Baltimore vs. New Orleans
Forsett’s Big Night and Hill’s Pick Six Leads Ravens to Upset Win over Saints on Monday Night Football
With the rest of the AFC North winning on Sunday, the Ravens needed a win to keep pace in what has become the best all-around division in football.
And the Ravens delivered, sending New Orleans to their third-straight loss in a 34-27 win at the Superdome thanks to a standout performance by running back Justin Forsett.
Forsett had a career-high 182 yards and two touchdowns in the win, and Will Hill had a 44-yard interception of Drew Brees that he returned for a score to break a 17-17 tie in the third quarter that put Baltimore (7-4) up for good.
With the win, the Ravens remain a half game behind Cincinnati (7-3) in the division and are tied with both Pittsburgh and Cleveland. One problem for Baltimore is that they lost to the Bengals twice this year, so they will have to finish ahead of them in the standings for tiebreaker purposes.
The NFC South has been a boon for the Ravens this year, sweeping the division and going 4-0 with earlier wins against Carolina, at Tampa Bay, and Atlanta. Head coach John Harbaugh was impressed at the way the team pulled out this win in a difficult environment.
“Obviously Will Hill's play was the difference in the game for a lot of reasons. There's seven points so that's the most obvious reason,” Harbaugh explained after the game. There's also the fact that we could make a play on defense, we could come up with a play. Not just a stop, we made plenty of stops; not just a fumble but an interception. Go grab it and take it the other way. That's something that has been lacking, that we needed, and it came at the right time.”
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For a season that started by losing running back Ray Rice, Forsett has been a godsend for this team. He came into the game averaging 5.4 yards per carry, which led the NFL, and he bested that by averaging 8.3 yards per carry on Monday night. Results that weren’t expected going into the season but definitely appreciated by quarterback Joe Flacco, the offensive leader of the team.
“The work he's putting in, the results he's getting and what he's doing for this team was huge," said Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco. "He's not letting the guy tackle him in the hole with his arms or anything like that. He's breaking those little things."
“When you get a lot of opportunities like I've been getting, it allows you to get into a rhythm. I think that was the case tonight,” Forsett explained. “We were able to get something going early, and then we kept it going all the way through the fourth quarter, so we all definitely enjoyed that rhythm.”
Flacco was 18-of-24 for 243 yards and a touchdown in the win. The Smiths again carried the team receiving-wise. Torrey Smith had five catches for 98 yards while Steve Smith had 89 yards and a touchdown. Each Smith had a 40-yard reception in the game.
Impressively, the Ravens—who won a Super Bowl in this building just under two years ago—snapped a 14-game winning streak that the Saints enjoyed in home prime-time games. Brees through for 420 yards and three touchdowns but threw the interception to Hill that changed the complexion of the game.
On the pick-six, Brees was pressured by Terrell Suggs and threw behind tight end Jimmy Graham, allowing Hill to snag it and go untouched for nearly half the field into the end zone.
"I'd seen Brees in trouble. He's going to look for his No. 1 guy when he's under that duress," Hill said. "As soon as he threw the ball, I'd seen that it was a little bit behind him, so I took that opportunity and ran with it."
GAME RECAP
The Ravens were in trouble on the opening drive, as Joe Morgan took a reserve for 67 yards, but Lardarius Webb tackled him at the 1-yard line. Then on fourth and goal from the 1, Haloti Ngata and Suggs stuffed Mark Ingram for a two-yard loss for a turnover.
Baltimore then responded with a 97-yard drive that took just four minutes off the clock, getting under way quickly with a Forsett run for 38 yards. Flacco then found Steve Smith, the former Carolina Panther who had given the Saints fits in the past, in the end zone from 15 yards out for a touchdown to make it 7-0 Baltimore.
Sam Koch booted a 73-yard punt on the Ravens’ next possession, but New Orleans got another big play from Morgan—a 62-yard reception this time—that set up a Brees pass to Graham for the tying score.
Forsett opened the second-quarter scoring with a 13-yard touchdown, but the Saints came back with a short field goal and then a Brees pass to Marques Colston from 26 yards out to make it 17-14 New Orleans at halftime.
Baltimore took nearly 6:30 off the clock to start the second half and ended up tying the game on a 31-yard field goal from Justin Tucker, and on the very next drive, Hill intercepted Brees and scored the go-ahead points, making it 24-17 Baltimore after three periods.
After a Saints three-and-out, the Ravens added to the lead with a 55-yarder from Tucker. After the Saints closed back to within seven with a field goal of their own, Forsett was able to provide the nail in the coffin with a 20-yard touchdown with 2:59 remaining to make the score 34-20. A Brees pass to Graham in the final minute made it a one-score game, but Baltimore recovered the onside kick attempt, and that was the game, 34-27.
UP NEXT
The Ravens return home this Sunday, where they are riding a four-game winning streak at M&T Bank Stadium, to face the San Diego Chargers. The Bolts are also 7-4 on the season after a 27-24 win over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.