The Ravens defense struggled throughout the day, but safety Will Hill III nearly bailed out his teammates twice. The key word is "nearly."
Hill stepped in front of a pass on the Raiders' final drive, picking it off for what appeared to be a game-sealing play.
Only problem was, the referee's yellow flag came out. Hill was called for holding, giving the Raiders new life and a free first down.
On the very next play, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr hit wide receiver Seth Roberts for a 12-yard touchdown with 26 seconds remaining, giving Oakland a 37-33 win.
There aren't too many defenders that agree with penalties called against them. Add Hill's name to the list. Asked if he thought it was a penalty, he flatly said "no."
"Seeing the tight end come down the field, I stood inside, had position, he came and ran into me, and then we were fighting for the ball," Hill said.
"I made the play and it didn't come out how I wanted it to, but it is what it is. We have to move forward. I asked the official, and he said I held him. To me, I don't think I did. He ran into me, like I said before. I just made a play on the ball."
Head Coach John Harbaugh didn't see a replay of the flagged interception, so he didn't have much of an evaluation, but he did ask the official about it.
"He said the guy on the sideline made the call and it needs to be egregious. It needs to be big in that situation," Harbaugh said.
"I have to look at it and see if that's what it looked like. I thought it was a great play by Will Hill; he had position and made it one of those great NFL football plays. I thought we had the game won there."
Hill, who the Ravens re-signed to a contract extension shortly before the season began, had made the defense's best play of the game just one drive before.
With just more than five minutes remaining, Hill picked off a deep Carr pass and returned it 25 yards to put the Ravens offense in position to grab its first lead of the game on a 31-yard field goal. The failure to score a touchdown in that situation, however, left the defense on the field again needing to win the game.
"I can't blame anybody, point any fingers. Just as a unit we didn't get the job done," Hill said.
"It's always challenging when you don't have any wins. The head of the organization is going to come down on the head coach, and the head coach is going to come down on the players. So we all have to be ready for the storm."
