Nursing a seven-point lead on a fourth down with 11 seconds left, it appeared as though the Baltimore Ravens would need to punt the ball to the Cincinnati Bengals. John Harbaugh had other ideas for his team.
Lining up in punt formation, Harbaugh had his players hold and tackle the Cincinnati players lined up against them.
The last play, set up to punt in the Ravens/Bengals game hahaha pic.twitter.com/KCdt5n2kvN
— Kendal Bowe (@KBowe24) November 27, 2016
The drawback, of course, is that it’s that several Baltimore players committed blatantly obvious holding penalties, which were called.
The good news is that the penalties allowed punter Sam Koch to run around unmolested while the final seconds of the game were ticking away. When the clock hit zero, Koch ran out of the end zone, taking the intentional safety. While the game can not end on a defensive penalty, there’s no such rule preventing one from ending on an offensive foul.
Did Baltimore simply exploit a loophole in the rules? Perhaps, but it was quite the savvy move.