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."