Maybe the most disgusting half of football one team has put forth whose quarterback was not named Jake Delhomme. I'd say it was unbelieveable, but this is exactly how the Ravens have operated under John Harbaugh: put themselves in position to make a run at the title, but not do enough things to actually make that run.
This started in the regular season. They were a very solid team, but when offered the chance to skip the wild card round they couldn't make the plays to do it. In the first half Pittsburgh gave them 2 turnovers, the Ravens converted them into 14 points, and had a 21-7 halftime lead.
Then the second half started. In this half, the Ravens proceded to...
Turn the ball over 3 times in 4 drives in the 3rd quarter. They accumulated -4 yards for the quarter.
After going down 24-21, returned a punt for a touchdown...only to have it called back from holding.
On the ensuing drive, prized WR acquisition Anquan Boldin dropped a touchdown pass, forcing the Ravens to settle for a field goal.
On the Steelers ensuing possession, on 3rd and 19, allowed a Steelers receiver to get behind everyone for a 58 yard pass play, giving the Steelers 1st and Goal. They would score a touchdown 4 plays later.
On 4th and 19, receiver TJ Houshmandzadeh dropped a 21 yard pass which would have kept the Ravens' hopes alive.
2 or 3 of those would have been considered a meltdown. This was Chernobyl. Add in Joe Flacco generally turtling when the Steelers started to come back (see the Heap INT, a couple of sacks taken because he held onto the ball too long facing a blitz, and running out of bounds for a loss of 9 when he could have tossed an easy INT), and this was a classic Raven performance in a big game.
Now the beat up Steelers hope like heck that the Jets upset the Pats. And the Ravens again try to put band-aids on their true problem: not being mentally tough enough to do enough of the little things (or big things on the big stage) to actually be the team they have the potential to be.
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