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January 14, 2013

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Home » Sports » American Football

Ravens shock Broncos in playoffs, 49ers top Packers

BALTIMORE quarterback Joe Flacco completed a last-minute 70-yard touchdown pass that helped the Ravens stun the Denver Broncos, while the San Francisco Packers dominated the Green Bay Packers defense in Saturday's NFL divisional playoff games.

Flacco's pass came with 31 seconds left to force overtime, and Justin Tucker kicked a 47-yard field goal to clinch a 38-35 win and dump Denver, the Super Bowl favorites, out of the playoffs.

San Francisco led Green Bay 24-21 at halftime but in the second half the Packers defense was all at sea against 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who ran for a quarterback playoff record 181 yards, as the hosts won 45-31.

Baltimore will play either New England or Houston in the AFC title game, while San Francisco's opponent in the NFC decider will be Atlanta or Seattle.

While Flacco's pass will go into Ravens folklore, his opposing quarterback Peyton Manning will be left to rue the intercept he threw in overtime which led to the winning field goal.

"Our team is so confident and everything went against us," said retiring Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, "but we found a way to come here together and we're leaving together. It's just awesome."

This game, the longest since the Browns beat Cleveland 23-20 in 1987, was an all-time classic, as was Flacco's touchdown pass.

On third-and-3 from his 30-yard line with 41 seconds and no timeouts left, Flacco bought time in the pocket and saw Jacoby Jones sprinting down the right into double coverage. Defensive back Tony Carter slowed up and let Jones streak by him. Safety Rahim Moore elected not to track Jones but rather to leap and try to knock down the ball. Flacco, who throws the high, deep ball as well as anyone, got it over Moore's head and into Jones' hands. Jones caught it and pranced into the end zone.

In San Francisco, Kaepernick ran for two touchdowns and threw two scoring passes to Michael Crabtree in leading the 49ers over the Packers. Kaepernick outplayed the reigning NFL MVP and former Super Bowl champion Aaron Rodgers in a sensational, record-setting playoff debut.




 

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