Death, taxes and Ravens kicker Justin Tucker on extra points are no longer the three guarantees in life.
Tucker did not miss any of the 220 extra points he tried in the first six years and six games of his career and he didn’t miss the first two he tried against the Saints on Sunday. That meant everyone started preparing for overtime when John Brown caught a touchdown with 24 seconds left in the game, but Tucker missed and the Saints held on for a 24-23 win.
Another Ravens streak came to an end Sunday as well. They didn’t give up a touchdown in the second half of their first six games this season and they got though the third quarter with that streak alive and a 17-7 lead against the Saints.
New Orleans figured out a way to break through, however. Alvin Kamara capped a 12-play drive with a two-yard touchdown run, Drew Brees hit Michael Thomas for the 501st touchdown pass of his career to cap another 12-play jaunt and the Saints moved to 6-1 after the late scare. The victory means Brees has now beaten every NFL team in his career.
The Saints came into the game as the league’s highest-scoring team, but the first three quarters suggested that the Ravens defense would be building on last week’s shutout win. Long drives by both teams meant that the Saints only had four possessions before the end of the third quarter and they had not gotten any points on their game-opening 20-play drive because of a Taysom Hill fumble.
Things began to click as the third quarter wound down, though, and the Saints remained sharp through the final 15 minutes of their comeback win. Their late scoring drives were a mix of Brees passing and a three-headed running attack. Kamara, Hill and Mark Ingram combined for 131 yards on 35 carries as the Saints never went away from the run after falling behind.
Joe Flacco struggled in the fourth quarter before rallying with six straight completions on the final touchdown drive and finished the day 23-of-39 for 279 yards and two touchdowns. He also gave way to Lamar Jackson for a red zone snap that resulted in Jackson’s first NFL touchdown run in the first half and was surely looking ahead to a chance to keep things rolling in overtime.
Thanks to Tucker’s shocking miss, Flacco will have to wait a lot longer to get back on the field.
