Day 18 · 10-6 · Won Super Bowl XLVII, 34-31 over the 49ers
Five starters took the field for this offense: quarterback, running back, two receivers, and a tight end. How many can you name before the hints kick in?
You remember the last ride. Baltimore had come within seconds of the Super Bowl the year before, only for Lee Evans to lose the winning touchdown and Billy Cundiff to miss the tying field goal in New England. A year later, the Ravens looked older, more injured, and less certain. Ray Lewis tore his triceps. Terrell Suggs fought his way back from a torn Achilles. Baltimore started 9-2, then lost four of its final five games and changed offensive coordinators in December. Then Lewis announced that the playoffs would be the final games of his career. Suddenly, everything had a name: the last ride.
Everything revolved around Ray Lewis. Lewis was no longer the player who had carried the 2000 defense, but Baltimore still took its personality from him. Ed Reed remained the ball hawk on the back end, Suggs kept fighting through injuries, and Haloti Ngata gave the defense its weight up front. Ray Rice could turn a hopeless checkdown on fourth-and-29 into a first down, Anquan Boldin treated every contested catch like a fight, and Torrey Smith gave Joe Flacco somewhere to launch the football. The Ravens had stars everywhere. They just needed Flacco to become one when January arrived.
Baltimore finished 10-6 and won the AFC North, but nothing about the regular season made the Ravens look like an obvious champion. Their most memorable win came in San Diego, when Rice caught a short pass on fourth-and-29 and somehow fought through half the defense for 30 yards to keep the game alive. Baltimore eventually won in overtime. But by December, the Ravens were losing, Cam Cameron was gone, and the season looked like it was coming apart. Then Lewis returned for the playoffs, danced out of the tunnel for his final home game, and Baltimore beat Indianapolis 24-9.
The playoffs became one impossible escape after another. Baltimore traveled to Denver against Peyton Manning and a Broncos team that had won 11 straight. With 31 seconds left and the Ravens trailing by seven, Flacco launched the ball down the right sideline. Jacoby Jones got behind the secondary and hauled it in for a 70-yard touchdown. The Mile High Miracle. Baltimore survived double overtime, Justin Tucker kicked the winner, and a season that had been seconds from ending was suddenly going back to New England.
One year earlier, Foxborough had given Baltimore one of the cruelest endings imaginable. This time, the Ravens finished the job. New England led 13-7 at halftime and never scored again. Flacco threw three touchdowns, Boldin caught two of them, and Baltimore won 28-13. The quarterback who had spent years being questioned had now beaten Peyton Manning and Tom Brady on the road in consecutive weeks. By the time the Ravens reached New Orleans, Flacco wasn't simply along for Ray Lewis' farewell tour anymore. He was driving it.
One game remained. The Super Bowl had everything. John Harbaugh against his brother Jim. Flacco throwing three first-half touchdowns. Jacoby Jones catching a 56-yard bomb, then opening the second half with a 108-yard kickoff return in his hometown to make it 28-6. Then the lights went out. Thirty-four minutes later, San Francisco started coming back. The lead kept shrinking until the 49ers stood inside Baltimore's 10 with a chance to take the lead. Four plays later, the end zone was still empty. Thirty-four to thirty-one. Flacco finished the postseason with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions and was named Super Bowl MVP. Ray Lewis' final football game ended with confetti falling around him.
That's how people remember the 2012 Ravens. They remember fourth-and-29, the Mile High Miracle, Jacoby Jones flying through the Superdome, and Joe Flacco suddenly becoming untouchable in January. They remember the blackout, the goal-line stand, Ed Reed finally getting his ring, and Ray Lewis dancing out of the tunnel one last time. Most of all, they remember a team that looked like it was falling apart in December—and somehow turned the last ride into a championship.