Ray Lewis may have played his last game at home but he and the Baltimore Ravens lived to play another day as they defeated the Indianapolis Colts 24-9 to advance to the Divisional Round of the playoffs against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.
“We saw them earlier in the year, but now we get them again with all our guys back,” Lewis said. “We are really looking forward to it.”
Ray Lewis came back from a triceps injury that looked to put him out for the season and possibly his career. Wearing an arm brace that made his right arm look bionic, Lewis inspiring and emotional play led the Ravens defense to shut the Colts out of the end zone.
Lewis, who had a game leading 13 tackles, went out on the field and lined up on the last play of the game in victory formation to standing roaring ovation from the home crowd.
He followed that up by taking a final victory lap around the field and said his goodbyes.
“My only focus was to come in and get my team a win. Nothing else was planned,” Lewis said. “It’s one of those things, when you recap it all and try to say what is one of your greatest moments. I knew how it started but I never knew how it would end here in Baltimore. To go the way it did today, I wouldn’t change nothing.”
On offense, the Ravens starting clicking in the second half, overcoming two fumbles by Ray Rice when Anquan Boldin set franchise record with 145 receiving yards on 5 receptions and a touchdown. Boldin had big gains of 50 and 46-yards.
“I just wanted to go out and give everything,” Boldin said. “I think everyone in the locker room wanted to make sure this wasn’t our last game.”
Joe Flacco, who was 12-of-23 for 282 and two touchdowns with no interceptions, became the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to win at least one postseason game in his first five years as a pro.
Jim Caldwell, the former head coach of the Colts, took over as offensive coordinator for the Ravens towards the end of the season faced his former team and was very effective in his play calling, especially in the second half.
For the Colts, the loss put a cap on what was a magical and inspirational storybook season, turning around the franchise from a 2-14 season to 11-5 and making the playoffs in Chuck Pagano’s first season as a head coach.
“The foundation is set, and we said we were going to build one on rock and not on sand,” Pagano said. “You weather storms like this and you learn from times like this.”
Chuck Pagano, who spent most of the season battling leukemia while offensive coordinator Bruce Arians coached the team, was able to come back for the regular season finale and to coach his first playoff game against his former team.
“(I’m) very, very proud of this football team, what they’ve overcome, what they’ve accomplished,” said Pagano of a team that made the post-season after being tabbed at the outset of the year as afterthoughts. “They went out and did it, what everybody said they couldn’t do, and they refused to live in circumstance. They chose to live in vision.
But sadly, today Arians fell ill with flu-like symptoms was hospitalized and quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen called the offensive plays for the game. On a positive note for Arians, tests from the hospital came back negative and said he was “fine”, according to Jim Nance of CBS who reported on his well-being throughout the game.
Andrew Luck who played in his first playoff game went 28-of 54 for 282, had an interception and was frustrated that despite having scoring opportunities could not get into the end zone, instead having to settle for three field goals.
“We needed touchdowns; they held us to field goals. Give credit to them. A couple of times we shot ourselves in the foot. A lot of that is a product of their guys making the plays and being in the right spot.”
Still, no matter which way you look at it, the Colts overcame all season adversity that would cripple most teams and didn’t use anything for an excuse.
“They made the plays they needed to make and we didn’t, especially down in the red zone,” said Andrew Luck.
Moving forward, the Ravens will now head to Denver in a rematch against the Broncos who they lost to at home in a 34-17 blowout.
“The bottom line is we haven’t won it all, and that’s been our goal, and that is our goal this year,” Flacco said. “Right now, we’re just focused on going up to Denver.”
Still, Manning has always had great success against the Ravens. Manning is 9-3 against the Ravens, including two playoff victories when he was with the Colts.
Game Notes:
- The Indianapolis Colts fell to the Baltimore Ravens by a 24-9 margin in an AFC Wild Card meeting. The Colts now hold a 19-21 all-time playoff record and are 3-1 against Baltimore in postseason play.
- Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh is 6-4 in playoff games.
- Reggie Wayne caught nine passes for 114 yards against the Ravens. With nine receptions, he has now totaled 92 in his postseason career, which ranks second all-time to Jerry Rice (151). With his 114 yards, Wayne has also upped his career postseason total to 1,242, which now ranks fourth in NFL history. Wayne’s postseason reception and receiving yardage totals are also Colts franchise highs.
- Ray Rice rushed for 70 yards on 15 carries with 1 reception for 47 yards.
- With his totals against Baltimore, Luck compiled the second most passing yards by a rookie quarterback in a playoff game (288), set an NFL record for passing attempts (54) by a rookie quarterback in a single postseason game and set a franchise record for passing attempts by a quarterback in a postseason game.
