The Ravens kept their playoff hopes alive with a nerve-wracking win over the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday.
Baltimore had its second-highest scoring day of the season, and the defense came up with agame-saving stop at the end to come away with the 27-26 victory.
Amidst all the nerves in the second half, you might have missed some impressive plays. Here's a look back through the coaching tape to see what you may have overlooked. (All of these plays were viewed using NFL Game Pass, which is available for fans to purchase.)
Stanley Shows Improvement
Rookie left tackle Ronnie Stanley has come on strong the last month after dealing with a foot injury early in the year. He's given quarterback Joe Flacco plenty of protection on his blindside, and he's held up well against a variety of pass rushers. On the play below, Stanley does a good job of stopping Pro Bowl outside linebacker Connor Barwin on a bull rush off the edge. The block was particularly impressive when looking out how far outside Barwin started on the play, giving him about 5 yards to build up a running start before crashing into Stanley. The Ravens left tackle consistently made plays like this throughout the day, and Head Coach John Harbaugh pointed out this week, "He was the sixth pick in the draft for a reason."
Mosley Plays Two-Point Conversion Perfectly
Linebacker C.J. Mosley may have saved the Ravens' season by getting his fingertips on a pass from quarterback Carson Wentz on the two-point conversion with four seconds left in regulation. If Mosley doesn't deflect the pass, the Eagles might have converted and virtually knocked the Ravens out of the playoff race. Defensive Coordinator Dean Pees made a gutsy call with an all-out blitz in that situation, and Mosley played it perfectly. He found the gap on the offensive line, forced Wentz to hurry the throw and also got his hands in the throwing lane.
Clinic Route Running By Smith
Quarterback Joe Flacco drew praise for the laser touchdown pass he threw to Steve Smith Sr. just before halftime. Smith's route running was also a thing of beauty. The veteran receiver started outside and then cut inside to run right by the cornerback off the line of scrimmage. After winning the battle off the snap, Smith cruised by the cornerback then beat the safety to catch the pass from Flacco just before the goal line. "My guy jumped outside, so I went inside and I widened back out to keep the integrity of the route," Smith said. "Great throw, turkey-hole throw. It was great."
Suggs Shows How To Stop Running Attack
The underwhelming performance of Baltimore's rush defense was a big talking point after the win, as the Ravens allowed 169 total yards on the ground. Eagles running back Ryan Mathews ran for 128 yards, and several players pointed to Philadelphia's stretch-zone system as the source of the troubles. As the Ravens work on cleaning up the miscues from Sunday's game, they will look to get more plays like the one below from outside linebacker Terrell Suggs. He played this run perfectly by pushing back left tackle Jason Peters, setting the edge and then making make the stop in the open field.
