This was a game that showed a lot that allowed the Cardinals to roll with the flow. Two weeks ago, side judge Rob Vernatchi was suspended one game with pay for failing to notice that 18 seconds had ticked off the clock near the end of the Steelers-Cardinals game on a Monday night. The Ravens were helped to one touchdown by a blocked punt, converted the two-point conversion and then drove to the Arizona 4-yard line in the closing moments as they sought the eight points they needed to draw even.
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A missed extra point led to a whole bunch of excitement to close out Monday night’s game between the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens.
Baltimore got the ball back, and Flacco quickly moved the team downfield before the final ill-fated throw.
“The punt block and all of a sudden you let them in”, Arizona’s Carson Palmer said, “but that’s what you want on ‘Monday Night Football.’ We made it a game at the end”.
“It’s a tough story we’re writing now”, Ravens coach Jim Harbaugh said.
“‘I don’t know why they were going out on that drive”, Harbaugh said. “We couldn’t get the personnel groups, so guys had to run the personnel group on and off. All of those kinds of things are really challenging”.
On the season, the Baltimore Ravens average 253.0 yards in passing and 103.1 yards in rushing.
“We understand what we need to do to clean up our game”, cornerback Patrick Peterson said. But we’ve been fighting. “It is going to be a fight down to the end and we are not giving up”.
Flacco was 26 of 40 for 252 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Arizona used the blitz perfectly, yet, it nearly cost them the lead late.
Palmer is healthy (knock on wood), has 16 touchdowns compared to just five interceptions and his 2,012 yards in seven games puts him on a pace for over 4,000 yards.
-PASS DEFENSE: A. The Cardinals sacked Joe Flacco three times and ended the game by intercepting one of his passes. They were then forced to go with the running game, with Justin Forsett only picking up 36 yards on 12 carries. The punt unit failed in its quest to protect Drew Butler on the punt block, something that shouldn’t have happened because Sean Weatherspoon had false-started on what was to be the initial punt and the Ravens didn’t change their alignment.
Defensive tackle Brandon Williams thought he had stopped Johnson. “He was fresh as a daisy”, Arians said about his fourth quarter play. They faced adversity and made plays. That is something you learn coming up from little league: “Keep playing until the whistle blows”.
Harbaugh also contended that Cardinals tailback Chris Johnson should have been ruled down on a 62-yard run that set up a field goal.
Now I’m just going to quote the baltimoreravens.com staff writer on this final miscarriage of justice: “Another borderline call led to a Cardinals touchdown”.
Arizona Cardinals running back Chris Johnson (23) is hit by Baltimore Ravens strong safety Will Hill (33) during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, October 26, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. But after Urschel caught crucial six-yard pass from Flacco in the red zone, the play was negated for illegal formation.
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A key play in the fast start in the third quarter was a sack by Dwight Freeney on third down, his first as a Cardinal.
