ExtremeRavens Posted October 7 Posted October 7 During the broadcast of the Ravens’ roller coaster overtime win on Sunday, cameras zoomed in to a relatively mellow Justin Tucker, who had just nailed a game-tying 56-yard field goal in the final two minutes of regulation. He appeared to merely hug his teammates and gracefully point toward the sky before the cameras left him. Ravens coach John Harbaugh met with reporters in Owings Mills on Monday and helped fill in the details that followed one of several clutch moments from the 41-38 win over the Bengals in Cincinnati. Tucker entered the game 5-for-8 on field goals this season. His long through four weeks was 48 yards. He was unsuccessful on two previous tries from beyond 50 yards, which many deemed a slump for the NFL’s most accurate kicker. Harbaugh said he ironing out a “technique issue.” After his farthest and most consequential kick of the year on Sunday, Tucker let all the pent-up emotion pour out. He ran right up to Harbaugh, meeting his coach nose-to-nose on the sideline. “A little uncomfortably close,” Harbaugh laughed, before switching to a hushed scream for his Tucker impression. “And he said, ‘Let’s go win the game! Let’s win the game!’” “I’m for that!” Harbaugh added. “I am for winning the game. I am on board with that, and I think for him to get the opportunity to finish it with a game-winner, that means a lot.” After Lamar Jackson fumbled and a poor hold sent Bengals kicker Evan McPherson’s potential game-winner wide left, Tucker got another chance. That one, a 24-yard chip shot that closed one of the NFL’s most exhilarating games of the year, was set up by running back Derrick Henry. The man often described as Baltimore’s closer took a handoff on the first play of the game’s final drive and bulldozed 51 yards down the left sideline. “It was a point in time of the game where fatigue was a big part of everything that was going on,” Harbaugh said. Still, the 30-year-old Henry clocked in at 21.46 mph, the second fastest of any Week 5 ball-carrier, according to Next Gen Stats, and his fastest play since Week 6 in 2021 (his career high is 21.80). Sunday’s mark came, as Harbaugh pointed out, “in overtime, a hot day like that, toward the end of the game, after he’d been tackled a number of times. That kind of speaks for itself.” Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, left, made two clutch field goals Sunday against the Bengals. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) Earlier in the AFC showdown, Henry became the fifth player in NFL history with at least 10,000 rushing yards and 100 touchdowns from scrimmage in his first 125 career games. He’s been everything the Ravens could have hoped in signing him over the offseason and is now helping define their bullish identity. Henry deflected much of the praise afterward, instead lauding Tucker as the greatest of all time and crowning quarterback Lamar Jackson the best in the league. Even Harbaugh had a hard time ranking Jackson’s lengthy resume of scrambles that have led to mystifying plays. “Like my dad always says, ‘You’ve never had a better win. There’s probably never been a better play today.’” Harbaugh said. “It’s an amazing play. And the thing about Lamar is he’s not even happy about it. He’s mad about it. Because it’s definitely not in the playbook that way. But a lot of times you gotta find ways to win.” No play from Sunday — in which the Ravens scored in all six trips to the red zone in the red zone with four touchdowns – better exemplifies the two-time MVP’s ability to resuscitate a blown play with some improvisation. Baltimore trailed by 10 with 5:34 left in the fourth. Jackson bobbled the snap at the 7-yard line but vacuumed it up and retreated to his right. That’s where he stiff-armed 265-pound Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard. Twice. Or as play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Harlan put it, he threw Hubbard away “like a rag doll.” Jackson wound up 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage fleeing toward the boundary. He leaped up before taking a hit and fired the ball across his body to a streaking tight end Isaiah Likely in the back of the end zone. It was certainly not how the play was drawn up. But that’s how Jackson will be remembered. “I just thought it was an incredible, fabulous play that will go down in history,” Harbaugh said. “We’ll watch that play for years to come on NFL Films.” Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. View the full article Quote
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