Jan. 13--DENVER -- When the best game that almost every Ravens' player had ever been a part of was finally over, Joe Flacco threw his hands in the air, Justin Tucker emphatically pumped his fist and Ray Lewis dropped to his knees, reduced to tears.
Tucker's 47-yard field goal 1 minute and 42 seconds into the second overtime ended a thrilling and exhausting divisional round playoff game and sent the Ravens into the AFC championship game for the second straight year. The 38-35 victory over the Denver Broncos earns the Ravens a date with the winner of Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and Houston Texans. The AFC championship game will kickoff next Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at the home of Sunday's winner.
"When all the emotions calm down, it will probably be one of the greatest victories in Ravens history," said Lewis whose retirement tour moves on at least one more week.
It also may be one of their most improbable victories. The Ravens allowed two return touchdowns to Trindon Holliday who became the first player in NFL history to accomplish that feat in the postseason, and they trailed by seven with the ball at their own 30 with under a minute to go in regulation.
Quarterback Joe Flacco, who played one of his best games as a pro, spotted Jacoby Jones down the right sideline behind the Broncos' defense and unleashed a ball that seemingly hung in the air forever. Having beaten Tony Carter and Rahim Moore, Jones caught it and sprinted into the end zone for a 70-yard touchdown with just 31 seconds to play.
"I've never seen anything like that," said Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith who had two touchdown catches outplaying Broncos star cornerback Champ Bailey. "You play some games on Madden and you can't even do that."
The two teams traded punts to open overtime but on the Broncos' second possession in the extra session, Peyton Manning threw across his body and was intercepted by cornerback Corey Graham, giving the Ravens the ball at the Denver 45. An 11-yard run by Ray Rice then put Tucker in possession to convert the game winner.
"I always feel good about going out onto the field," said Tucker a rookie free agent who beat out Billy Cundiff in training camp to win the kicking job. "Not a lot of people get to do this. This is a heck of a lot of fun."
The victory ended the top-seeded Broncos' 11-game winning streak and gives the Ravens their first back-to-back AFC championship game appearance in team history. They beat a Manning-quarterbacked team for the third time in 12 tries and for the first time since the 2001 season.
It also provided an emphatic rebuttal to the Ravens' 34-17 loss to the Broncos four weeks ago, and to the questions all season that they were incapable of beating a good team on the road.
They certainly did that Saturday, overcoming four different Broncos' leads, Holliday's heroics, three touchdown passes by Manning, and temperatures that were below 10 degrees by game's end. It was the second coldest game in Broncos' history.
"I don't know if I'm amazed but it was pretty incredible," Flacco said. "We overcame some things today and we fought to the very end. Just like Tucker said and Ray said in the locker room, when some of those things did happen, none of us blinked. We just sat there on the sidelines and said, 'All right, our turn.' When some of those things did happen, no one worried. We just said, 'All right, our turn.' Slowly but surely, we were able to score points when we needed to and our defense was able to stop them."
