Who knows?
Clearly the ball didn’t cross THROUGH the uprights. Obviously the ball did go THROUGH the plane and came out (in and out in basketball is no good, right?). And when it was over and the Ravens had miraculously LOST the game, the front office brass showed the rule book that said the play should have never been reviewed to begin with.
Sloppy first half. A second half almost good enough to win EVERY week in the NFL.
Will the real Ravens lease stand up? Will someone, somewhere — Roger Goodell where are you? — please have one set of rules for the NFL and stick to them.
And this weird finish was only capped by the earlier ruling in the game that the replay booth “malfunctioned,” causing an apparent Ravens overturn call to get “ignored.”
Kyle Boller gave, and he took it away.
Brian Billick was a complete idiot in the first half (check the offensive stat sheet … at one point they had more points with 7 than yards of offense)!
Brian Billick was a GENIUS in the second half, as Kyle Boller started connecting with Derrick Mason and Devard Darling down the stretch as they created what would have been a season-saving, miracle comeback on a chilly afternoon.
The defense, put on a short field again and again, looked stout and Chris McAlister showed why he is who he is. Jamal Lewis was determined, but not the “old” Jamal. Derrick Anderson looked like Kyle Boller, circa 2004. Kyle Boller looked like one resilient, tough S.O.B. Willis McGahee looked the “old Jamal” on a couple of runs.
Want the locker room, postgame scuttlebutt? Bart Scott, Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis all declined postgame interviews as Justin Bannan, Jarret Johnson, Chris McAlister and Haloti Ngata answered all questions. Matt Stover was desperately trying to “interpret” what happened, from a kicking perspective. Many Ravens players tried to put into words how bizarre it was to be in the locker room congratulating each other and cutting off tape, only to be summoned back onto the field to lose the toss and then lose the game.
So, at 4-6, they’ll head to San Diego and all night tonight and all day tomorrow every headline in the league will refer to this game as a complete headscratcher for anyone from gamblers (the line pushed if you had the Browns minus-3) to fantasy players who had interests to real fans like me who just care that the Ravens picked up a certainly lethal sixth loss.
You might watch football another 25 years and never see one like today.
Gonna be interesting to see how the league office in New York handled this one, and how Mike Pereira is going to explain how an “unreviewable” call got reviewed and how the Ravens lost because of it.
Let the pile on begin … but this one will never be forgotten!
