Ravens’ Madbacker not happy

Right now, Scott simply is mad.

He’s mad the Ravens went 5-11 last season.

He’s mad the defense, traditionally among the league’s best, was ravaged by injuries and struggled at times last season.

He’s mad the team never made a stand to win close games until their postseason fate already was decided.

“I’m extremely pissed off, even more than ever because we were down and teams stuck on us a little bit, but they didn’t finish us,” Scott said. “I guarantee if we get the opportunity, we’re going to stomp them through the ground.”

With linebacker Terrell Suggs sitting out training camp to protest being given the franchise tag — a one-year contract worth $8.5 million — and linebacker Ray Lewis in the last year of his contract, Scott’s situation can be easily be overlooked.

Scott is in the final year of a three-year, $13.5 million contract. 

“Bart has a lot of things working and you like all of it,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “I think he is really committed to right now becoming a more fundamentally sound football player.”

Scott, who turns 28 next month, said: “If we would’ve placed a bet, the odds probably would’ve been 100-1 that I would be the guy who would start my career and finish a long career with one team. I love it here. I love this city. I embrace the town. I love the community.”

The 6-foot-2, 240-pounder played in all 16 games and finished with 131 tackles and a sack. It was a setback for Scott, who made his first Pro Bowl in 2006 after he made 135 tackles and nine sacks.

Scott’s inability to pressure the quarterback last season mainly was due to dropping back in pass coverage to assist a secondary dealing with the losses of starting cornerbacks Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle.

“When you lose a lot of guys, and with my background at safety in college, it allowed me to try to fill in some of those gaps,” said Scott, an undrafted free agent out of Southern Illinois in 2002. “But you don’t replace a Chris McAlister or Samari Rolle with a Bart Scott in coverage. We just tried to put it all right on our shoulders. I think it slowed us down as far as being aggressive.”

Ravens linebackers coach Greg Mattison worked closely with Scott after reviewing his game film from last season. He’s confident that if given the opportunity this year, Scott will emerge as one of the game’s elite pass rushers.

But only if he remains focused — and that’s been Scott’s glaring weakness.

Scott embarrassed himself on national television when he received a personal foul for throwing an official’s flag into stands bordering the end zone following the decisive touchdown during a 27-24 loss to the Patriots in December.

On Monday, Scott tackled Ray Rice so hard the running back’s helmet fell off. But instead of giving it back to the rookie, he flung it down field.

“[Scott] is a very intelligent football player,” Mattison said. “But sometimes when you’re intelligent, you see things too much instead of playing exactly what your responsibility is and then going to the next thing. There’s a fine line there. As a coach, you don’t want to take away from his ability but at the same time everybody has to play within the scheme of the defense.”

rsnyder@baltimoreexaminer.com