Just returned from the Ravens' locker room. Those guys are ticked off. They said the league wants the Patriots to win, to the point that officials make calls favoring New England with the game on the line. They said Tom Brady sells tickets for the league, so the league wants Brady and the Patriots to stay unbeaten. I'll start posting the direct quotes momentarily. Refresh the blog periodically and you'll see them as they post.
Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs on officiating: "Everybody is kind of cheering for them to go undefeated and break all the records. They called them the greatest offense on earth. So who knows? ... They made one more play than us and they got a little help."
Suggs on the timeout attributed to the Ravens, which gave New England another chance on fourth down aver Baltimore appeared to stop Tom Brady short on a sneak: "You only get a few times to really get the NFL's poster boy in that type of situation. I don't know. It looked like all 22 men on the field played as if no timeout was called. But if it was called, it was called. I don't get inot that part of the game. I just do my job."
Suggs on officiating: "It's kind of the feeling of the 2001 tuck rule. It kind of feels like the tuck rule. That is the NFL for you, man. When they got a guy like that that is selling a lot of tickets, you want to keep him selling tickets"
Ravens linebacker Bart Scott on the timeout: "I didn't hear a timeout. That was very convenient."
Scott: "We outplayed them, plain and simple. We punched them in the mouth on both sides of the ball."
Ravens receiver Derrick Mason: "Allow the players to dictate how the game is going to go, especially the last couple of seconds. It's kind of like basketball. There's three seconds on the clock. Let the guys play. The best team is going to win. You don't let outside circumstances dictate how the game is going to go. It's hard to play against the best team in the NFL and beat them. You are out there and working hard. You are playing against them and then also you have the other guys and it seems you are playing against them, also."
More from Mason on officiating: "I'm going to take it back to last game. San DIego. Quinn Sypniewski runs down the field, runs into one of their DBs, we catch the ball and they call offensive pass interference. OK. Great. This game, same things happens. Randy Moss runs right into Samari Rolle. They call defensive pass interference. I don't understand that. One game it's called one way, the next game it's called another way. At the end, you have a phantom call. That's why it's hard to play and win a game when you are playing against more than just the best team in the NFL."
More from Mason on how hard it is to beat the Patriots: "It's kind of like that old Bulls team when they were running the tables. You were playing against Jordan, Pippen and the bunch and it was hard to beat them because everyone was on their side. That's the way it is now. You've got Brady and the bunch. It's hard to beat them when you're playing against them and extra people."
Mason on whether the refs can get caught up in talk of an undefeated season: "I think everybody can get caught up. You should have heard some of the verbal blasts we were taking from the refs. It was just despicable. They don't want us to say anything to them, but they treat us like we're little kids out there, saying anything they want to say. As players, we can't say anything back. We can't report it to anybody because it's our word against theirs. But you have to give it up to New England. They did what they had to do. They scored at the end and that's all you can ask of a team."
Ravens cornerback Chris McAlister on whether the NFL wants the Patriots to win: "They get a lot of calls. I'll say that. We've been watching film on them all week and I mean, they do get a lot of calls. As far as the NFL wanting them to win, you can't totally not think about it in those terms."
Ravens running back Willis McGahee: "I felt like we played our hearts out tonight and got some bogus calls, but it is what it is."
McGahee on which calls bothered him the most: "Shhh. Pass interference, the holding on (Jamaine) Winborne. There was a lot. I can't even remember them all."
Ravens coach Brian Billick spoke with reporters for only about a minute after the game. Asked why the Ravens called timeout before stuffing Brady on fourth down, Billick said, "We didn't feel like we were in the right configuration, kind of knew what they were going to do and felt like we needed a better call, I guess." It wasn't clear what he meant. Asked which person called the timeout, Billick said, "We called the timeout." Asked if the calls just didn't seem to go the Ravens' way late in the game, Billick said, "Yeah, evidently not."
Asked about what he said to Scott about tossing an official's flag into the stands, Billick said, "You've gotta be smarter than that. Can't be a dumb football player."
I'll leave you with a comment overheard from a veteran player: "You might as well crown them the Super Bowl champs if it's going to be like that."
