Ravens inch closer to playoff spot with win over Eagles
Baltimore holds off late Philadelphia rally for 27–26 win
By AL THOMPSON
The Baltimore Ravens came in their game against the Eagles with a path to the playoffs they controlled.
It was a path that had little or no room for error.
Lose and with the Pittsburgh Steelers comeback win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Ravens would fall two games behind the Steelers in the loss column and probably out of the playoffs.
Baltimore (8–6) escaped with a 27–26 win over the Eagles who gave the home team all they could handle at M&T Bank Stadium.
Led by rookie quarterback Carson Wentz the Eagles came back from a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit on two consecutive drives that started with 6:12 left in the final stanza.
The first drive went 49 yards on 11 plays ending with a 29-yard Caleb Sturgis field goal to make the score 27–20.
The second drive started at the 1:39 mark and went 59 yards on nine plays and ended with Wentz darting into the end zone from the four-yard line with four seconds left to make it a one-point game.
Head coach Doug Pederson opted to go for the win and try for two.
It was a pass, intended for Jordan Matthews, that was tipped at the line of scrimmage by linebacker C.J. Mosley and fell incomplete.
“Obviously a a very exciting football game,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said after the game. “A little too exciting there at the end. I want to congratulate our guys — Jerraud Powers and C.J. Mosley — for making the game-winning play at the end of the game. It was just a great play. C.J. Got a tip, and Jerraud got the ball batted out. Ultimately (those plays won us a football game.”
The Ravens took a 7–0 lead early after an Eagles turnover on the opening drive.
On the third play of the game, Carson Wentz’ first pass was an easy interception by Zachary Orr. The Ravens went on a 38-yard drive on five plays in less than 2 minutes ending with a Joe Flacco-to-Kamar Aiken 5-yard TD pass.
The Eagles started playing better. After the Eagles next drive stalled, punting to Baltimore and pinning them at their own 12-yard line, Eagles Brandon Graham teamed with Beau Allen for a sack on Flacco that pushed the Ravens back seven yards. The drive stalled and the Raven s had to punt from their five-yard line.
Kenjon Barner retuned the ball to the Ravens 43-yard line.
The Eagles drove to the Ravens 27-yard line where the Eagles — with new long-snapper Rick Lovato-booted a 45-yard field goal to make the score 7–3.
With the Eagles getting their footing the teams traded scores and at one point in the second quarter the Eagles took a 14–13 lead on a Ryan Mathews four-yard run and two-point conversion.
The half ended with the Ravens leading the Eagles 20–14 after Flacco hit Steve Smith with a 34-yard strike with nine seconds left before intermission.
The game was scoreless in the third. Twelve seconds into the fourth quarter, he Eagles made the score 20–17 on a Sturgis 27-yard field goal. The Ravens answered 69-yard eight-play drive that ended with a Kenneth Dixon 16-yard touchdown run and the score was 27–17 setting up the Birds rally the came so close.
Two big questions came up after the game: Was the choice to go for two the right decision? The other was why wasn’t Mathews in game for the conversion attempt.
The veteran had torched the Ravens all day for 128 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown.
Rookie running back Bryon Marshall, making his NFL debut, was in the backfield for the crucial play.
Ravens defensive end Lawrence Guy was asked if he was surprised the Eagles went for two and tried to steal the game.
“No, wouldn’t you go for two?” the six-year veteran out of Arizona State said in the Ravens locker room after the game. “It’s one of those things…you got for overtime or you go for two. If I was the head coach I’d take that chance and go for two. They thought they could get it, they didn’t get it. But me personally I would have done the same thing and gone for two.”
Pederson defended his decision on statistics and a philosophy of aggressiveness he has shown all season.
“I wanted to win the football game,” Pederson said. “Even our chances in overtime we less than 50 percent of winning this game. As an underdog going in, I was going to win the game in regulation.”
Pederson tried to say it did not matter who the running back was even though common sense would dictate that a veteran would be better in case there was a problem with execution.
“It’s a ‘gotta have ‘ situation for both teams,” Pederson said. “You know you are going to be in zero blitz, It doesn’t matter who is back there…they’re going to cover up all the gaps. And whether you run it or throw it, you’re chances of throwing it are actually a little bit better throwing it in this situation.”
The quarterback agreed with his coach.
“I loved it,” said Wentz, who was 22 of 42 for 170 yards and no TD passes. “I thought it showed coach’s aggressiveness and his belief in us. I thought we had it. They made a good play. They got their hand up at the line of scrimmage and it just didn’t go our way today.”
Flacco was 16-of-30 for 206 yards, two touchdowns and the one interception.
With the loss, the Eagles fell to 5–9 on the season and have lost five straight (their first since 2012).
