Another great Texans-Ravens match....although this one was unfortunately plagued by laaaaaaaaaag.
Lynch fumbled the ball on his 2nd carry of the game inside my own 25 yard line (thanks a lot 96 carry!!), which led to a quick Texans touchdown pass to Andre Johnson. Jimmy Smith's amazing coverage stats combined with his low awareness was very apparent this game. He would go step for step with Andre Johnson, following him through the entire route...but he would never try to jump the route or go for any picks. Or when he did...he'd try to intercept the ball BEHIND Andre Johnson, as if the ball would go right through his hands. If I was good at switching to my CB and user-picking passes while they're in the air, then Smith would be everything I could ever need in a CB. But I usually always mess that up so I leave it to the CPU most of the time. Anyways...back to the game?
Ravens came back to score 17 unanswered points, making it 17-7...followed by a field goal by the Texans before the half ended to cut the lead to 7. There was one possession deep in my red zone where my defenders dropped THREE picks in the end zone (one by Ray Lewis) on back-to-back-to-back plays. I was happy to hold the Texans to 3 points in that situation...but damn, a pick there woulda been crucial.
I opened up the second half with a kickoff out of bounds (thanks LAG) which gave the Texans good field position to drive the field and score another 3 points. Early in the 3rd quarter, down 17-13...the Texans elected to kick the surprise onside kick which I was fortunate to recover...but a sack and 2 incomplete passes ensured I couldn't take advantage of the amazing starting field position (in HIS territory). A nice punt pinned him down on his own 4-yard line, but a 30-yard run by Arian Foster gave him some much-needed breathing room. That led to yet ANOTHER field goal...making the game 17-16. With Ramesu inching closer and closer...I knew my next possession had to produce some points.
So there I was...up 17-16 on a 3rd and 14 at midfield. I correctly sniffed out the blitz to the left side and threw a quick pass to my rookie WR Dextrell who would have been stopped short of the 1st down by a few yards, but proceeded to break the tackle by the FS and take the pass all the way for the score. 24-16 at this point. I forgot to mention before...my back-up LE sacked the Texans' starting QB on a 3rd down on the last drive, breaking his ribs on the play. That made my next touchdown even more important since an 8-point lead late in the 3rd quarter put the game in the hands of 65 OVR rookie QB TJ Yates (hmm...that situation sounds familiar), rather than letting him constantly run it with Arian Foster...who had a pretty good game up until that point.
Ramesu drove the field pretty well per usual on his next drive...but Arian Foster suffered his 2nd fumble of the game on a short pass (this one forced by Terrell Suggs), which was picked up by Ray Lewis and returned for a touchdown. So 31-16...followed by an interception on the Texans' next drive. At that point with the game seeming out of reach (up 15 with under 2 minutes left), "gg"s were already being exchanged. Apparently it was too soon though...as a quick 3-and-out (3 quick runs to burn all his timeouts) led to a 57-yard perfectly placed BOMB of a TD by Mr. "58 Deep Throw Accuracy" TJ Yates. Which was THEN followed by a successful onside kick recovery. So 31-23 with the Texans at around midfield and about 1 minute left in the game (no timeouts). But poor Yates isn't as good as his NFL counterpart and ended up quickly throwing another poor interception to seal the game.
Ravens 31 Texans 23
Also...Terrell Suggs who somehow went without a SINGLE sack the entire season, registered a pair of them this game. So yay for him...
Joe Flacco - 15 for 20, 283 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INT
Marshawn Lynch - 11 carries for 39 yards...
My 2 rookies: - Jamie Brooks - 7 rec 102 yards, 2 TDs
-Dextrell Wallace - 4 rec 102 yards, 1 TD