Baltimore Ravens strong safety Will Hill (33) picks up the ball and runs for the game-winning touchdown in the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Monday, Nov. 30, 2015, in Cleveland.
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The 33-27 loss to Baltimore gave “Monday Night Football” fans a look at the peculiarly Brownian knack of losing in odds-defying ways on stupid/strange/sado-masochistic plays that rarely, if ever, occur anywhere else.
And something finally went the right way for the Ravens (4-7), who have been decimated by injuries all season and seem to take every game down the last ticks on the clock. He hadn’t started a game in 23 months, and his last extensive playing time for the Houston Texans in 2013 was characterized by him having interceptions returned for touchdowns in four straight games. Both drives took a combined 51 seconds.
CLEVELAND – Amid the groans and teeth-gnashing and nationwide guffaws at the fate of the Cleveland Browns on Monday night lies this reality: Coach Mike Pettine has another quarterback decision on his hands.
The end of this game will be all fans will be able to talk about, but there were actually several story lines before everything turned into the perpetual nightmare of being a Browns fan.
The Ravens held a 17-13 halftime lead after Coons booted a 21-yard chip shot as time expired in the second quarter. Kicker Travis Coons was a acceptable 18-for-18 on the season getting in to the play so there was reason to be optimistic.
When he was at Utah, Clay infamously dropped the ball just short of the end zone on what would have been a long TD only to have an OR defender pick it up and return it 99 yards for a score. McCown was injured on the play.
On the blocked field goal, a former Urban Meyer player (in his Florida, not Ohio State coaching incarnation) named Will Hill threaded his way down the sideline while the Browns whiffed on tackles. Though his first pass capped a three-and-out McCown had started, on his second drive Davis succeeded where McCown had failed: He hit wideout Travis Benjamin deep for a 42-yard touchdown with just 1:55 left.
Pettine and members of the offense lamented the potential yards that were lost because of a time crunch on the game’s final possession. McCown couldn’t keep up the score-for-score pace, but Lee pinned Baltimore at its 1-yard line.
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“I’ve been a part of some insane ones, but this one definitely tops them all”, Schaub told AditiKinkhabwala of the NFL Network after it was all over. It ended with the blocked field goal and the Ravens’ return for the game-winning touchdown.
