Jacoby Jones had stopped running. Down seven with no timeouts and less than a minute left in the divisional playoff game, the Baltimore Ravens wide receiver pulled up on his route, until an “oh s—” moment led to a miracle in Denver’s Mile High Stadium.
After running down the right sideline, Jones slowed when he turned around and didn’t see a Joe Flacco pass coming his way. His hesitation caused the Broncos’ defensive backs to relax.
“I looked up again and I said, ‘Oh s—, he threw it,’” Jones said recently. “So I took off again.”
Jones was able to get behind the Denver defense and haul in the pass for a 70-yard touchdown with 31 seconds remaining.
Thursday marks the 10-year anniversary of the “Mile High Miracle,” which helped spur the Ravens on to their last Super Bowl victory. Baltimore may not need a miracle to win another Lombardi Trophy this year, but they open the playoffs Sunday night against the Cincinnati Bengals as 8-point underdogs in a wild-card matchup (8:15 p.m. ET, NBC), and the status of injured quarterback Lamar Jackson is uncertain.
Jones had that opportunity a decade ago only because he failed so miserably in the postseason with the Houston Texans just a year earlier. In the 2011 AFC divisional playoff game in Baltimore, Jones had a punt bounce off his chest deep in Houston territory, which led to the Texans cutting him. Back in the playoffs with the Ravens, Jones had the ball ricochet off his chest on his first kickoff attempt in Denver before recovering it.
“I was on the sideline like, ‘Jacoby, you’re not about to repeat this,’” Jones said.
Jones’ redemption story is only part of why the victory remains so miraculous. Before his game-tying touchdown in the final minute, the Ravens’ chances of winning were 0.8%. Few truly believed Baltimore would prevail, from the players freezing in the coldest game in franchise history, to flu-stricken Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, who sent an encouraging text to coach John Harbaugh from 2,000 miles away during the game because even he thought there was no way the team was winning.
Here’s a look at how the most celebrated touchdown in Ravens history came on a night of repeated frustrations that included Ray Lewis’ halftime speech falling flat, the sideline heaters going out early in the fourth quarter, Flacco drawing the ire of the Ravens sideline in the closing minute of regulation and Harbaugh struggling to signal for the winning field goal because his face was frozen.
‘One hell of a weapon’
With the game tied at 21, Lewis gave one of his rousing halftime speeches in the locker room. Like he did throughout his final postseason, Lewis passionately recited the biblical verse: “No weapon formed against us will prosper.”
This time, the Broncos returned the opening kickoff of the second half 104 yards for a touchdown.
“That was one hell of a weapon right there,” Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs said on the sideline.
Early in the fourth quarter, Harbaugh went over to get a Gatorade, only to find they were all frozen. The heaters on the Ravens’ sideline had stopped working, but Harbaugh remembers looking across to the Broncos’ side to see the heaters at full blast for the home team.
It was so cold — the wind chill in Denver was 2 degrees — that Ravens guard Marshal Yanda sprayed water on himself and the front of his jersey froze. The Broncos defensive linemen complained Yanda had used an illegal substance. The referee told them: “It was just ice.”
Baltimore’s circumstances were more dire late in the fourth quarter when the Broncos took a 35-28 lead with 7:11 left. After Flacco threw an incompletion on fourth-and-5 in Denver territory, the Broncos gained a first down to force the Ravens to use their last timeout and face a third-and-7 at midfield at the two-minute warning.
It was at that time, Bisciotti believes, that he texted Harbaugh for the first — and still only — time during a game, knowing he would read it after the game. Bisciotti had planned to fly out west, but he was extremely sick. A nurse told him that he would’ve been rushed to the hospital if he went to Denver because his lungs wouldn’t be able to handle the elevation.
So, Bisciotti watched from the sofa of his Florida home and couldn’t help but feel detached. When it looked like Harbaugh was about to lose in the postseason for a fifth consecutive season, Bisciotti wanted his coach to read an uplifting message before talking to reporters.
His text read:
“We are down 35-28. And I think it’s the best game I’ve ever seen us in the playoffs since 2000. Win or lose, I am so proud of the team and proud of you.”
Is it safe to say that Bisciotti was thinking the Ravens were more likely to lose than win at that point?
“Yes,” Bisciotti said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t want to piss them off and concede that we’ve lost. I’m glad I had the presence of mind to write ‘win or lose’!”
‘A little bit pissed at Joe’
Still down by a touchdown, Baltimore got the ball back at its own 23-yard line with 1:09 remaining. It soon felt more like a Mile High Meltdown than any miracle at that point.
On first down, tight end Dennis Pitta would’ve been wide open 20 yards downfield, but he slipped coming out of his break on a double move. Flacco’s pass sailed incomplete, which delivered a gut punch on what might have been.
Nine years ago today in the 2012 Divisional Round…
Three epic @JoeFlacco TD passes, including The Mile High Miracle! (Jan. 12, 2013) pic.twitter.com/pyiI5ApUF4
— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) January 12, 2022
“I just remember thinking, ‘Man, that was our shot,’” Flacco said. “That would’ve been a really big chunk. You never know what happens from there.”
On second down, Flacco inexplicably scrambled up the middle of the field, which gained 7 yards and lost a chunk of precious time.
“I remember kind of being a little bit pissed at Joe because he was running around and the clock’s still running,” Harbaugh said. “We burned like 25 seconds.”
Flacco acknowledges that wasn’t the right football decision. He should’ve thrown an incompletion to stop the clock.
But, did it really end up being costly?
“The fact that I didn’t throw the ball away meant we didn’t huddle,” Flacco said. “It wasn’t ideal, but I think the fast pace of it, the non-organization of it kind of played in our favor.”
‘Oh dear God’
The Ravens hurriedly lined up for third-and-3 with 42 seconds left, and Jones remembers Flacco yelling, “Run.”
Flacco recalls looking at Denver safety Rahim Moore, who wasn’t playing wide enough to Jones’ side.
“I knew I was going to go to Jacoby,” Flacco said. “He was already going to be 20 yards behind him because he was just going to be in a dead sprint. This is the perfect opportunity.”
Even though the Broncos rushed only three players, Flacco faced pressure from the edges and had to step up in the pocket. When he cocked his arm back, he was surprised to see Jones wasn’t farther down the field.
“I’m still convinced that’s the only reason it ended up being as close as it was, because I wasn’t able to throw the ball 10 yards farther than I wanted to,” Flacco said.
Harbaugh watched Flacco fling the ball and looked downfield to see an open Jones.
“I clearly remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh dear God, let him catch the ball,’” Harbaugh said. “Because Jacoby was a 50-50 proposition.”
Flacco’s pass went over the outstretched hand of Moore and landed in the gut of Jones at the Broncos’ 25-yard line. Jones raced to the end zone to tie the game with 31 seconds left.
“When I ran in the end zone, it was quiet. You heard rat piss on cotton,” Jones said. “I’m like, this ain’t real.”
‘The best’ cold shower
Many forget that the Mile High Miracle didn’t win the game. It only tied it at 35 … that is, if Justin Tucker made the extra point.
At that point, Tucker hadn’t become the league’s most accurate kicker. He was an undrafted rookie who had just witnessed Flacco outduel Peyton Manning and watched the Ravens dramatically rally against the top-seeded Broncos.
If Tucker doesn’t make this extra point, there’s really no significance to Flacco’s desperation throw to Jones.
“All of those things weren’t in the front of my mind, but they were bouncing around somewhere in there,” Tucker said. “It was for sure one of the most nerve-racking kicks of my career.”
Baltimore would call upon Tucker again early in the second overtime. Ravens cornerback Corey Graham picked off Manning for a second time that night, which put Baltimore at the Denver 38-yard line.
Ravens running back Ray Rice ran the ball four times to set up fourth down and a potential winning 47-yard field goal attempt. While everyone knew this wasn’t going to be an easy try for Tucker, few anticipated the issue with Harbaugh on making the call to kick it.
“[Then kicking consultant] Randy [Brown] comes running over to me like, ‘Are we kicking the field goal?’” Harbaugh said. “It was so cold. I couldn’t speak. I looked at him, thinking in my mind, ‘Yeah, what the hell you think we’re going to do right now?’”
Tucker drilled the game-winner, and the Ravens were on their way to the AFC Championship Game and a second Vince Lombardi trophy. Still, after Baltimore celebrated on the field, all Harbaugh could think about was getting a hot shower.
By the time he got a chance to take one, he was the last one to do so. Harbaugh got in there and it was ice cold.
“But it was the best,” Harbaugh said with a grin. “It was the best.”
