The Story of The Anti-Drive

How often is the goat named Billy?

Ladies and gentlemen, you just watched Billy Cundiff (right) lose his job.

Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal to cap off what I will refer to as "The Anti-Drive."  Short of a turnover, he last four plays of the Ravens' last possession were as bad as it gets when you're trying to tie or win a football game in the waning seconds.

Down by three with under a minute to play, the Ravens drove from their 21 with Anquan Boldin making a 29 yard catch to put them in field goal range.

Cue the "Anti-Drive"

The next play saw Flacco finding Boldin again.  Boldin was stripped by Pats' Corner/Wideout Julian Edelman, but luckily the ball rolls out of bounds and the Ravens gain 9 yards.  The next play, Flacco finds Lee Evans in the endzone only to have the ball knocked out of his hand by Pats' backup Cornerback Sterling Moore.  Then Flacco dropped back on third down and despite having some daylight to run for a first down, rolls right and avoids the rush by throwing a dangerous pass to Tight End Derek Pitta that was deflected.  Then Cundiff comes out to tie the game, misses from 32.  Game.  Set.  Match.  Pats win 23-20.

The ending of the Anti-Drive was very curious, though.  The question I have is why did the Baltimore Ravens not call timeout before the Field Goal.  They had to rush the snap because they were inside of four seconds on the play clock.  It threw off the snap and Cundiff.  You can blame John Harbaugh, you can blame Billy Cundiff, you can blame Lee Evans or you can blame any combination of the three.

The fact of the matter was that the Ravens play great today.  Flacco out-dueled Brady, making plays with his arm and legs.  In fact, that was the best game of Joe Flacco's career.  Flacco's receivers played very well.  Boldin and Torrey Smith were making plays.  Jimmy Smith and LaDarius Webb each made great plays in picking off Brady.  Vonta Leach kept making big holes for Ray Rice to run through and may very well just be the best fullback in football.  The Ravens won the turnover battle.  They did everything they needed to do to win today.  Except win.

It took an Anti-Drive for keep the Baltimore Ravens out of Indianapolis.