Ravens vs. Texans: Fake punt wakes up the purple and black
The Baltimore Ravens got off to a bad start. John Harbaugh and Jerry Rosburg came up with the perfect play:
The Houston Texans started this game in shockingly good fashion against the Ravens. Aided by penalties committed by the Baltimore defense, Tom Savage marched the Texans down the field for a touchdown. The Ravens entered the second quarter with almost no offensive production down 7-0. They needed a big play that would spark the team. They dialed up a fake punt and it worked.
Sam Koch completed a high arching lob pass to Chris Moore for 22 yards. Chris Moore did a good job hauling in the pass but the throw was right on the money. The Ravens had a fake punt work against the Tennessee Titans on a very similar fashion. In Nashville it led to just a field goal. On Monday Night Football it set up a 10 yard Buck Allen touchdown run for the Baltimore crowd.
It was that point that the momentum swung completely turned around. The touchdown run was a stampede of all black uniforms pushing Allen into the end zone. The energy that fake punt provided was something you could feel, even watching it on television. All of the sudden it was a 7-7 game, it was a brand new game.
Must Read: Better offense would make Ravens serious contenders
The next fourth down conversion came with the offense still on the field. The Ravens flipped the ball out to Alex Collins who ran it 21 yards. The Ravens went up 14-7. They ended the first half with a 17-10 lead. Before the fake punt nothing was going right. They couldn’t block Jadeveon Clowney. It looked like it would be an ugly punt fest. The fake punt changed the course of this game.
The Bottom Line:
When the offense isn’t doing much, you need to come up with some other ways to get the job done. The Ravens don’t win this game without the two fourth down conversions. The offense didn’t do much in this game. It took every single yard they could muster. The Ravens had lethargic stretches in this game. The Koch fake punt gave the Ravens the one big push they needed to win this game behind good defense.
Next: How is the Ravens roster set for the future?
The game ball has to go to Sam Koch. In addition to making the play that woke the team up, he punted really well. His longest punt of the evening was a 62 yard work of art. He had five punts that put the Texans inside their own 20 yard line. On a night where the quarterback only has 141 yards passing, and the leading rusher only had 60 yards, the punter may have been the most important football player.