The 2001 season was the Baltimore Ravens' sixth season in the National Football League (NFL) and the third under head coach Brian Billick.
Fresh off their victory trip from Super Bowl XXXV, bad news struck the 2001 Ravens as running back Jamal Lewis suffered a knee injury in training camp and would miss the entire season. This weakened the Ravens’ running game. Trent Dilfer was allowed to leave in free agency, and the Ravens elected to have a quarterback room that had Elvis Grbac as the primary starter with Randall Cunningham as the backup. Grbac went 8-6 as a starter but threw 15 touchdowns to 18 interceptions while Cunningham won both of his two starts. Terry Allen led the Ravens in rushing with 658 yards while Jason Brookins had five rushing touchdowns. On the receiving side, Qadry Ismail had 1,059 receiving yards on 74 receptions for seven touchdowns while Shannon Sharpe had a Pro Bowl season with 73 receptions for 811 yards as a tight end. Jermaine Lewis returned 42 punts for 519 yards to go along with 42 kick returns for 1,039 yards and was a Pro Bowl player. Ray Lewis had a league-high 162 combined tackles with three interceptions while Peter Boulware had a career-high 15 sacks.
The Ravens were swept by the Browns for the first time since they returned to Cleveland, and the Ravens also failed to equal their 12–4 record from 2000, instead going 10–6 but eventually reaching the postseason for the second consecutive year. They easily shut down the Miami Dolphins, 20–3 in the wild-card round, but were unable to stop the 13–3 Pittsburgh Steelers, in the next round, due to a series of turnovers and penalties.
This was the final season Randall Cunningham, Dale Hellestrae, Erik Williams and Carnell Lake would play in the NFL.
Offseason Throughout training camp, the team was the first to be covered by and featured on the HBO series Hard Knocks.
Draft
Personnel Staff / Coaches
Roster
Schedule Preseason Week Date Opponent Result Record 1 at Philadelphia Eagles Canceled 2 at New York Jets L 3–16 0–1 3 Carolina Panthers L 17–20 0–2 4 New York Giants W 38–9 1–22001 Baltimore Ravens schedule and results
Regular season Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance 1 September 9 Chicago Bears W 17–6 1–0 PSINet Stadium 69,365 2 September 23 at Cincinnati Bengals L 10–21 1–1 Paul Brown Stadium 51,121 3 September 30 at Denver Broncos W 20–13 2–1 Invesco Field at Mile High 75,082 4 October 7 Tennessee Titans W 26–7 3–1 PSINet Stadium 69,494 5 October 14 at Green Bay Packers L 23–31 3–2 Lambeau Field 59,866 6 October 21 at Cleveland Browns L 14–24 3–3 Cleveland Browns Stadium 72,818 7 October 28 Jacksonville Jaguars W 18–17 4–3 PSINet Stadium 69,439 8 November 4 at Pittsburgh Steelers W 13–10 5–3 Heinz Field 62,906 9 at Tennessee Titans W 16–10 6–3 Adelphia Coliseum 68,798 10 November 18 Cleveland Browns L 17–27 6–4 PSINet Stadium 69,353 11 November 25 at Jacksonville Jaguars W 24–21 7–4 Alltel Stadium 53,530 12 December 2 Indianapolis Colts W 39–27 8–4 PSINet Stadium 69,382 13 Bye 14 December 16 Pittsburgh Steelers L 21–26 8–5 PSINet Stadium 69,506 15 December 23 Cincinnati Bengals W 16–0 9–5 PSINet Stadium 68,987 16 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers L 10–22 9–6 Raymond James Stadium 65,619 17 Minnesota Vikings W 19–3 10–6 PSINet Stadium 69,465 Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Postseason
Week Date Opponent Result Record Attendance Wild Card January 13, 2002 at Miami Dolphins W 20–3 1–0 72,251 Divisional January 20, 2002 at Pittsburgh Steelers L 10–27 1–1 63,976
Division standings
Game summaries AFC Wild Card game vs Miami Dolphins
AFC Divisional Playoff vs Pittsburgh Steelers
at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Game time: 12:30 pm EST Game weather: (Mostly Cloudy) Game attendance: 63,976 Referee: Tony Corrente TV announcers: (CBS) Dick Enberg (play by play), Dan Dierdorf (color commentator), Bonnie Bernstein (sideline reporter)
Notes
References
External links 2001 Baltimore Ravens at Pro-Football-Reference.com 2001 Baltimore Ravens at jt-sw.com