On a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon, the Baltimore Ravens traveled up to the Mile High City of Denver to take on Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos. At game time the spread showed Denver favored by 9.5 points with an over & under of 46. The altitude in Denver is always a factor for teams unaccustomed to it
Trindon Holliday ran back a punt for a 90 yard touchdown for the first score of the game and began a see-saw battle which saw the score tied at 14 all at the end of the first quarter….. and 21 all at halftime.
It was 13 degrees in Denver at game time….by the beginning of the fourth quarter it had dropped to 8, but, these two teams obviously came to play football!
After catching a 14 yard pass from Manning in the second quarter, Knowshon Mareno went to the sidelines with a knee injury and did not return to the game.
Down by a touchdown, with only 30 seconds left in regulation, Joe Flacco let loose a 70 yard bomb to Jacoby Jones for a game tying touchdown, sending the game into overtime. The thermometer read 6 degrees at the beginning of overtime play.
Peyton Manning and Joe Flacco both had 3 touchdown passes but Manning fumbled once and threw 2 interceptions…. one in overtime……which led to the game winning field goal by rookie kicker Justin Tucker…… which was the only field goal scored in the contest.
So, in one of the most exciting, hard fought playoff games in recent memory…a game that gave us not one, but two overtime periods…. the Baltimore Ravens win and will move on the AFC Playoffs.
Peyton Manning’s quest for a Super Bowl ring in his first year at Denver came to an unexpected close as Ravens Quarterback Joe Flacco went 18 for 34 and passed for 331 yards.
Retiring Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis had 17 tackles and helped to avoid this being his last game as a professional football player.
It should be noted that Peyton Manning walked across the field to shake the hand of Ray Lewis after this, their last of many games together.
Good Sportsmanship at its best!
The Ravens will next take on the the New England Patriots and Tom Brady in another game which will most likely be played in frigid weather at Foxborough.
