Will we remember the Titans after Sunday?

Hardly does the fourth week ever call for a desperation game. However, the Tennessee Titans find themselves close to that predicament as they go to Baltimore on Sunday to take on the Ravens.

Tennessee's 26-6 regular-season record (13-3 each season) over the past two years is the best in the NFL. They are one loss away from the total from those seasons. Entering 2001, they hadn't lost consecutive regular-season games since the final two weeks of 1998. They opened the season with losses to Miami and Jacksonville.

Coming off a bye week, the Titans are 0-2 and in last place in the suddenly ultra-competitive AFC Central. The Ravens, Browns, Bengals and Jaguars are 2-1. The Steelers are 1-1.

Losing to the Dolphins and Jaguars is not the embarrassment of, say, losing to the Bengals; however, these are two teams a Super Bowl team should beat.

Enter rival Baltimore. In what is fast becoming one of the premier rivalries in the NFL, the Titans need to beat the Ravens on Sunday.

Baltimore enters the game riding the high of beating the Broncos in Denver. It was a game in which the Ravens rebounded nicely from a pathetic performance against the Bengals. The defense humiliated the Broncos vaunted offense and Elvis Grbac and the Ravens' offense did enough to inspire a little faith in Baltimore fans.

It does not look good for the Titans, especially with quarterback Steve McNair injured and uncertain of whether he will play after missing the Jacksonville game.

Not to say at 0-3 the Titans are eliminated from playoff contention. However, this is the game the Titans have been waiting for since last January when the Ravens bounced the Titans from the playoffs. It could possibly be said that they have been waiting for this game for so long that they forgot they had to play the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars.

"We have respect for them, but I wouldn't say we're consumed with them," Titans head coach Jeff Fisher said. "We make two or three field goals in two games last year and we might very well win all three games against them. That's kind of the way we look at it. I don't see any sign of our guys being intimidated."

It's true, in the AFC divisional round playoff game in Nashville on Jan. 7, the underdog Ravens defeated the Titans 24-10 despite being statistically dominated. The momentum of the victory launched the Ravens to Super Bowl XXXV.

However, Tennessee's cries of "what if" fall on deaf ears. This series is a dogfight and often statistics do not tell the whole story. Last October in a win at Baltimore the Titans won despite losing statistically. In fact the road team has won the last three games in this series with the Ravens handing the Titans their first two losses in the two-year history of Adelphia Coliseum.

The Ravens have won three out of the last four games. Five of the past seven games have been decided by four points or less.

"When we get together, it's a slugfest," Ravens coach Brian Billick. "Something unique decided last year's playoff game and that will probably be the case on Sunday."

The Ravens have not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 36 consecutive regular-season games. Eddie George has run for only a 138 yards on 38 carries (3.4 avg.) with no touchdowns in two games this season. Something has to give. The Titans would seemingly have to run with some success to have a chance for victory Sunday.

Last year in the playoffs Eddie George fell nine yards short of 100 rushing for 91 yards on 27 carries. He also caught eight passes for 52 yards. However, the image that is enduring is George being pounded time and again by Ravens' linebacker Ray Lewis.

"Eddie George and Ray Lewis had what was really a heavyweight fight," Billick said. "They went back and forth all game. Two great football players."

In the fourth quarter of that game, a pass deflected off of George and Lewis returned it for a 50-yard touchdown. It sealed the victory for the Ravens. Lewis won the battle and the NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

In the first regular season game last year, George left after just one carry due to a right knee injury and had just 28 yards on 12 carries in the second meeting.

Anyway you put it; the Titans' backs are against the wall.

Since the NFL expanded the playoffs to 12 teams in 1990, only three teams have overcome a 0-3 start to make the playoffs. Only one of them, the 1992 San Diego Chargers, won a division title or a playoff game.

The Ravens would be happy to make the Titans' road to the playoffs as difficult as possible.

Shannon Sharpe summed up the Ravens' motivation best, "Our goal is to knock them out, and we get an opportunity to do that early on. That's not to say that they can't overcome and get on a hot streak. But we like our chances with them down 0-3."