Despite their mistakes, special teams do job

Urban’s blocked kick and Tucker’s field goal save victory

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — As Jason Myers was lining up for a 52-yard field-goal attempt late in the fourth quarter that could have given the Jacksonville Jaguars a 4-point lead, Ravens special teams standout Anthony Levine Sr. knew what was about to happen, he says. Levine believes the Jaguars did, too. “Every time we go out there on a field-goal block, we think we’re about to block one, and even they thought we were about to block one,” Levine said after the Ravens’ 19-17 victory over the Jaguars at EverBank Field. “They were like, ‘Just so you all know, you ain’t blocking this, you ain’t blocking this.’ They lined up and they were saying it.”

Sure enough, Brent Urban blocked one, and for the second straight week, a blocked kick proved to be one of the key plays in a Ravens’ victory. Urban’s second career block, and Justin Tucker’s 54-yard field goal, salvaged an uneven day for the team’s normally consistent special teams group.

“There’s definitely butterflies, but [long snapper Morgan Cox] dropped some wis- dom on me right before we went out on the field,” said Tucker who has 12 career game-winning field goals, eight of them on the road. “It was a line from ‘ Sandlot’: ‘Heroes will be remembered. Legends never die.’ Yeah, it might be little bit dramatic, you know, it’s a football game, but that’s how we feel.”

For three-plus quarters, it appeared that the Ravens special teams were going to be one of the reasons the visitors were going to come up short. The unit had three penalties, including flags on Cox on back-to-back plays in punt coverage. The first, a holding call, prevented the Jaguars from starting their first possession inside their own 5.

In the second quarter, the Ravens’ punt coverage team allowed a 42-yard return by Rashad Greene that set up Jacksonville’s first score, a 3-yard touchdown pass from Blake Bortles to Allen Robinson.

“That’s something we never want to do,” Levine said of the long return. “We never want to give that up.”

Return man Devin Hester Sr. then committed the biggest gaffe of all. With the Ravens clinging to a 16-14 lead with more than nine minutes to play, Hester tried to corral a punt by Brad Nortman as gunner

KENNETH K. LAM/BALTIMORE SUN Jaguars players celebrate as Denard Robinson, middle, recovers a punt dropped by Devin Hester, right, in the fourth quarter. The play set up a field goal that gave Jacksonville a17-16 lead.