This Raven Has the Wright Stuff

So this is where de-evolution had taken the city of Baltimore and its once peerless quarterbacking position -- from Johnny Unitas to Bert Jones to (after a lengthy intermission) Vinny Testaverde to Tony Banks to Trent Dilfer to Elvis Grbac to Kyle Boller to, alas, on this sad Sunday in late 2003, yes, sorry to say, Anthony Wright.

One minute before halftime, Wright had managed to help the Ravens put nothing more than a field goal on the scoreboard. What could the Ravens expect? In Wright’s first start for Baltimore last week, the Ravens managed two field goals in a 9-6 overtime loss to Miami. Seven days later against Seattle, Wright was right on pace.

With less than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Wright trailed, at home, by 17 points. That sounds about Wright. The league had caught this act before, during Wright’s days as an occasional quarterback for Dave Campo’s Dallas Cowboys in 2000 and 2001, which helps explain why Quincy Carter is the quarterback for Bill Parcells’ Dallas Cowboys in 2003.

The Seahawks had this one in the bag.

The Seahawks were less than seven minutes away from staying atop the NFC West standings.

Final score, after 8 1/2 minutes of overtime: Team Quarterbacked by Anthony Wright 44, Seattle Seahawks 41.

The highest score in an NFL game this season might also be the most improbable. It was a comeback so incredible, so unexpected, Wright told the Ravens’ Web site, “I almost started crying in the locker room.”

And: “This is something that you dream of.”

And: “This is a thing that you think would never happen to you.”

That isn’t false modesty from Wright. That’s a reasonable conclusion to make after a careful study of Wright’s NFL resume: Undrafted out of South Carolina in 1999, Wright had bounced around from Pittsburgh to Dallas to Baltimore, making six starts before Sunday. His record in those starts was 1-5. Career passing yards before Sunday: 878. Career touchdown passes before Sunday: five.

Against Seattle, Wright passed for 319 yards and four touchdowns.

All four of those scoring passes were to Marcus Robinson, who before Sunday this season had only nine catches for 76 yards and no touchdowns.

Against Seattle, Robinson had seven catches for 131 yards.

Once upon a time, Wright and Robinson were teammates at the University of South Carolina, playing on the same 1996 team as Duce Staley. Seven years later, after Robinson blows out a knee in Chicago and Wright seemingly blows out a career in Dallas, they are reunited in Baltimore and thrown in together against a first-place Seahawk team and, well ... fight on, USC?

The Ravens trailed, 41-24, with 6:58 to go before Ed Reed blocked a Seattle punt and returned the loose ball for a touchdown. They still trailed by 10 points, 41-31, with less than two minutes to play, before Wright connected with Robinson for a nine-yard touchdown.

And after Baltimore’s on-side kick failed, all Seattle had to do was take over at midfield and run out the last 1:12. That was Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren’s only goal, and he was stubbornly sticking to it, refusing to punt on fourth-and-inches at the Raven 33 and sending Matt Hasselbeck into the pile for a quarterback sneak.

With 44 seconds left, Hasselbeck was stopped short and Baltimore regained possession.

With 39 seconds left, Seattle cornerback Marcus Trufant was flagged for interference against Robinson, a 44-yard penalty that moved the ball into field-goal range.

With time expiring, Matt Stover converted a 40-yard field-goal attempt to send the game into overtime, where Stover would win it with a 42-yard field goal.

With 20 unanswered points, Wright and the Ravens threw unexpected wrenches into two playoff races. Seattle’s loss, coupled by St. Louis’ 30-27 overtime triumph at Arizona, dropped the Seahawks (7-4) out of a first-place tie with the Rams (8-3) in the NFC West. And Baltimore’s startling comeback kept the Ravens tied atop the AFC North at 6-5 with the Cincinnati Bengals, who won their third consecutive game -- their longest winning streak since 1999 -- with a 34-27 decision over San Diego.

Fourth and inches was the league’s pivotal predicament during Week 12. Besides Seattle’s fateful fourth-down failure, three other games turning on the outcome of a single play -- all of them on fourth and goal inside the opposition one-yard line.

Cleveland had three cracks at the end zone from the Pittsburgh one-yard line and couldn’t score, with wide receiver Dennis Northcutt being stopped inches short on a fourth-down double reverse. All told, Cleveland had possession three times inside the Pittsburgh 10 and came away with only a field goal -- waste that proved the difference in the Browns’ 13-6 defeat.

Indianapolis had four shots at the end zone inside the Buffalo four-yard line -- and three from the Bills’ one. On first, second and third downs, the Colts played it conservatively, and played it the same way: Not much by Edgerrin James and a cloud of plastic dust.

On fourth down, with 1:38 left and his team down by five points, Indianapolis Coach Tony Dungy went to the well again. Finally, James nudged across the goal line, and with the ensuing two-point conversion, the Colts won, 17-14.

And if Wright trudging off the scrap heap to rally Baltimore weren’t enough for one Sunday, how about this: Kordell Stewart scoring the winning touchdown for the Chicago Bears in Denver?

Stewart was summoned from the bench after the man he lost his job to, 38-year-old Chris Chandler, did what old people do -- sprain a muscle -- late in the first half. Stewart came on and pretty much stuck to the script, completing less than half of his passes for 47 yards and running for 29 more, including this sequence early in the fourth quarter:

First and goal at the Bronco three: Stewart rushes for two yards.

Second and goal at the one: Stewart, no gain.

Third and goal at the one: Stewart, no gain.

Fourth and goal at the one: Stewart again, this time breaking the plane.

Touchdown, Bears, who hold on and steal one on the road from Denver, 19-10.

It was a game of inches in the NFL Sunday, including at Minnesota, where the Detroit Lions lost again away from home, 24-14, inching closer to the league record for most consecutive road defeats, 23. The Lions are at 22, with two road games left: at Kansas City and at Carolina.

Almost there.