 Newsome returned to Baltimore on Monday and immediately slipped
behind his desk following a night in Chicago in which the
57-year-old underwent a battery of tests, according to coach John
Harbaugh.
"He's been here all afternoon working, so he's back and has a clean
bill of health," Harbaugh said. "We don't know exactly what caused
the situation (Sunday), but it wasn't anything serious. So he seems
to be doing fine."
The Ravens lost 23-20 in a game delayed about two hours by bad
weather. Harbaugh found out about Newsome's illness early Sunday
evening as the team prepared to head back to Baltimore.
"I went back and saw him. At that point in time, they said they
thought he was OK," Harbaugh said. "But they had to keep him
overnight for observation just to make sure."
Newsome has not displayed signs of ill health recently. He is often
seen in workout clothes after a run on the treadmill or around the
practice facility, and he enjoys other forms of cardio exercise.
Newsome's apparent recovery was a welcome piece of good news in the
wake of another agonizing defeat. With their fourth loss in five
games, the Ravens (4-6) fell 2½ games behind the first-place
Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North.
Baltimore led 10-0 before a torrential downpour forced a two-hour
stoppage.
"You come out and put 10 quick ones up and you feel like you're
going pretty good, you feel like you're able to do what we wanted to
do against them and you have the delay," said quarterback Joe
Flacco, who ended up 17 for 31 for 162 yards and two costly
interceptions.
"It's frustrating because I felt like we had the ability to really
let it go and explode on offense and we just didn't do it."
The Bears went up 20-17 before the Ravens got a first-and-goal at
the muddy Chicago 5-yard line in the final minute of regulation. Two
runs and a pass failed, and the Ravens had to settle for a field
goal.
That set up the Bears to win in overtime and hand Baltimore its
fifth loss by six points or fewer.
"In the end, it comes down to doing the things we have to do to win
a tight game in tough conditions," Harbaugh said.
The biggest problem has been turnovers. One of Flacco's
interceptions was returned for a touchdown and the other set up a
Chicago field goal just before halftime.
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"What we can't be doing is turning the ball over
in those situations," Harbaugh said. "The thing that we talked
about today is that we create too many opportunities for our
opponent.
"That's what we do too much this year. I think that's the
biggest difference in other years when we won these close games.
We've got to do a better job of that starting right now."
The Ravens have a minus-5 turnover differential this season
thanks primarily to Flacco's career-high 13 interceptions.
Baltimore has already coughed up the ball 18 times compared to
16 all last season.
Newsome has built two Super Bowl champion teams in Baltimore and
has a current run of five straight playoff appearances. He has
kept the team in the upper echelon of the NFL by mastering the
draft and shrewdly working the salary cap.
After the Ravens beat San Francisco in the Super Bowl last
February, Newsome reworked the roster with an eye toward the
future. He discarded several veterans such as Ed Reed and
Bernard Pollard, signed a few free agents and hoped the new
blend would work.
So far, the results have been disappointing.
"We would all rather be sitting here talking about being atop
the division and chasing home-field advantage or something like
that," Harbaugh said. "That's something that we were shooting
for. We wanted to be in that position. We haven't done the
things we needed to do to be in that position. But we're in the
hunt."
Baltimore is still in the muddled AFC playoff mix and its next
three games are at home, beginning with the New York Jets and
Pittsburgh Steelers.
"We're playing two teams the next two weeks at home that are
right there in the hunt with us. We're chasing a division leader
that we have in our sights and we play again," Harbaugh said.
"We are right there. We can do it, and we're good enough to do
it. We've got every tool we need. We believe we have what it
takes, but it's up to us to prove it."
Beginning Sunday against the Jets (5-5).
"I think it's pretty obvious that it's critically important,"
Harbaugh said. "If we don't win this game, it's going to be
really tough."
___
AP NFL website:
http://www.pro32.ap.org/
[Associated
Press; DAVID GINSBURG, AP Sports Writer]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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