-point swing that crushed the Jets. Reed illustrated his instinctual ability by saying he had “no doubt” what was going to happen on that game-breaking play.

“If you go back and look at where I came from on that play, LaMont Jordan was never going to run the ball,” Reed said.

“Once I saw Quincy Carter pitch him the ball, yeah, he had that option to run, but he wasn’t going to run, not with a seven-man front and Ray Lewis waiting for him. Who wants to deal with that? All you had to do was look at the play and I knew he was going to throw.”

This is the mind-set of the player emerging as the NFL’s next great safety. It’s the attitude of a defender on a defense that has decided to fly in the face of conventional wisdom about what constitutes a winning football team.

“Football, like most sports, relies on offensive production. The defense gets praise, but we know it’s not our game. All the rules, all the talk all year long is about MVPs coming from the offensive game; running backs, quarterbacks. It’s not our league. It’s not about us. The odds are against us,” Reed said.

“I do what I’m supposed to do. I don’t play for stats. I don’t take my seat when a seat is not given to me. I understand my role.”

So do we.

Big time.