The New England Patriots celebrate after Billy Cundiff (7) of the Baltimore Ravens missed a game-tying field goal late in the fourth quarter during the AFC Championship on Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. GETTY
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Even after an inspiring, eye-popping, momentum-swinging interception of the game's most accomplished superstar quarterback, the Ravens couldn't turn their fantasy into a reality.
Their fourth consecutive trip to the postseason and second trip to the doorstep of the Super Bowl ended in heartbreaking fashion, a 23-20 loss to the home Patriots in the AFC Championship.
Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff's tying 32-yard field goal screamed wide left with 11 seconds left in the game, short-circuiting the Ravens' upset hopes and propelling New England to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2007 season.
"Not one play won or lost this game," Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. "Could [the kick] have put us in position to keep playing? Absolutely. But one play didn't win or lose this game. We win as a team. We lose as a team."
Maligned quarterback Joe Flacco, who played brilliantly for almost the entire game, marched the Ravens 65 yards in 93 seconds to set up Cundiff's last-gasp attempt.
Cundiff had made all four attempts this postseason but he hooked the clutch kick, a miss that ignited New England's sideline and rocked the Gillette Stadium crowd.
"I just went out there and my timing was a little off and I just didn't convert," Cundiff said. "It's that simple. It's something that throughout the course of training camp and the regular season I probably make 1,000 times."
The miss left the Ravens deflated. They had hung tough on the road against an AFC powerhouse and its iconic quarterback and head coach despite absorbing one week of doubt from the skeptical media.
Flacco, the former University of Delaware star, passed for a playoff personal-best 306 yards and two touchdowns. He outdueled three-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, who didn't throw a touchdown for just the third time in 21 postseason games.
Baltimore's defense held the Patriots, which dropped 45 points and 509 yards on Denver in the divisional round, to 330 yards, their second-fewest of the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment