With Browns coach Eric Mangini's job on the line, Ravens coach Jim Harbaugh went to bat for him.
Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini wears the pain of Sunday's loss on his face."This team over the last two years just keeps getting better and better,'' said Harbaugh. "This is a legitimate football team. How many close games have they played in? You just go down and look at the scores and you’re like, ‘oh my goodness.’ Then they dominate two of the best teams in the league — the Patriots and the Saints. We haven’t been able to do that this year against that kind of competition. This football team is really, really good. They may have their quarterback. I think they’re really well-coached on both sides of the ball and special teams. We knew what we were in for coming in.”
Harbaugh was also impressed by the Brown's intensity , something players such as Colt McCoy and Peyton Hillis said was lacking in losses to Buffalo and Cincinnati.
"This is a highly motivated football team,'' said Harbaugh. "They came to play. You could see it in pre-game, and you could see it right until the last second. This team fights. We knew it was going to be that type of game. I think that’s why [LB] Ray [Lewis] said what he said (about Peyton Hillis and a blind cat finding a meal): to get our guys ready.''
DAWSON'S KICK: Phil Dawson blamed the errant onside kick at the start of the second half on himself. The ball bounced backward and traveled only eight of the required 10 yards, going out of bounds at the Browns' 38.
"It was a great call,'' said Dawson. "When you're playing to win, that's the kind of call you make. The ball just didn't bounce the way I wanted it to, that's bad execution on my part."
Dawson said special teams coach Brad Seeley came to him at halftime and told him they might open the second half with it.
"That's the thing that makes these surprise onsides so difficult,'' Dawson said. "You can't really get out there and practice them because then the other team knows what you're doing. So, you just gotta execute, and I didn't do that today."
He said "it's a tough kick, but when the ball gets on the ground, you're not sure what it's going to do. That's why you don't see those kicks very often. But I love the call, and I should have kicked it better."
HILLIS GOT THEIR VOTE: Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs revealed that the Ravens voted for Hillis for the Pro Bowl thanks to his 144-yard game against them in the first meeting.
"Yes, we did vote for him for the Pro Bowl,'' said Suggs. "I think he's one heck of a back. But we did our job.''
ANSWERED THE BELL: Browns left tackle Joe Thomas was so impressed with running back Mike Bell, who subbed for the injured Peyton Hillis (back) that he feels confident Bell could've had over 100 yards if the Browns hadn't fallen behind and gone to the air. It's a bold statement considering the Ravens have only give up eight 100-yarder rushers in their last 82 games.
"If it would've been a one-score game in the second half and we would've been able to continue to run the ball, I think Mike would've been the guy getting the ball,'' said Thomas. "Who knows, but I think we would’ve had a great chance of getting him over 100 yards.''
Bell finished with 27 yards on seven carries (3.9 average) and caught two passes for 48 yards, including a 28-yard screen that led to the field goal at the end of the half.
STEINY'S DANCE: Left guard Eric Steinbach did what looked like an imitation of Ray Lewis' famous pre-game dance during introductions. But he swore with a smile that it wasn't the Ray-Lew dance.
"I was doing a little shimmy, a little shake,'' said Steinbach. "It's called the Chicago shuffle. It's been out for years. It might be similar to some guys' dances, but it's just my own little thing. I just wanted to get the guys going, that's all. It's not often o-linemen get to get out there and do a dance.''
HADEN'S BIG DAY: Joe Haden grabbed his team-leading sixth interception, the most by a Browns rookie since Anthony Henry's 10 in 2001. He also made five tackles, and recorded his first career sack and forced fumble, on Joe Flacco.
"That was kind of sweet,'' said Haden. " I was trying to come up on him slow because I thought he was going to throw it over my head, so I'm going to be able to jump up and try to bat it down or intercept it or something. He kept running.''
His pick came on a deep ball intended for Anquan Boldin.
"He ran a double move and that's one thing I always jump on so I just stayed on him,'' said Haden. "I didn't go back. Luckily I turned into the receiver.''
Boldin, who burned the Browns for three TDs against Eric Wright in the first meeting, caught two passes for 15 yards.
"My mission is every time I go out to try to lock down receivers no matter who it is or what they did to us before,'' said Haden. "I just want to go out and don't let people catch passes on me. When I'm in man-to-man coverage, don't let them catch it. I knew he had a good game on us last game, so I came out with the whole mindset to lock him down or lock down whoever was in front of me.''
MO'S UP AND DOWN DAY: Mohamed Massaquoi, who threw a 29-yard TD pass to Brian Robiskie, became the first Browns non-quarterback to throw a touchdown pass since Kevin Johnson completed one to Quincy Morgan in 2002. But Massaquoi had the ball ripped out of his hands after a second-quarter catch and was the intended receiver on all three of Colt McCoy's interceptions, which were either underthrown or overthrown.
On the first one, he didn't do enough to bat the ball away from Lardarius Webb on an underthrown pass.
"You have to do everything you possibly can,'' said Mangini. "We saw Josh (Cribbs) do it last week.''
Massaquoi caught two of the six passes thrown his way and has caught 14 of 29 over the last five games for 48.2 percent.
ROBISKIE'S TD: Robiskie's diving 29-yard TD catch was his second in as many weeks. It also withstood a replay challenge. But Robiskie made what he thought was another huge play in the third quarter -- a 42-yard catch to the 19 in the third quarter with the Browns trailing, 20-10. Unfortunately for him, he was called for pushing off on Webb even though he barely touched him.
"I tried to dispute it a little bit with the ref, but he said he saw me extend my arms and push the DB and obviously I thought otherwise,'' said Robiskie. "He said if he saw my hand like that he was going to make that call. Those are some of the calls you scratch your head at, but the officials, that's why they're out there.''
THIRD DOWNS GREAT: The Browns converted 7-of-11 third downs (64 percent) after converting only 6-of-32 over the previous three games. The Browns tried a number of different things on third down, including the wildcat a couple of times.