Visiting Browns’ overtime field goal sends Ravens to 1-4
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Version 0 of 1. BALTIMORE — By the time Cleveland Browns place kicker Travis Coons had sent a 32-yard field goal through the uprights in overtime and ended a game that Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said his team had no business losing, many of the fans at M&T Bank Stadium had already filed toward the exits. Why wait around to witness the possible death knell of the home team’s once-promising season? Even as the Ravens built a sizable lead against a team they recently had dominated, even as they erased a fourth-quarter deficit and forced overtime with another late field goal by Justin Tucker, there was an air of inevitability that hung around the game and that now hovers over the season, too. It might have lifted for one week with a victory over the Ben Roethlisberger-less Pittsburgh Steelers, but the reality hit home again in the Ravens’ stunning 33-30 overtime loss to the Browns in front of an announced 71,046, a game that was tough to watch from beginning to end and that dropped Baltimore to 1-4 and the AFC North cellar. “We just weren’t good enough,” quarterback Joe Flacco said. It sounded so simple, especially coming out of the mouth of the franchise quarterback. It’s also true. Consider the following: Winning at home used to be a given, but these Ravens are 0-2 at M&T Bank Stadium. It marks just the second time in the John Harbaugh era that they have lost two straight home games. Beating the Browns had been something the Ravens could almost bank on twice a year. Before Sunday, they had vanquished them 13 times in 14 meetings with Harbaugh as the coach and Flacco as the quarterback. This year’s team allowed Cleveland to win in Baltimore for the first time since 2007. “A very disappointing loss, one that shouldn’t have happened,” Harbaugh said. “They made the plays they needed to make. We did not. And that’s on us.” [Cousins throws pick-six in OT as Redskins lose] Beating up on journeyman quarterbacks used to be a rite of passage for the Ravens’ defense. Instead, this year’s version — thinned considerably by injuries — made the Browns’ Josh McCown look like Bernie Kosar. McCown completed 36 of 51 passes for 457 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a score. The passing yards were the third most by a Ravens opponent and the most in Browns franchise history. With tight end Gary Barnidge beating whomever the Ravens put on him to the tune of eight catches for 139 yards and a touchdown, McCown led the Browns to points on six of their final eight full drives, overcoming multiple deficits. “There were a few things that cost us this game, and I’m the first to say, I put this on the defense as a whole,” said Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith, one of the few bright spots on a unit that allowed 505 yards. “We didn’t come through today. We were supposed to show up, and we did not show up in the second half.” The Ravens have had a late fourth-quarter lead in three of their four losses — and a late third-quarter lead in the other. Against the Browns (2-4), they led 14-3 late in the second quarter, 21-9 midway through the third and 27-22 with less than six minutes remaining in the fourth. They also got the ball first in overtime but went three-and-out, allowing the Browns to take the ball and drive 51 yards on 12 plays against an inept and injury-plagued Ravens defense before Coons jogged onto the field and nailed his fourth field goal. “We just couldn’t make that one more play that we needed,” said wide receiver Kamar Aiken, who caught four passes for 78 yards, all in the first half. With Steve Smith out, no other Ravens receiver had more than two catches. “Even when we got the lead, we didn’t do a good job of just finishing.” It was that kind of day. And it’s been that kind of season, too. “We’re disappointed because we know what kind of team we are,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said. “We know how we work, and we’re definitely better than one and four. We’ve just got to put our foot down and prove that. We play hard, but we’ve just got to finish as a team. And like I said, when I point out myself, certain players have got to do a better job at what we do.” — Baltimore Sun |