"It was one of those haunting mistakes that dooms a team's chances of winning the big game, the kind of mistake that results in an endless loop of television replays and hours of postgame analysis on sports radio.

"But you get over it," Mark Clayton was saying yesterday, sitting at his locker at the Baltimore Ravens' practice facility. "If you're a veteran player, that's what you do. You move on. You forget about it."

If you're a Ravens fan or a Patriots fan, you know exactly what Mark Clayton, now in his fifth NFL season, had to get over. It was Oct. 4, the Ravens playing the Pats at Gillette Stadium, trailing 27-21 late in the game but closing in on the end zone.

With 32 seconds left to play, the Ravens faced a fourth-and-4 at the Pats 14. Quarterback Joe Flacco dropped back, looked to his right, and Mark Clayton was open for business inside the 10. Flacco released a bull's eye, right at Clayton's chest.

You know the rest. The ball bounced off Clayton's chest as though it had been thrown against a brick wall. End of drive; end of game . . . beginning of postgame analysis.

"Nobody asks me about the team anymore," Clayton said yesterday. "Everybody asks about that play, and how we could have closed it out if I catch the ball. All the questions are about me, all the time.""