L’Jarius Sneed’s Diving Punch Forced A Ravens Fumble On The Goal Line

After marching down the field for a touchdown on their second drive of the game, the Baltimore Ravens offense had almost nothing working in the middle half of Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Lamar Jackson struggled to find a rhythm against Kansas City’s pressure, and the running game was almost non-existent. However, after some early issues of their own Baltimore’s defense bowed up and kept the Ravens in the game, holding the Chiefs to three points on six drives after their first two TD marches. That allowed Jackson and company time to try and find a spark, and it seemed they did just that on a deep pass play to Zay Flowers late in the third quarter.

Flowers got flagged for taunting L’Jarius Sneed, but Baltimore was still able to work the ball back deep into the red zone. From there, it was Flowers who was again on the receiving end of a pass over the middle from Jackson and it looked like he was set to get his second touchdown of the game, except as he dove for the goal line, Sneed dove in and punched the ball out, with the Chiefs recovering for a touchback.

Replay showed the ball got punched out clearly before Flowers crossed the goal line, and it was a reminder of the margins that swing these big games.

With a TD, the Ravens would’ve been a field goal away from tying the game (or a TD away from taking their first lead). Instead, they had to watch Mahomes and company go back to work, moving the ball across midfield before stalling out and taking some precious time off the clock before pinning the Ravens on their own 1, still needing two scores.