Some rapid reaction to the Ravens’ bizarre and emotional 31-30 win over the Patriots:
The game ended as weirdly as it began with Bill Belichick attempting to arm-tackle an official on a narrowly good Justin Tucker field goal. The Ravens have finally beat the Pats in a regular season game, the AFC Championship is behind us, and the Ravens can get back to the business of winning.
- What can you say about Torrey Smith? Putting aside football for a second, our hearts obviously go out to the guy. Who knows what the “right” thing to do is in situation like that, but kudos to John Harbaugh for respecting Smith’s decision to play the day he loses his little brother. Not even an attempt at what would’ve been a horrible offensive P.I. call could stop him from grabbing a TD. Sheer grit on his part to get open and grab a second one when it mattered. Not a dry eye in the house.
- Joe Flacco, Ray Rice and both Ravens O and D-lines. All clutch. All cool under pressure. All delivered in a huge way tonight despite the strange conditions and officiating.
- The Ravens are the best case for getting the regular officials back. Not so much because of blown calls, but because the Ravens push the limit of physicality and intensity with normal officiating, and the substitute teachers currently wearing the zebra stripes have lost control of the classroom. They didn’t even get Ngata’s number right on the one personal foul flag they did throw. It’s never good when Al Michaels is openly bewildered by an official’s performance. Any slapfight involving Julian Edelman is officially the boiling point of the NFL referee labor crisis.
- Actually, screw that, it’s also because of the blown calls. This game was officiated seemingly at random. To quote Michaels “that’s the loudest manure chant I’ve ever heard.” Neither fanbase can claim they didn’t get some very fortunate breaks, but a potentially epic game was downgraded because of terrible management by untrained amateurs who, by no fault of their own, are out of their element.
- Rough night for the Ravens’ secondary. Whenever Cary Williams has double-digit tackles, well, it’s never good.
- Jacoby Jones almost Jacoby Jones’d…but this time it would have been devastating instead of awesome. The fact that he flexed out and posed on a drawn P.I. flag automatically rockets him into my Top 20 Ravens of all time.
- Anquan Boldin rocking an outdated Orioles hat in his intro? Come on O’s, can we comp the guy a proper 5950 with the cartoon bird?
- John Harbaugh won a challenge, cash in those lotto tickets! But he also got an unsportsmanlike conduct flag. The universe is back in balance.
Hold on. You thought it was good? Is that why you posted the picture of the football before it got to the uprights and not when it actually went BESIDE them? Hope that picture makes you feel better about your unearned win. Can’t wait for the regular officials to get back.
Just like the Patriot fans, whining about everything. You guys cry all game just like your pretty boy QB and here is some proof with comments above. Go home.
That pic is totally misleading… FG was no good. If anything it would of hit the goal post had they been taller… Need good shot looking up at it but that is not available..I am sure that there was a camera that captured the ball as it correctly shows it to be no good but since they cannot review it, we have to go off the call of the refs. I find it funny that the announcers even said the replacement refs arent qualified to do their job… go figure…
Wide angle seems to be no good, close up clearly shows ball was good, Sorry Patriots
Now Baltimore is even,,,,,,,we lost one of these to the Packers way back when,,,,,,,,,I doubt many of you guys today will remember this but it is why they raised the goal post by ten feet as after they reviewed the field goal attempt , it was really good and the Refs called it no good for the Baltimore Colts……………….
patriots fans, just cant admit the loss. cough 1-2 patriots
@Rick: You’re absolutely right that if the goal posts extended upward it would have hit them. If you listened when the commentators explained how the rule works, though, you would know the celestial rule says that just over the top of the goal post is considered in. It’s the outside edges of the goal post that define the outer boundaries.