Ray Lewis calls out Brady Quinn for "cheap shot"

Though Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who complained loudly last month regarding the protection of quarterbacks, apparently had nothing to say after Monday night's game regarding the 15-yard penalty imposed on the Browns via a low hit to Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco, Lewis had plenty to say with respect to Cleveland quarterback Brady Quinn's decision to dive at the knees of Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs during the return of an interception. 

"That's an illegal blow," Lewis said, per the Associated Press (via Sean Leahy of USA Today).  "I don't care how you want to look at it. . . .

"When you're running down and you're looking at the quarterback going at somebody's knees who doesn't even have the ball.  I want to see if [Quinn] gets the same fine I got or even higher.  Now [Suggs] is out four or five weeks because of some baloney like that."

The Ravens haven't commented officially on Suggs' status.  He left the game with a knee sprain and did not return.  Suggs is due to undergo an MRI on Tuesday.

Quinn denied wrongdoing in comments distributed by the team.  "I was trying to go for the ball carrier," Quinn said.  "I was trying to make the tackle on [Chris] Carr.  I would never wish that upon anyone.  I was upset about it on the field.  He was someone I worked out in Arizona with.  I will be praying for him.

"Again, we are sorry about that.  That was never the intent.  Again, I am sorry to Terrell and the rest of their team. . . .  I apologized to the team as much as I could.  I talked to Terrell as well, but he was in pain in that point in time and I don't know if he even heard."

We're still not sure why diving at the knees of someone other than the guy with the ball will result in a tackle of the guy with the ball, barring some sort of domino theory.  (Hey, maybe that's how the guys in Miami can bootstrap their locker-room pastime to football.)  And we'd have a lot more respect for guys like Quinn if they simply said, "It was chaotic.  I don't play defense, I didn't know what to do, and that sense of frustration I felt after throwing an interception caused me do something that I thought at the time was a good idea.  In hindsight, it wasn't."



(profootballtalk.com)