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Baltimore Ravens Clinch Playoff Spot As San Diego Chargers Implode

By Toni Matthews
Published on: 10:06 PST, Dec 28, 2014

Heading into Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens seemed destined to just barely miss out on the playoffs. Even if the Ravens gave it their all, there was still the matter of the San Diego Chargers.

In order for Baltimore to make it to the post-season, they had to both win and see the San Diego team suffer a major upset. Fortunately for the Ravens, that’s exactly what happened.

The San Diego Chargers lost their away game to the Kansas City Chiefs, imploding at the worst possible moment in their season. Despite having nothing to play for personally, the Chiefs seemed to have everything else to gain by standing in the way of the Chargers’ dreams of a 2015 playoff feature.

Kansas City managed one touchdown against San Diego, but they were particularly successful with field goals. Four field goals in all allowed the home team to come out on top, 19 to 7.

The San Diego Chargers were punished for this last-minute implosion by an inspired Baltimore Ravens performance.

Although the Ravens and the Cleveland Browns each only put up three points during the first half of the game, it was in the 4th quarter of the second half that the Ravens seemed to fully grasp that they indeed had a shot at the playoffs.

While the San Diego Chargers were floundering, Joe Flacco threw a pair of touchdowns. The game finished 20 to 17, allowing the Ravens to ease past the Chargers and into the play offs.

It’s an amazing turn of events for the Baltimore Ravens, a team that was virtually eliminated in the minds of many ahead of this weekend.

Interestingly enough, the Kansas City Chiefs came within a whisper of a playoff spot. If both the Ravens and Texans had lost, then the Chiefs would have clinched the final AFC playoff spot.

“Nobody knew [how close we were],” said Chiefs’ Chase Daniel. “Nobody wanted to know. We were focused on the game at hand, the task at hand.”

Daniel was in for injured starting quarterback Alex Smith.

The San Diego Chargers clearly lacked focus, and were never able to get any kind of momentum going.

Chargers coach Mike McCoy said that he was “very disappointed” the Chargers’ gameplay, adding, “[We] got off to a poor start and put ourselves in a number of holes.”

He also acknowledged that failure to convert on third downs also sealed the fate of the San Diego Chargers.

The Baltimore Ravens are set to play the Cincinnati Bengals next weekend.

[Image Credit: NFL Official Twitter]

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