View Photo Gallery — The Texans and the Ravens face each other on during an NFL playoff game in Baltimore.
BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Ravens turned two early gaffes by the Houston Texans into touchdowns Sunday, then rode the play of their defense to earn a trip to New England for the AFC title game.
Two touchdown passes by quarterback Joe Flacco were enough as the Ravens beat the Texans, 20-13, in a conference semifinal here at M&T Bank Stadium. The second-seeded Ravens will face the top-seeded New England Patriots next Sunday with a Super Bowl spot on the line.
(Patrick Semansky/Associated Press) - Ravens free safety Ed Reed intercepts a pass intended for Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson during the second half.
The Ravens raced to a 17-3 lead in the first quarter, converting a pair of Texans’ turnovers into Flacco’s two touchdown passes. That was it for the Ravens’ offensive production until kicker Billy Cundiff connected on a 44-yard field goal with just less than three minutes to play.
But that was all the Ravens needed because the third-seeded Texans could manage only tailback Arian Foster’s second-quarter touchdown run and a pair of field goals. Houston quarterback T.J. Yates threw three interceptions, two to Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb.
The Texans, seeking a tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter, drove to the Baltimore 38-yard line. But on the first play after the two-minute warning, Yates’s deep throw, intended for wide receiver Andre Johnson, was intercepted by Ravens safety Ed Reed. It was the Texans’ fourth turnover of the game.
The Texans had one more possession, which began at their 48-yard line, in the final minute, but Yates threw a fourth-down incompletion on a desperation pass toward the end zone with 11 seconds left. Reed was helped off the field by members of the Ravens’ medical staff after he was hurt on that play. The extent of his injury was not immediately clear.
The Ravens were playing their first home playoff game since a January 2007 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Their last seven postseason games had been played on the road. They last had won a home playoff game on Dec. 31, 2000.
This was a rematch of a regular season game won here in October by the Ravens. That was two starting quarterbacks ago for the Texans, who lost starter Matt Schaub and top backup Matt Leinart to season-ending injuries and went with rookie third-stringer Yates as their fill-in starter. The Texans lost their final three regular season games but rebounded to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the first playoff game in franchise history.
This was the team’s first-ever road playoff game, and the Texans got off to a promising start when Danieal Manning returned the opening kickoff 60 yards. That set up kicker Neil Rackers’s 40-yard field goal to open the scoring.
The Texans turned generous from there, helping the Ravens to a pair of first-quarter touchdowns with turnovers. With the Ravens’ Cary Williams closing in on him, Houston’s Jacoby Jones tried to field a punt after the ball bounced once off the turf. Jones fumbled the ball and the Ravens’ Jimmy Smith made the recovery at the Houston 2-yard line. That led to Flacco’s one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kris Wilson on third down.
The Ravens managed to get a 48-yard field goal by Cundiff without assistance from the Texans. But then Yates threw a pass, intended for Johnson, directly to Webb for his first interception of the day. That gave the Ravens possession at the Houston 34-yard line, and they cashed in with Flacco’s 10-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Anquan Boldin.
The Texans got back into the game in the second quarter behind Foster, who had 95 first-half rushing yards. Rackers’s 33-yard field goal narrowed the deficit to 17-6, and a touchdown drive led by Foster pulled the Texans to within 17-13. Foster scored the touchdown on a one-yard run, shortly after making a one-handed catch on a screen pass for a 12-yard gain and a first down at the Baltimore 5-yard line.
Rackers missed a 50-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter, with the ball deflecting off the crossbar. The Ravens got an acrobatic catch by wide receiver Lee Evans for a 30-yard gain on their way to a first down at the Houston 9. Coach John Harbaugh left his offense on the field for a fourth-down gamble from inside the 1-yard line, but tailback Ray Rice was stopped short of the goal line by Texans linebacker Tim Dobbins.
The Baltimore defense forced a punt and the Ravens got the ball back in Houston territory, but went nowhere on offense. The Texans weren’t faring any better though, and Yates threw his second interception to Webb midway through the fourth quarter.
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