Sunday's match-up against the Houston Texans did not go according to plan for the Baltimore Ravens. The team got completely curb-stomped and now sit at 1-4 with the playoffs looking like a pipedream.
The game had gotten so out of control for the Ravens that at one point, Texans rookie wide receiver Jaylin Noel had some fun at the Baltimore's expense. The rookie scored his first NFL touchdown and after doing so, decided to rub salt in Ravens fans' wounds by doing the Ray Lewis sack celebration.
Ravens cornerback Jaire Alexander did not appreciate the celebration and tried to rip the football out of Noel's hands after the fact. Alexander spoke to the media about why he reacted the way he did and said he was not appreciative of that particular celebration.
"I saw him celebrating in The Flock -- in The Bank end zone. I didn't appreciate that while I was on the field," Alexander said. "I was just like, ‘Nah, you ain’t getting the ball back.’ And they got mad.”
Jaire Alexander was not having Jaylin Noel's TD celebration
So, there you have it. Alexander wasn't thrilled by Noel's choice of celebration and he wanted the rookie and the entire Texans team to know it by trying to pry away the receiver's first-career touchdown ball.
The Ravens' entire performance on Sunday was disheartening but this moment was beyond frustrating. Baltimore was getting beat so badly on its own turf that another team that had been underwhelming coming into this game was taking the celebrations to a personal level.
What was even more disappointing to see was that only Alexander showed any sort of emotion about the celebration on the field and he's been a Raven for a limited time. Noel choosing that celebration to dunk on the Ravens was a major troll job and, while the game was out of reach at that point, it should have fired players up far more than it did.
Hopefully, this sparks something in the Ravens moving forward but this team is battered and bruised as badly as anyone in the league. To make matters worse, they're 1-4 and the playoffs don't seem like a realistic scenario for this team anymore.
Some might not have wanted to see a reaction like Alexander's to the touchdown celebration but truthfully, it was nice to see that someone on this team cared and wasn't going to stand for it. If the rest of the defense could have some fire in them moving forward, maybe there's a small chance this team gets out of the hole they've been dug into but that feels unlikely.