Packers Outslug Ravens in Ugly Monday Night Flag-Fest

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Packers knew the Ravens' reputation. They spent their week studying tape, watching Ray Lewis and his friends play defense. They met and talked and planned and decided that the best way to try and beat the Ravens was ... to play as much like the Ravens as possible.

"Their defense is notorious for being physical and shutting teams down," Packers linebacker Nick Barnett said. "And we thought it would be a good week to go out and do what everybody says they do."

The result may have looked hideous to a national Monday Night Football audience -- a 27-14 Packers victory that included the second-most total penalty yards of any game in NFL history. But to the Packers, who improved to 8-4 and stayed very much alive in the NFC playoff race, it was a beautiful, flawless win.

"It was tough, because some of those penalties put them right on the goal line," Barnett said. "But when you have a physical game like that, you hate to be out there saying, 'Hey! Be Safe! Don't grab 'em!' "

Certainly, there was no evidence on this night that anybody said anything like that. There were 23 penalties in the game, and nine were for pass interference. And of the 310 total penalty yards, 205 came on those nine pass interference calls. It got to the point where you wondered if that's just the way the two sides had decided to play pass defense -- just commit interference on every play and hope they don't call it.

"I was like, 'We might as well keep throwing it up there, because either we're going to catch it or they're going to throw a flag,'" Baltimore receiver Mark Clayton said. "When the game gets like that, those DBs (defensive backs) just want to do everything they can to make sure it's not complete. Some might have been close, but pretty much, they were certainly blatant."

Remember, this is a guy on the losing team talking. If the Ravens were upset about the way the game was called, they were stunningly professional about it. Coach John Harbaugh said, "On some of them, I don't know what they were calling," and Ravens receiver Derrick Mason got whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after he was flagged for an offensive pass interference penalty that wiped out a 46-yard fourth-quarter completion. But when the game was over, the Ravens seemed almost impressed with the Packers and the boldness with which they'd stood up to them.

"Some of the penalties you question and some you don't," Ravens linebacker and noted officiating critic Ray Lewis said. "But the bottom line is, you can't come into somebody's house and have that many penalties."

The Ravens took the long view, and they were right to do so. If anything, they came out on the long end of the penalty calls. They actually gained nearly as many yards on Packer penalties (175) as they did with their own offense (185). Twice, a Packer pass interference call set Baltimore up with a first-and-goal on the one-yard line. But only once did the Ravens turn that very big break into points. And that, in the end, was the reason they lost.

Baltimore trailed 24-14 with 9:46 left when Packers cornerback Tramon Williams was called for pass interference in the end zone for the second time in the game. The Ravens' first attempt from the one-yard line lost two yards as Willis McGahee was tackled behind the line of scrimmage. And on second down, Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco rolled out to the right, avoided a sack and then -- when throwing the ball out of the back of the end zone would have been the wise thing to do -- threw an inconceivably bad interception to (irony!) Williams.

"A stupid decision and a worse throw," Flacco said, accurately and to his credit. "It was second down, so you don't really need to make a play there. You can give yourself another shot on third down and still kick a field goal. I didn't set my feet, didn't get enough on the ball and I underthrew it."

Pretty much a recipe for disaster, and if that didn't cost Baltimore the game then Flacco's next throw, two minutes later after a three-and-out by the Packers, did. Because that one was intercepted too, albeit on a much more challenging defensive play by Green Bay linebacker A.J. Hawk. It was actually the third interception of the night for Flacco and the seventh total turnover in one of the flat-out ugliest NFL games of the season.

"The penalties were unbelievable for both sides," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "I thought it was a tightly officiated football game with two competitive, physical football teams. That's the game we anticipated coming into Monday night throughout our preparation."

That was the Packers' mantra all week. They wanted to play like the Ravens -- be physical, intimidate and don't be afraid to get called for penalties.

"Games like this are ugly sometimes," Barnett said. "But no matter what it looked like on the exterior, on the interior it was still a win. We don't want to lead the league in penalties, but at the same time, we've got to play football the way we know how."

On this night, they wanted that to include an homage to their opponent, and their hope was that their opponent would feel it in all the wrong ways. They appear to have got their wish. While the Packers stayed very much afloat in the NFC playoff hunt, the Ravens fell to 6-6 and remained a game back of Jacksonville for the final wild-card spot in the AFC.

On his way out of the locker room, somebody asked second-year Ravens running back Ray Rice (54 yards on 14 carries) what he thought of his first visit to Lambeau Field.

"Just Lambeau Field," Rice said. "I mean, it's out in the middle of nowhere, it's old, it's cold. Everything about this place is terrible, to be honest with you."

All depends on your perspective, Ray. But when you lose as ugly as the Ravens did Monday, it's bound to leave a bad taste.