Baltimore Ravens: CB Josh Wilson's Pick-Six Saves Ravens' Season vs. Texans

In what should’ve been an easier win for the Baltimore Ravens (9-4), their defense once again allowed for a late-game comeback, this time at the hands of the Houston Texans (5-8), who erased a 21-point Baltimore lead to take the game into overtime.

Thankfully, the Ravens defense had the final word.  CB Josh Wilson recorded a pick-six off Texans QB Matt Schaub, propelling Baltimore to victory in one of the wildest Monday Night Football matchups in recent history.

The pick-six by Wilson might have saved the Ravens season Monday night, allowing Baltimore to remain within striking distance of the first place Pittsburgh Steelers (10-3).

The Ravens dominated the Texans for the entire first half of the game.  QB Joe Flacco and the rest of the offense relentlessly attacked Houston’s dreadful pass defense. 

WR Derrick Mason had his way with the woeful secondary, despite dropping what would’ve been an easy touchdown pass at the start of the game.

Although Mason didn’t lead the team in receptions, his 78 yards and two touchdowns helped the Ravens to a 21-0 lead nearing the halfway point in the contest.

RB Willis McGahee was the first player to score points Monday night.  McGahee capped off an eight-play, 52-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run at the beginning of the first quarter.

Baltimore remained in control on defense too, not allowing Houston’s star receiver Andre Johnson to reach pay dirt until the end of the first half.

Johnson scored the only touchdown of the half for the Texans, and the home crowd was visibly unhappy with Houston’s performance on offense.

Boo's would reign down from the stands as both teams headed to the locker rooms after a lopsided first half, which heavily favored the Ravens in almost every statistical category.

Baltimore would start the third quarter with a bang, when rookie and special teams standout David Reed returned the kickoff 103 yards to put the Ravens up 28-7 and in position to run away with the game.

The 103-yard kickoff return by Reed was the longest recorded in Ravens history, and was a welcome sight for every Ravens fan after the poor job Baltimore has done returning kicks all year.

However, things were about to take an all too familiar turn in the wrong direction after Baltimore felt comfortable resting on their 21-point lead in the third quarter.

The Texans, a team notorious for some amazing late-game heroics, quickly turned Baltimore’s commanding lead into a fight to stay alive in the AFC North divisional race—and the playoffs for that matter.

Baltimore was held scoreless on offense during the second half of Monday night’s game, and the same defense that nearly shut out Houston for 30 minutes, started to yield huge chunks of yardage to Schaub and the Texans offense.

In the fourth quarter, Houston scored touchdowns on drives of 99 and 95 yards, leaving the Ravens defense completely gassed and unable to put any kind of pressure on Schaub when it counted most.

Baltimore’s defense couldn’t stop the Texans on third down for the majority of the fourth quarter, and all of a sudden found themselves in a eerily similar scenario—a scenario that led to Baltimore losing four games in which they held the lead with only minutes remaining.

The game-tying score came on an incredible pass from Schaub to Johnson in the back of the end zone with just over 20 seconds to play in regulation.

With the score still favoring Baltimore 28-26, the Texans had to attempt a two-point conversion in order to force the game into overtime and keep their hopes of pulling off an historic upset alive.

Amazingly, Schaub was able to locate Jones for the conversion, and to the horror of head coach John Harbaugh and the Ravens, found themselves in a 28-28 tie going into overtime.

The Ravens won the coin toss, but their offense stalled around midfield and had to punt the ball back to Houston.

After an excellent punt by Sam Koch, the Texans once again found themselves with a long field separating them from a once improbable victory.

The play of the game, and perhaps the Ravens season, came when Schaub dropped back to pass from his own goal line, but instead of finding his tight end, found Josh Wilson, who closed quickly on the pass and turned the play into a pick-six.

The Wilson interception was the signature play that everyone was hoping for from a Ravens defense that has struggled to produce game-changing plays throughout the 2010 season.

For the Ravens, the 34-28 overtime win was essential to their plans of keeping pace with other top teams in the AFC playoff race.

Wilson might not know it yet, but his pick-six Monday night was the biggest play of his career, and more importantly, likely saved the Ravens season.