So said Baltimore Ravens LB Ray Lewis last year prior to the second meeting with the Cleveland Browns when discussing RB Peyton Hillis' week two performance. The Ravens might have won that game (24-17) but Hillis ran for 144 yards on 22 carries (6.5 average) and one TD. The second time the teams met in 2010 (week 16) in Cleveland, the Ravens won again (20-10), but Lewis proved quite the 'savant,' in that Hillis was held to 35 yards on 12 carries.
Fast forward to 2011 and it took 13 weeks for the Ravens to face the Browns for the first time this season. Hillis has been injured much of the season, appearing in only five of the Browns eleven games. Prior to returning last week in his team's 23-20 OT loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, he had missed the previous five games. Hillis ran for 65 yards on 19 carries last week and figures to be a big art of the Browns game plan when they host the Ravens Sunday.
However, Baltimore has no plans for him to repeat his big performance early in the 2010 season and might even have to back it up one again without the services of the guy who made the titled quote, as Ray Lewis is still recovering from his "turf toe" and another week of rest against a team that the Ravens should be able to win without him would be a sound decision to have him healthy for the stretch run and the post season
So far in 2011, he only has 79 carries for 276 yards and two TDs, a far cry from his 1,177 yard 2010 season which earned him enough votes from fans to be the cover of the video game, Madden NFL 2012. Talk about a "cover jinx."