Titans move to 5-0

BALTIMORE — Facing a rugged Baltimore Ravens defense that still conjures unpleasant memories, Kerry Collins trotted onto the field needing to mount an 80-yard touchdown drive to keep the Tennessee Titans unbeaten.

His first big play was to get hit in the helmet. Soon after that, Collins threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Alge Crumpler with 1:56 left to rally Tennessee to a 13-10 victory Sunday.

The last time he started against the Ravens, Collins was thoroughly ineffective for the New York Giants in a 34-7 loss in the 2001 Super Bowl.

“It’s hard to forget that one. Obviously, it wasn’t one of my better days,” Collins said. “Sure, I wanted to beat them, (but) I wanted to go 5-0 most of all.”

The Titans trailed 10-6 in the fourth quarter before Collins engineered the pivotal 11-play scoring drive. The march was extended by a penalty against Baltimore’s Terrell Suggs, who was flagged for a blow to Collins’ helmet — although the hit appeared to be little more than incidental contact.

At least that’s how Suggs saw it.

“If anybody can go back and show something I did illegal, then I would be happy to say I messed up and got what I deserved,” he said. “We hit arms. It just goes to show the referee has too much power.”

It was the last of several personal foul calls in a game marred by numerous skirmishes. Tennessee was penalized 10 times for 78 yards, including a pair of 15-yard infractions that fueled both Baltimore’s scoring drives.

The Ravens (2-2) were assessed 11 penalties for 91 yards.

“We are the bad boys of football. They are always going to look at us like that,” Suggs said. “From the way the game was going, I think the referee just probably wanted to feel important.”

The third-and-10 play began with a false start call against Tennessee, but play continued and Suggs’ hit trumped the 5-yard penalty against the Titans.

“He got him on the side of the helmet,” referee Bill Carollo said. “We’re blowing the whistle, blowing the whistle. He may not have heard that … but he still can’t hit the quarterback on the helmet.”

Collins threw an incomplete pass on the play, but was provided with a new set of downs and coolly directed Tennessee into the end zone.