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TIMELINE OF A DISASTER - HOW IT ALL WENT WRONG




I have played football for 17 years from childhood though college. This loss was one of the worst losses i can remember feeling in any game ive either played in or had a rooting interest. my hope is writing this post will help me cope with the pain i feel after this loss. here is how things went wrong.

- AFTER Trindon sets tone with a great TD return, i felt the route was on. we have ravens pinned on their own 5 yard line facing a 3rd and 8. flacco throws deep and incomplete. ravens were now going to punt from the back of their own endzone with trindon standing on the 50 yard line. we wee going to start probably in raven territory with a chance to take a 14-0 lead. the referees did not want a route only six minutes into the game. so they call a terrible flag on tony carter. EVERy announcer and analyst disagreed with the call. ravens end up with a first down, and eventually a FREE TOUCHDOWN....ARE U REFEREES HAPP NOW? ITS TIE GAME.

- MANNING throws to decker and the defender is obviously there way too early....ball is deflected and ravens return it for a TD. NO FLAG CALLED......NOW REFS WANT TO LET THEM PLAy??? well it cost us another TD....RAVENS NOW HAVE FOURTEEN FREE POINTS THANKS IN PART TO REFEREES. there is no denying that.

- now that the refs are beating us fourteen to seven.....we tie the game and take the lead....we are now leading 21-14.....and driving down the field with a chance to score before the half ends and denver getting the ball to start second half. the route is on now.....we score before half and get the ball??? lets go....here is where things start to unravel....

-after we convert a fourth and one on raven 36.....we run on first down....we should have let the clock run down below a minute....somehow we snap the ball with another twenty five seconds on play clock....we had two or three timeouts....there was no reason to hurry....it should have been either we score or no one scores....no reason to leave time on clock.....PRATER THE PIG swings and misses....costing us a two score lead...and now we left too much time on the clock....and eventually ravens score, because they had enough time to mount a drive instead of kneeling on the ball......

- after halftime trindon takes it to the house....should have been an NFL FILMS GREAT GAME for trindon....

- ravens get the ball and fumble.....we take over at around mid field...now we have a shot to get the two score lead we need to avoid being beaten or tied on a slip, tipped pass, Hail Mary.....on this drive we have a third and five.....some reason manning audibles to a run....why???? it never works....especially not with hester......we punt....

- ball changes hands a few times and we still have a seven point lead....we get ball and are driving down the field to get the two score lead that just about clinches this game late in third quarter,,,,on third and one we convert a first down....at midfield....but WAIT....THE REFEREES CALL HOLDING AGAIN...CANT LET DENVER GET THAT TWO SCORE LEAD....INSTEAD OF first down...we face a third and ten....manning is sacked and fumbles....BUT WAIT THE REFEREES BLOW ANOTHER CALL.....ONLy brady gets the tuck rule....they had replay to correct it and still blew it....the ravens capitalize on it...instead of denver having two score lead...its a tie game.....

- broncos take the lead midway through the fourth quarter.....hold ravens on downs on great play by mike adams....we get the ball back......we are facing a third and seven....chance to clinch the game......why not take a chance to win it??? WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE.....tell manning to take the snap on a bootleg, if the ravens sell out of the run, and someone is wide open throw it.....if its not wide open....eat the ball...take the sack......and keep clock running.....why did we run the ball? the difference was going to be a minute and fifteen seconds or minute and forty seconds....either one is plenty of time to score and we will have to make a stop....

- NOW THE DISASTER.....RAHIM MOORE....oh my god.....at every level of football....coaches teach you in that scenario to let no one behind you...period end of story....the sick part of this play..is that even though he was beat badly....he still recovered enough to get to the ball.....the mistake he makes is he squares his body up to the direction the ball was coming from....starts to clumsily backpedal.....stumbles....and then jumps TOO EARLy....most un-athletic play ive seen...HE SHOULD HAVE HAD HIS BODy FACING THE SIDELINE in an athletic position....all he had to do was knock it down....

- after they score....we had plenty of time to take a shot......ANyone see what falcons did with thirty seconds and a few timeouts?? why not take a shot??? terrible decision. considering we could not touch the ball in overtime. i even felt we took a knee on the ball before halftime after they scored....we also had timeouts at that time. we surrendered two possessions with one best QB ever....and a field goal kicker who can hit a sixty yarder......why not go for it...

- in overtime.....WE HAVE RAVENS PINNED ON THREE yard line......it is third and thirteen......we can force them to punt from own endzone....literally at the back of the endzone....with trindon standing on mid field again.....we let them off the hook.....we let flacco complete a pass over the middle and bailed out the ravens....we should have taken over at midefield or in raven territory.....just make a stop.....the field position flips and we end up inside our own ten......this inevitably lost the game....we eventually drive down and manning throws a pick around the forty....if they punt from own end zone, we take over at midfield....and need fifteen yards to hit a FG....

- OUR DEFENSE DID NOT COME TO PLAy......not one sack until overtime.....they let us down.....

- our offense had seven points after halftime.....thats three full quarters of football....in five full quarters we scored twnty one points....well below our average.....

- i am so hurt......i hope we do not kill rahim moore to the point he is no longer able to play here,,,,he made a huge improvement from rookie year to second season. we can use him to build for the future. there are some holes we need to fill. it is very hard to get to the post season as healthy as we were all year....i can only hope we are blessed with good health again.....it will be a long off season. this hurts more then jacksonville......

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