BALTIMORE, Md. – As NFL games go, this one was a 5150.
That wasn’t the final score, nor the total combined yards – although the numbers weren’t that far off.
When the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens squared off in the longest game of the NFL season Sunday, the result was schizophrenic.
Crazy.
Insane.
Or, as they say in the police records, a 5150.
“I’m at a loss for words,” loquacious defensive tackle John Randle said while sitting in the Seahawks’ stunned locker room afterward. “It was a wild game.”
There were a lot of ways to describe the way the Ravens rallied for a 44-41 overtime win over Seattle on Sunday. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, the most appropriate description might have been familiar.
For the third time in as many road games, the Seahawks were tied or in the lead in the fourth quarter of a game they eventually lost. The pattern is getting so frustrating that the players and coaches can only scratch their heads in wonder.
“We just have to find a way to put them away,” Seahawks wide receiver Koren Robinson said. “It’s happened in too many games this year. Even when we’ve won at home, we’re still letting them score points and come back to get back into the game. We have to find a way to put them away.”
The road losses seem to get more difficult to swallow every time. Sunday’s defeat came after the Seahawks squandered a 17-point lead with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation.
The Ravens scored 17 points in the final 6:41 of regulation, then won on Matt Stover’s 42-yard field goal 8 1/2minutes into overtime.
“We had it,” Seahawks middle linebacker Randall Godfrey said. “Everything was in our hands, and we gave it away.”
The only four-hour game in the NFL so far this season, Sunday’s contest had a little bit of everything. It began with so little offense that The Weather Channel would have deemed it too dull, while the ending was fit for one of ESPN’s “Instant Classics.”
Just when it appeared the Seahawks (7-4) would spend an entire afternoon trading punts and field goals with the Ravens, the snooze alarm went off. Two touchdowns within 22 seconds, including one with a second left before halftime, helped Seattle pull out to a seemingly comfortable 17-3 lead.
Faced with the reality that they were in danger of getting blown out, the Ravens adjusted in the second half. The two teams traded offensive blows over the final 30 minutes of regulation before things finally got settled in overtime.
Seattle and Baltimore combined for 231 yards and 20 points in the first half – including 14 points in the final 23 seconds – before putting on an offensive showcase the rest of the way. In the second half and overtime, the two teams combined for 621 yards and 65 points.
“The game was about adjustments,” Seahawks offensive lineman Chris Terry said. “The players made adjustments, the coaches made adjustments. And we just took off.”
Baltimore’s Marcus Robinson scored four touchdowns in the second half alone. Seattle countered each one of his scores with one of its own.
The Seahawks scored on their last two drives of the first half and their first four of the first half. Five of those scores were touchdowns, and Seattle found itself comfortably ahead 41-24 early in the fourth quarter.
At that point, the two teams had scored on seven of the eight second-half drives.
But the craziness had only begun. Seattle held on to the 17-point advantage until the 6:41 mark, when the Ravens’ Ed Reed started the comeback by blocking a Tom Rouen punt and taking the loose ball 16 yards for a touchdown.
Seahawks fullback Mack Strong fumbled two minutes later, leading to another Ravens touchdown. Marcus Robinson, who entered the game with nine receptions and no touchdowns on the season, scored from 9 yards out to put Baltimore within 41-38.
“You’ve got to keep your focus,” said Marcus Robinson, who caught seven passes for 131 yards and the four touchdowns. “We knew that we needed to put some points on the board.”
Seattle got the ball back and had a chance to clinch the win, but an official’s clock mistake and a failed conversion on fourth-and-inches gave the Ravens one final hope. With the help of a pass-interference call on Seattle rookie Marcus Trufant, Baltimore got into range for Stover’s 40-yard field goal at the end of regulation.
The Seahawks got the ball first in overtime, but couldn’t get past midfield and eventually had to punt. The Ravens took over and went on the game-winning drive.
Marcus Robinson made a key conversion on third-and-15 to set up Stover’s game-winner.
“We believed we could,” Ravens receiver Frank Sanders said afterward. “It’s just the resiliency of the guys in the huddle. There were a lot of opportunities for our guys to fall on their face and quit. Guys kept making plays, and things started looking up.”
Things aren’t looking so bright for the Seahawks, who fell into second place in the NFC West for the first time this season.
“We’ve got a lot of fight still left, we’ve got five games left, and we’re going to get this thing done,” Strong said.
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