Lamar Jackson and the Ravens were on the ropes. They were wilting under the pressure of Detroit's defensive line and the roar of the Ford Field crowd. They were one blow away from hitting the mat, and here it came, on fourth and long, deep in their own territory, less than 30 seconds to go.
"I think I got sacked every play on that drive," Jackson said. "I’m like, ‘Dang, I’m trying to buy time.’"
He was sacked on first down by Charles Harris for a loss of three. He was nearly swallowed on second down by Julian Okwara. And he was sacked on third down by Romeo Okwara for a loss of six. Those three and Nick Williams were too much for the Ravens' offensive line to handle, and now the Lions were winding up for the knockout punch.
And then Dan Campbell called a timeout.
“It helped us a lot," Jackson said with a sigh of relief. "Coach changed the play. He went to another play and that’s what helped us get that field goal drive going. I was happy for that timeout because we needed a little breather. Our linemen needed a little breather. The crowd went to rocking, I don’t know where that crowd came from. We weren’t hearing it all game, and they just came out of nowhere. It was tough to play in Detroit today, for sure.”
As the Ravens caught their breath, so did the fans. When the Lions came out of the timeout, they rushed three instead of four: Romeo Okwara, Williams and Austin Bryant. Jackson had all the time he needed -- five seconds, to be exact -- to find Sammy Watkins for a 36-yard gain that set up Justin Tucker's historic game-winning field goal.
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Jackson said he was "definitely surprised" the Lions reduced the pressure on fourth down.
"Because they were doing a good job, they were getting after it. Everything’s flying, we’re trying to make things happen, guys are trying to block their tails off and might miss a little bit, I might miss a throw. They went three-down and it was like, man, that was just God. They just tried to prevent it, fourth and 19 and we came through."
Campbell said the fourth down call "was fine, it was just the way we played the call." Despite their numbers in the secondary, the Lions allowed Watkins to get loose. That was the difference in the game.
"Communication errors," said Campbell. "Look, I’ve said it before. It’s not an excuse, it’s a matter of how quickly you can clean it up, but we do have growing pains. There’s kinks we have to continue to work out and grow from this and learn from this. This is really the first time that some of those guys that were out there have been through that situation."