OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Ray Lewis hates losing, especially games decided in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Baltimore Ravens have dropped four games like that this season, and Lewis reached a boiling point last Sunday when the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts escaped with a 17-15 victory.
Lewis, a 10-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker, made 10 tackles and forced a fumble despite playing with a sore right ankle.
And still the Ravens lost.
Afterward, Lewis brushed past reporters and left the locker room without saying a word.
"It gets no harder for me than Sunday. I've always had a problem with losing. I pray about it a lot," Lewis said Wednesday. "I don't like losing freaking close games, I don't like losing nothing. I like to finish games out 60 minutes when you've got a team like that on the ropes."
Lewis has won a Super Bowl over his 14-year career, but he's also had to endure dozens of defeats. Nothing infuriates him more than working hard for an entire week, then playing with unyielding intensity before walking off the field on the short end of a close game. That's exactly what happened Sunday, and to make matters worse, the defeat was eerily similar to a 15-6 playoff loss against Indianapolis two years earlier.
"When you reflect back to 2006, kind of the same situation happened. We hold them to five field goals and lose and they go on to win the Super Bowl. I don't want to relive that again," Lewis said. "So Sunday, excuse me for not talking. That's definitely not me. But for me, the way I play this game and the way I study and how we had them, that game we're supposed to win. We didn't win it. That didn't sit well with me."
The 34-year-old Lewis leads the Ravens with 103 tackles, but Baltimore (5-5) is in danger of missing the playoffs because it has lost four games by a total of 13 points. Against the Colts, two fourth-quarter turnovers sealed defeat.
"It was a bitter taste in my mouth," Lewis said.
"Ray's always intense. It's rare that he's not intense," Ravens outside linebacker Jarret Johnson said. "Yeah, he took that loss hard, just like we all did. That's why he's been so good for so long. He's always focused, he's always willing to come in the next week and get a little bit better. He's been doing that for 14 years."
Getting into the huddle with Lewis has been a one-of-a-kind experience for rookie linebacker Paul Kruger.
"It's unlike any player I've ever played with. You know you're in good hands. You know who the boss is, you know who the captain is," Kruger said. "He's just a presence out there. You can feel it in the 102nd row in the stands, but being right next to him, it's a pretty special thing."
Lewis has never been one to mask his emotion, on the field or in the locker room. So his agony was evident after Sunday's game.
"You could tell he was feeling it, big time," Kruger said."
After glancing back at the Indianapolis game one more time Wednesday, Lewis turned his full attention toward defeating the rival Pittsburgh Steelers at home Sunday night.
"The way we play each other, it's always a physical ballgame, it's always going to come down to one of the last plays," he said. "It's just the way it is."
Lewis can only hope that if it's close, the Ravens find a way to win.