Ravens WR Marquise Brown calls former Baltimore LB Bart Scott’s criticism on ESPN ‘foolishness’

Ravens wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown had nine catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns Monday night, including the 5-yard score that cemented a thrilling 31-25 overtime win against the Indianapolis Colts, but that apparently wasn’t enough to satisfy one former Raven.

Bart Scott, who spent the first seven years of his career as an inside linebacker for the organization, criticized Brown’s worthiness as a starting wideout in the NFL.

“Hollywood Brown would not start on any of these other units that we consider,” Scott said on ESPN’s “First Take” program. “He wouldn’t start for the Bills. He wouldn’t start for Kansas City. He wouldn’t start for Aaron Rodgers.”

The bold take seems unfounded after considering that Brown ranks eighth in the NFL in receiving yards (451) and second in receptions of at least 20 yards (nine) and is tied for second in touchdown catches (five) and receptions of at least 40 yards (three). He is on pace for 1,533 yards and 17 touchdowns — both of which would be career highs.

Scott’s jab earned the attention of Brown, who poked at Scott’s football acumen by singling out his first name.

On Thursday, Brown briefly elaborated on Scott’s barb, calling it “foolishness.”

Asked if the criticism bothered him, Brown replied, “For him to be a former player, it kind of did bother me.”

Brown said he would not dwell on Scott’s insult. “I don’t really care about his opinion,” he said.

Later Thursday, Scott retorted back at Brown on his ESPN podcast, and doubled down. He argued that Brown would not start over any of his peers in the AFC North nor on teams such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” Scott said. “What I was trying to do is build up Lamar Jackson. And maybe a byproduct of that is I pushed you down a little bit, young fella, and your feelings are hurt, and that’s part of your defense mechanism. But come on, man, my name? My name is Bartholomew, yes. And Bartholomew will get an interview anywhere. Marqueese or Marquise? Hmmm, you might not get calls back, bro.

“So Hollywood, unless you’re going to be one of the — what do you call them? — Chippendale dancers or something like that, that ain’t going to get you anywhere, man, because your career so far has been anything but Hollywood. It’s been more Bollywood than anything, but it’s OK. But if you want to clap back.”

Extra points

>> The offense converted two of three 2-point conversions against Indianapolis with both occurring after the last two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime. Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman joked that he might need to go back to the drawing board to scheme up some more 2-point conversions.

“Once you run a few plays like that — and I think we ran three 2-pointers — now you’ve got to refill the refrigerator for the 2-point plays,” he said. “You open the door, and there’s nothing in the fridge. Those plays were eaten. So every week, you’re trying to build situational plays because they loom big in the game.”

>> Martindale said he and cornerback Tavon Young discussed his unnecessary roughness penalty stemming from his post-whistle shove of Colts tight end Jack Doyle after he shoved Young’s helmet into the turf. Fortunately for Young and Ravens, kicker Rodrigo Blankenship missed a 47-yard field goal as time expired in regulation.

“They’re always going to find the second guy,” Martindale said. “That’s the NFL. That was one of those Don King moments, and he knew it. He knew it was bad.”

>> After going through the first four games without a kickoff return, the Ravens finally got Devin Duvernay in gear by returning five kicks for a 22.2-yard average. Special teams coordinator Chris Horton said he would prefer to see more like Duvernay’s 27-yard return that gave the offense the ball at its own 32-yard line to start the game-winning touchdown drive.

“It took us five weeks to get a return in, and now we’ve got something to coach off of,” Horton said. “Was it perfect? No, but when we go back and watch that return, the one from the overtime where we started from the [32]-yard line, that’s more like us. We’ve got to figure out a way from the first kickoff return to get to that on that last kickoff return, and I just think that our guys are going to continue to work hard and when we get opportunities, we’ll do what we need to do.”