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Baltimore Ravens End Game With Strange, Brilliant Play

By Ben Palmer

Nov 27, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cody Core (16) is held by Baltimore Ravens safety Matt Elam (33) on the final play of the game, which resulted in a safety at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 27, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cody Core (16) is held by Baltimore Ravens safety Matt Elam (33) on the final play of the game, which resulted in a safety at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Baltimore Ravens won their game against the Cincinnati Bengals 19-14 and ended the game with a bizarre, but brilliant play.

For the Baltimore Ravens, Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals was a must-win for a few reasons. First, they needed to snap the five-game losing streak they had against Cincinnati, and second, they’re currently locked in a closely-contested battle for first place in the AFC North.

In what was a close game until the end (as it always is with the Ravens), Baltimore pulled it out 19-14, but what was probably most noteworthy was the strange final play of the game.

If you were like me, at first glance you couldn’t believe how the Bengals seemed to just give up going after Sam Koch. Personally, I thought it was horrible special teams play, but a second glance shows just how smart of a play John Harbaugh called.

At that point, the Baltimore Ravens were leading by only a touchdown with 11 seconds left to play in the game. Had they punted on fourth down, as it looked like they were going to, that would have given the Bengals a chance to either return the punt for a touchdown, or call a fair catch and run at least one play.

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But instead of punting the ball, John Harbaugh called a play in which Sam Koch would hold onto the ball after it was snapped to him and avoid being tackled while the entire Ravens special teams intentionally committed holding penalties on every player on the Bengals.

Eventually Koch stepped out of bounds in the Ravens endzone to give the Bengals a safety and two points, but at that point, it didn’t matter because time was out, the game was over, and the Ravens had won.

What ingenious about this play is how it exploits sort of a loophole in the rule book. In normal circumstances, the holding penalty would have warranted a 10-second runoff of the clock, but even if there had been time left, that’s exactly what the Ravens wanted.

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There is a rule that a game cannot end on a defensive penalty, but the Ravens were sort of playing defense while on offense, and because they committed a litany of offensive penalties on that one play (if you look, one player is being held in a headlock), the game was allowed to end.

This play brings to mind the intentional safety the Ravens did at the end of Super Bowl XLVII when they ran out most of the clock at the end of the game against the San Francisco 49ers by having Koch do something similar (minus the intentional holding).

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The play worked perfectly on Sunday and it ended up insuring the Ravens got a much-needed win. We’ll see if the NFL makes any adjustments to the rules in response, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Ravens take advantage of this loophole again.

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