THUNDER BAY – Sports – It was an exciting day of NFL action on Saturday. With moments left in the game, the Denver Broncos let the game out of their hands. The Baltimore Ravens Quarterback tossed a bomb to a wide-open receiver resulting in a tying touchdown.
In a play likely to make coaching training videos for generations about how not to finish a football game, Denver gave away the game with less than sixty seconds on the clock.
The Broncos were heading into the home stretch leading 35-28. The Ravens were down to the end of their string. They had no timeouts, and were third and three.
The Denver Broncos simply had to prevent the long bomb. Stopping the long pass, would have sent the Broncos into the finals.
Joe Flacco, the Raven’s Quarterback must have thought ‘this can’t be real’ when he looked way downfield and saw his receiver Jacoby Jones running into the wide open field well beyond Bronco cornerback Tony Carter.
In a textbook fail, Bronco safety Rahim Moore was metaphoric miles out of place. As the pass sailed into Jones’ outstretched hands, Moore leapt skyward in a last ditch attempt to bat the ball away. It didn’t work and Jones scampered into the endzone.
It is hard to tell if the Ravens players will be able to overcome the bruises from pinching themselves to see if the play was real.
That classic football fail sent the game into overtime. The momentum shift ended up with the Ravens winning the game on a field goal over the hometown favourites.
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (12-5) at ATLANTA FALCONS (13-3) (Sunday, FOX, 1:00 PM ET)
The NFC’s top seed, the Atlanta Falconsl returned to action after a first-round bye. Led by Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Ryan, the Falcons were looking to continue their regular-season success in the postseason. Ryan has 56 wins as a starting quarterback, the most in a player’s first five seasons in NFL history.
The Falcons led early, and finally were able to sneak in a last minute field goal to secure the victory.
However it was not a cakewalk. The Falcons got a heart stopping 30-28 win over the Seattle Seahawks. The lead leading team almost lost, giving up a twenty point lead in an exciting final quarter.
At the end of the third quarter, the Falcons were up 27-7 and the game looked to be headed to the record book.
“Matt’s had a great regular season for us this year,” says head coach MIKE SMITH about his quarterback. “He’s gotten the individual accolades. He’s led our team through some tough ballgames and been able to pull them out. I think those experiences will help us in the postseason.”
The Seahawks led the NFL allowing 15.3 points per game during the regular season, defeated the Redskins 24-14 in Washington, DC in the Wild Card playoffs. The victory was the first road playoff win for the Seahawks since 1983, when the team won an AFC Divisional game at Miami. This time, Seattle erased a 14-0 deficit, the largest it faced this season.
The Cinderella season came to an end for the Seahawks, but the fourth quarter will bolster the team’s fans through the rest of the break until next season.
