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Ravens must learn how to finish

This time around, the Ravens were the team begrudgingly accepting their opponent's generous gifts.

In a 27-20 loss to Cincinnati six days prior, the Ravens committed six turnovers, though the Bengals couldn't salt the game away until the sixth and final miscue was in the book.

Against the Jets on Sunday, it was Baltimore that didn't seem willing to benefit from the inadequacies of its foe in an eventual 20-13 win. The Ravens had the pleasure of facing a first-time starting quarterback, Kellen Clemens, and the second-year-pro's inexperience helped Baltimore build a 20-3 lead in the early stages of the fourth quarter.

That's when Clemens tried to earn a place on the Baltimore-area hatred meter right next to Joe Namath.

The Oregon product, who had engineered just one drive of longer than 26 yards all day, led three marches of 68 yards or longer in the final frame.

First, Clemens led a field goal drive to cut the lead to 20-6. Baltimore quarterback Kyle Boller, subbing for the injured Steve McNair, subsequently helped his team to one first down before the Ravens were forced to punt.

Playing in the hurry-up offense, Clemens returned fire with an 11-play, 81- yard drive that culminated in a three-yard touchdown pass to tight end Chris Baker with 3:12 to play.

A couple of first downs could have ended the game, but Boller and company promptly went three-and-out, punted, and set the Jets up for a chance to complete an unlikely comeback and tie the game.

This is when Baltimore's vaunted defense stifles the youngster and takes over the game, right? Wrong.

On his first play of the drive, Clemens hit wideout Jerricho Cotchery on a 50- yard play that took the Jets to the Baltimore 30. He would eventually complete a 24-yard play to Laveranues Coles down to the 7, but not before both Justin McCareins and Coles dropped catchable passes in the end zone two give Baltimore two more gifts.

Finally, McCareins completed his Santa Claus act by dropping yet another pass in the end zone, after which Clemens finally relented and threw a pass that was tipped before coming to rest in the arms of Ray Lewis.

There, was that so hard?

Yes, according to Ravens coach Brian Billick.

"We do make it interesting," said Billick. "It was a great win for us. It's tough to win in this league, and any time you can come away with a win it's huge."

"It's always tense, when they have the ball and you're up by seven and they have a chance. But you have to have faith in our defense and we do. We've been here before and we'll probably be here again."

Despite their struggle to close, the Ravens did come away with several positives, not the least of which was the fact that they found the win column for the first time in 2007.

Baltimore's initial triumph of the year was recorded against a 2006 playoff team, albeit one in a depleted state, got the victory with their own backup quarterback on the field, and saw offseason addition Willis McGahee score his first TD as a Raven on a two-yard pass play in the first quarter.

There was another injury, that a broken wrist that could sideline starting end Trevor Pryce for up to a month, but there were none of the season-ending variety like the torn ACL suffered by return specialist B.J. Sams against Cincinnati.

A little tweaking of the two-minute defense is certainly in order after Clemens' display, and the 11 penalties for 100 yards were a little much, but the Ravens won't be harping on their deficiencies as they prepare to host explosive Arizona in Week 3.

"We've evened up the slate," said Billick. "It's time to move on to the next one."

PRO-BOLLER

It was a good Sunday for Boller, who received high praise for his work in his first start since McNair came on the scene last season. The fifth-year quarterback, who recently signed a one-year contract extension through 2008, completed 23-of-35 passes for 185 yards with a pair of touchdowns and no turnovers for his first win since late in the 2005 campaign.

Billick, noting the multiple defensive looks of the Jets defense, was among the impressed.

"He played very, very well," said Billick of the former first-round pick. "He had a lot to do today. There's a lot of checks, nuances within the game plan that he had to execute and he did an excellent job.

"They are an extreme defense. Either they're very, very passive or they bring the house. So there's a lot of extremes and you have to be on top of your game, recognize what's going on and handle it. He did a nice job."

PICK FOR YOUR PLEASURE

Lewis' interception, which came one week after the linebacker suffered a potentially serious triceps injury, was the 24th of his NFL career. Lewis has now intercepted at least one pass in 11 of his 12 NFL seasons.

"We kept trying to get pressure on the quarterback and he tried to force the pass," said Ray of the decisive play. "We have a saying on defense that when the ball's in the air, it's ours. When I caught it, I just said to myself 'Get down Ray."

The 12th-year pro leads Baltimore with 18 tackles through two games.

PRYCE IS WRONG

The biggest negative of the day was the third quarter broken wrist suffered by Pryce, who quietly led Baltimore with 13 sacks last season after coming over as a free agent from Denver prior to 2006.

Pryce was replaced in the lineup by fourth-year man Dwan Edwards, a former second-round pick out of Oregon State who has started just one game in four NFL seasons. Edwards, who is expected to open at defensive end this week against the Cardinals, was credited with three tackles in the victory over the Jets.

Lewis was among those impressed with Edwards' performance.

"When Trevor Pryce got hurt, we stepped it up," said Lewis. "I've been here 12 years and that always seems to happen. Guys are always prepared to step in and do the job."

NEXT UP

Arizona, which evened its record at 1-1 with a 23-20 win over Seattle on Sunday, visits M&T Bank Stadium in Week 3.

The Ravens hold a 2-1 edge in their all-time series with the Cardinals, defeating Arizona on the road in 2000 (13-7) and 2003 (26-18), and losing the only meeting between the clubs in Baltimore, in 1997 (16-13).

Billick is 2-0 in his career against Arizona, while the Cardinals' Ken Whisenhunt will be meeting both Billick and Baltimore for the first time as a head coach.

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