Kicks killed Ravens, all right, but not the ones you think
"It's about time this organization and this franchise got a call." -- Cleveland kicker Phil Dawson
BALTIMORE -- Yes, the Cleveland Browns got a call, and it was the right one. But they caught a break, too, and it had nothing to do with the officials at Sunday's game with Baltimore and everything to do with the Ravens themselves.
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| The Ravens keep kicking to Joshua Cribbs, and he burns them for 245 yards in returns. (Getty Images) |
If you haven't heard of him, stay tuned, because you will. He's one of the league's top kick returners and one of the reasons -- one of the very big reasons -- the Browns stayed in the AFC playoff race with an improbable 33-30 overtime defeat of Baltimore.
By all rights, the Ravens should have won this game in four quarters. By all rights, it should have been Baltimore's Matt Stover, not Dawson, who stood at the podium afterward to answer questions about a game-winning kick.
But it wasn't, and it wasn't because the Ravens inexplicably let Cribbs determine the outcome by kicking to him after they jumped to a 30-27 with 26 seconds to play.
"I was like, 'What are you doing?'" said Cribbs, who entered the game as the league's second-best kickoff returner. "Not because they're not a good team; because they are a very good team. But we have great blockers up front. They hit guys, and they hit hard."
Cribbs caught the ball at the Cleveland 4 and returned it 39 yards to the Browns 43. Two plays later, Dawson clanked his 51-yard game-tying kick off the left upright and barely through, and a contest that should've been over was headed to overtime.
"Sometimes the ball bounces a lot of different ways because it's oblong," said winning coach Romeo Crennel.
I understand that. What I don't understand is why Baltimore didn't learn its lesson. Instead of popping up the overtime kickoff to, oh, say the 20- or 25-yard line, as Philadelphia did earlier this year when it shut out Chicago's Devin Hester, the Ravens sent it to Cribbs again.
And again he delivered. This time he took it from the goal line to the 41.
"At that point," said Cribbs, "I was thinking field position is everything. So get everything you can. Ultimately, that would give us the edge."
Ultimately, it would give them the game. After going 43 yards in nine plays, Dawson sent everyone home with a 33-yard field goal.
