Aggressive Ravens win turnover battle, game
Solid defense, fake punt help Baltimore top Houston
BALTIMORE — Take the ball away from the other guys, hold onto it yourself and make sure nothing happens to Justin Tucker.
That, apparently, is the formula the Baltimore Ravens intend to use to reach the playoffs.
Terrell Suggs led an aggressive defense that kept Houston out of the end zone for the final 51 minutes, and the Ravens forced two turnovers in the final five minutes to secure a 23-16 victory Monday night.
“If the game’s on the line, you’ve got to be comfortable when your defense is out there,” Suggs said. “It feels good.”
After Suggs stripped the ball from quarterback Tom Savage and Baltimore recovered, Tucker kicked his third field goal with 2:53 remaining for a seven-point cushion.
Anthony Levine then intercepted a Savage pass to clinch it.
The Ravens picked off two passes to increase their Nfl-leading total to 18, and their three takeaways increased their league-best total to 26.
Asked to assess Savage’s performance, Houston coach Bill O’brien said: “Can’t turn it over. I thought he did some good things, but he turned it over too many times.”
Baltimore, in turn, did not commit a turnover.
Suggs had two sacks, Alex Collins ran for 60 yards and a touchdown, and punter Sam Koch threw perhaps Baltimore’s most significant pass of the game.
Baltimore coach John Harbaugh called for a fake punt, converted a fourth down with a rarely used pitchout and had quarterback Joe Flacco line up at wide receiver on a play in which Collins took a direct snap.
“You always have them in the game plan,” Flacco said. “It’s just the flow of the game.”
All of this added spice to a stagnant offense that protected the ball and did just enough to win.
Flacco went 20 for 32 for
141 yards.
The Ravens (6-5) have won consecutive games for the first time since they opened the season 2-0. They are now above .500 for the first time since Oct. 8 and tied with Buffalo for the final AFC wildcard spot.
Houston (4-7) has lost four of five.
Savage, who has started the past four games in place of injured Deshaun Watson, completed 22 of 37 passes for 252 yards. But he gave the ball away three times, and that was the difference.
“You’re not going to win any games when you turn it over and you don’t get any turnovers,” O’brien said.
Aided by three penalties against Baltimore, the Texans traveled the length of the field and went up 7-0 on a 4-yard touchdown run by Lamar Miller.
That would be Houston’s last sniff of the end zone.
“It’s hard to run the ball on these guys,” O’brien said. “You try to stay balanced, and we couldn’t really run it.”
Baltimore has won 10 straight games in prime time and is 12-1 under the lights since Harbaugh took over in 2008.