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Just four weeks after starting at cornerback for the Ravens, Fabian Washington was inactive yesterday against the Buccaneers.
It represents quite a fall for a guy who has started 30 games in three seasons in Baltimore and who hadn't been a healthy deactivation since the 2007 season.
"It's a low point, but you got to keep pushing that's what I plan on doing," Washington said after the game yesterday. "I'll be back on the field."
Washington was benched back-to-back games against the Bills and Dolphins, and he lost his starting job against the Falcons three games ago. He was inactive yesterday over less-experienced members of the Ravens because he doesn't make much of an impact on special teams.
The sixth-year corner said he had an idea coming into the game that he would be among the Ravens' eight inactives.
"I knew early in the week," Washington said. "I got a heads up early in the week saying it's a possibility I was going to be down. I knew coming into the game.
"It's no biggie. We won, [we're] 8-3. I do plan to keep pushing. I'll be back on the field at some point."
While he obviously would have preferred to be in uniform yesterday, Washington took the deactivation in stride.
"I'm just rolling with the punches," Washington said. "I just work here. I do what the boss says."
While Washington was scratched for the first time this season, rookie defensive tackle Arthur Jones was active for the first game of his NFL career.
After being declared a gameday inactive for the first 10 games this season, the fifth-round pick out of Syracuse came off the bench and rotated in behind Haloti Ngata, giving the Pro Bowl defensive tackle a rest at times.
"It felt great," said a smiling Jones after the game. "I'm hungry for more. I'm happy we got the win. That's the most important part. I wasn't really nervous, I was so fired up and ready to go. It's a dream come true to play with Ray Lewis. I was fired up."
Jones didn't have any tackles on the ballgame, but head coach John Harbaugh said he didn't notice any major flaws in the rookie's performance.
"There was nothing glaring that he did bad, so he must have played pretty well in there," Harbaugh said. "I'm looking forward to seeing how he did [on tape], because he's a guy we have really high hopes for."
It remains to be seen if Jones will be a part of the Ravens' defensive gameplan the last five weeks of this season, but he says he's going to continue to prepare as if he'll be in the mix.
"I'm going to keep getting better and try to get out there and take the teaching from Haloti and the guys and try to keep getting better," Jones said.
