BALTIMORE — Torrey Smith turned in an emotional — and sensational — performance under very difficult circumstances.
His teammates on the Baltimore Ravens helped make it a winning effort.
Rookie Justin Tucker kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired, giving the Ravens a 31-30 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday night in a rematch of the AFC championship game.
Smith started and scored two touchdowns for the Ravens, less than 24 hours after his younger brother was killed in a motorcycle accident late Saturday night. Smith left the team shortly after midnight Sunday but returned in time for warmups. The second-year wide receiver finished with six catches for 127 yards.
“It was tough, emotionally,” Smith said. “I didn’t know how I would hold up.
“It means a lot not just for us but for my family. … That’s for my little brother.”
A moment of silence was observed before the game for Smith’s brother, 19-year-old Tevin Jones.
When the teams met in January, the Patriots squeezed out a three-point win at home to advance to the Super Bowl. The stakes weren’t nearly as high in this one, yet the game was eerily similar.
In the previous meeting, Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal in the closing seconds. In the encore, Tucker — who took the job away from Cundiff in training camp — drove his kick just inside the right upright.
The game-winning kick followed a pass interference call against Devin McCourty on Jacoby Jones.
As the officials were leaving the field, Patriots coach Bill Belichick grabbed one of them by the arm. He didn’t pursue as the official continued to run off the field.
Baltimore (2-1) won its 12th straight at home behind Joe Flacco, who went 28 for 39 for 382 yards and three touchdowns.
Tom Brady completed 28 of 41 passes for 335 yards and a score for the Patriots (1-2), who fell below .500 for the first time since Week 1 of 2003.
Replacement officials marked off 24 penalties, including 14 against Baltimore. Both Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Belichick spent much of the night yelling at the officiating crew.
Wes Welker had eight catches for 142 yards and Brandon Lloyd caught nine passes for 108 yards for the Patriots, who fell to 6-1 against the Ravens in the regular season — 7-2 including the playoffs.
Down 20-14, the Ravens opened the second half with an 80-yard drive that ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Ray Rice. Brady matched that with an 80-yard drive of his own, repeatedly picking on cornerback Cary Williams, before Danny Woodhead scored on a 3-yard run to put New England ahead.
Stephen Gostkowski kicked his third field goal to make it 30-21 with 14:10 remaining.
Smith caught a 5-yard touchdown pass with 4:01 left to get the Ravens to 30-28. Flacco went 6 for 7 for 76 yards in the 92-yard drive.
After a New England punt, Baltimore executed the game-winning drive in the final 2 minutes.
New England took a 13-0 lead before the Ravens got their initial first down. Then, after Baltimore went up 14-13, Brady engineered a frantic touchdown drive at the end of the first half to put the Patriots back in front.
Welker, who came in with only eight catches in two games, played a key role for New England in the opening minutes. He recovered a fumble by Brady on the Patriots’ second play, and on New England’s second series Welker broke loose on the left sideline for a 59-yard completion that set up a 37-yard field goal.
The long pass to Welker pushed Brady into 12th place on the career yardage list, past Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana (40,551).
On the first play following the kickoff, Steve Gregory intercepted a pass by Flacco and took it 36 yards to the Baltimore 6. On third down, rookie Brandon Bolden ran in from the 2 for his first NFL touchdown.
Late in the first quarter, Gostkowski kicked a 49-yard field goal for a 13-0 lead.
After two three-and-outs and an interception, Flacco found his rhythm the fourth time he got the ball.
Flacco moved the Ravens 82 yards in 13 plays in a drive culminated by a 25-yard touchdown pass to Smith. Then, after a New England punt, Baltimore covered 92 yards in eight plays. The capper was a 20-yard TD pass to tight end Dennis Pitta, who hurdled Gregory inside the 10 before completing his romp into the end zone.
Brady answered with a touchdown pass of his own, a 7-yarder to Julian Edelman with 2 seconds left to cap an 81-yard, beat-the-clock march.
JETS 23, DOLPHINS 20, OT: Nick Folk received a reprieve when his blocked field-goal attempt was negated by a timeout, and his second try was a successful 33-yarder with 6:04 left in overtime.
Mark Sanchez hit Santonio Holmes for a 38-yard gain to set up the kick. Two plays later, Folk’s try was blocked, but officials whistled the play dead as the ball was snapped because the Dolphins had called timeout.
Folk then made the winner.
On the previous possession, the Dolphins’ Dan Carpenter was wide left on a 48-yard field-goal attempt that would have given them the victory.
New York improved to 2-1, and Miami dropped to 1-2. The Jets’ Darrelle Revis and Miami’s Reggie Bush left the game with left knee injuries.
TEXANS 31, BRONCOS 25: Matt Schaub outplayed Peyton Manning, throwing four touchdown passes against a confused Denver defense.
Schaub finished 17 for 30 for 290 yards to help Houston move to 3-0 for the first time in franchise history.
Six days after throwing three interceptions in the first quarter of a loss to Atlanta, Manning didn’t throw any against the Texans. But just as happened last week, the Broncos fell behind by 20 and lost by six. Manning did get the ball with 20 seconds left this time but didn’t get the Broncos close to the end zone.
RAIDERS 34, STEELERS 31: Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 43-yard field goal on the last play as Oakland scored the final 13 points after wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey was knocked out and hospitalized by a scary hit.
The game turned somber early in the fourth quarter when Heyward-Bey was knocked unconscious by a helmet-to-helmet hit in the end zone by Steelers safety Ryan Mundy. The hit was not called a penalty by the replacement officials. Heyward-Bey was taken to the hospital with a neck injury.
Carson Palmer then threw his third touchdown pass for Oakland (1-2) and Janikowski kicked two field goals to beat the Steelers (1-2) and give coach Dennis Allen his first win.
CARDINALS 27, EAGLES 6: Kevin Kolb threw for 222 yards and two touchdowns and James Sanders returned one of Michael Vick’s two fumbles 93 yards for a touchdown, and Arizona is off to its best start in 38 years.
Arizona (3-0) sacked Vick five times in winning its seventh straight home game, the second-longest streak in franchise history.
Philadelphia (2-1) became the first NFL team to open a season with two one-point wins. The Eagles didn’t give themselves a chance to rally for another victory, picked apart by the quarterback they cast away and hounded by Arizona’s attacking defense.
I will not watch again till the real refs get back..At times I felt embarrassed for the replacements…Sad day for the game I love…
Seriously again a person complaining about the refs. Nothing to with the refs its patriots fault. They loss, get used to it, there season will end 11-5 By the way what type of coach (except the patriots) pushes a ref.
The refs were horrible in every game I watched yesterday it’s a disgrace.
I watched three, like i said its the not the refs, they did not like that last call, the last throw of the game, as always the patriots wine and you got a coach pushing a ref, if i was the owner i would fire him for that, poor sportsmanship
it’s not the refs? have you ever actually watched a football game or any sport for that matter? sure calls are missed in every game regardless if it’s replacement refs or the professional’s but what the players and coaches look for the most is consistency. right now there is none and it wasn’t just last night. the game last monday night was just as bad and other games I watched over the weekend left me shaking my head. i’ve watched the NFL since childhood, but am done until they get the real officials back. While I’m just a single person and the NFL isn’t going to miss me, the NFL will not be on in my house until this matter is resolved.
The replacement refs are horrible. It is not their fault though…they were thrust into a bad situation with minimal training and zero experience. That being said, they DID NOT cost the Patriots the game last night. The Pats had the ball and the lead with around two minutes to go in the game. Because the offense failed to move the ball enough to gain the final first down that would have sealed the game they lost.
No they are quite a few teams i do not like, patriots is just one of them. I hate a team of grown up men that cry when they lose. Alot of people were blaming it on the refs last night, facebook, everywhere i saw it. Pats lost because of the two minutes
J I agree that the refs didn’t cost the Pats the game last night. They had a chance to finish it off and failed. I’m not basing the officiating on a single game but all the games I’ve watched in the past three weekends, which has been every one of them. It’s not the news officials fault…for the most part but if the owners refuse to produce the best product possible I’m going to find other things to do with my Sunday afternoons. I like to watch good, entertaining, competitive games. While many of the games are competitive (3ot games yesterday alone) they’re not entertaining with all the stopages and they haven’t been that good on the eyes with all the issues.
One of my all time favorite NFL memories was watching Bill Cower running over to a ref at half time and shoving one of those faxed pictures they have during the game into the front pocket of the ref’s shirt. The ref had called 12 men on the field on the play just before the half and it was very obvious he was wrong and there were only 11. So Bill Cower is the answer to your question…and I am sure there are more examples. You just love to demonize the Patriots at every opportunity.
The players are getting what they deserve for not standing with the refs union.
There was one call I will agree the Pats did not deserve on the holding near the end, other then that, majority was their fault. The teams are trying anything to take advantage of what they think of as “Rookies” when they have been calling some right calls too. Look even though it is not as common, them seasoned refs the fans want back so bad make some pretty bad calls too. You are going to find on here typical Pats fans that can’t accept the fact “their team” is actually able to loose.
Yea i know i went through this with the superbowl last year, quite a few commenters blamed the loss on the ref. Pats fan just can not get over that there team is not good as it used to be, brady is getting older, yea he can run fast but he is not that good anymore.
Seriously? Brady has NEVER been able to run fast. Also, I am a huge Pats fan and will never blame the outcome of a game on the officials. Not this past Super Bowl and not the game on Sunday night.
What game were you watching? The Pats were clearly the better team and the refs made some bad calls…the interference prior to the field goal was bush league, IMO. You’ll eat your words when the Pats are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in February.
The FG was wide to the right. The 4th and a yard did not need a measurement thus giving the Harbaugh team enouhg time upstairs to review the play and throw the challenge flag. The pass interference that lead to the first score for the Raven was not correct. The personal foul on Harbaugh was bogus. This was worse than pro wrestling was years ago…But again the F in the NFL stands for Fixed.