Ravens get late victory over Chargers but lose Smith Sr. for season
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Version 0 of 1. They approached Steve Smith Sr. at his locker one by one, players and coaches stopping by to pay their respects to their injured teammate. They hugged him, patted him on their shoulder and told him how they felt and how sorry they were. This wasn’t supposed to be the locker room scene after the Baltimore Ravens got their second victory of the season and first in a month and after they finally made the kind of winning plays late in a game that their opponents have been making against them. But in a cruel yet perhaps fitting twist in a season of great disappointment and frustration, the Ravens won a game on a day that they also suffered their biggest loss. Smith tore his right Achilles’ tendon, a season and perhaps career-ending injury that marred the Ravens’ 29-26 victory over the San Diego Chargers in front of an announced 70,829 at M&T Bank Stadium. Justin Tucker’s fifth field goal, a 39-yarder as time expired, sent the Ravens into their bye week with a 2-6 record and into a locker room that overflowed with emotion. Smith, who was hurt on a 17-yard completion late in the third quarter, was helped off the field by members of the athletic training staff and was unable to put any weight on his right leg. He kept a towel over his face the whole way. “As a player, it’s tough to get caught up in that at the moment,” Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said. “But at this point, you want to see your brother in there, in the locker room and all that. It’s going to be an emotional thing just to lose players like that at any point. I’m not afraid to say when you have a guy like that, what he means to this team, this organization, myself.” This wasn’t supposed to be the way Smith’s 15th season — and potentially his career — ended. The 36-year-old had been the Ravens’ most dangerous and effective player throughout the year, even after he suffered microfractures in his back last month. Earlier on Sunday, Smith moved into the top 10 all time in receiving yards. Smith said before the start of the season that this year would be his last. However, there seemed to be some recent momentum building for him to return in 2016 and play out the rest of his contract. Now Smith faces a long rehabilitation, and the Ravens will have to figure out how to make do without their only accomplished receiver. “What hurts the most is that I can’t be out there with my guys,” Smith said in a statement released by the team. “We had a great team win today, and that’s really all that counts.” With his top receiver in the locker room, his tight end Crockett Gillmore dealing with an injury on the sideline and starting center Jeremy Zuttah out of the game with a shoulder injury, Flacco seized the moment and flipped the script in a season defined by close losses. Flacco completed a pass to wide receiver Chris Givens for 18 yards and Kamar Aiken for 13 before Justin Forsett’s 11-yard run put the Ravens into field goal range. However, one of several poor snaps by Zuttah’s replacement, John Urschel, caused a nine-yard loss and put the ball on the San Diego 43. Flacco threw an incompletion on second down and then took a deep shot to Aiken on third. It was incomplete, but a pass interference call on cornerback Steve Williams gave the Ravens the ball at the San Diego 22. After two runs by Forsett, Tucker drilled the 39-yarder through the uprights, his ninth career game-winning field goal. “Joe made plays under duress,” Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said. “He always plays that way, but he stepped up today and made some plays that were phenomenal football plays that great players make.” — Baltimore Sun |