THE MILE HIGH MIRACLE - TEN YEARS AGO
Baltimore Ravens vs. Denver Broncos
Jan. 12, 2013: AFC Divisional Playoffs
Every football fan asks the same question to every other fan out there: "What is your favorite game, or the best game you have ever seen?" Some might say recent bouts in this decade such as Chiefs vs Bills 2022 AFC Divisional Match or Bengals vs Chiefs in the 2022 AFC Championship. Others might say the classics such as "The Catch", “Epic in Miami” or "The Ice Bowl". But if you were to ask me, only one game comes to mind. A game that is glorious in spectacle, and most of all, in story-lines, stakes and television drama. That game is known as "The Mile High Miracle".
Given context of the Ravens heading into the 2012 playoffs, this was a team that went through so much not just in the playoffs for four consecutive years (I'm looking at you, Billy Cundiff) but in coaching adjustments (getting Jim Caldwell instead of Cam Cameron halfway through the season) and in real life as receiver Torrey Smith's younger brother died of a motorcycle accident, leaving Torrey himself to play his heart out in Week 3 against the Patriots and winning 31-30.
This trip to the playoffs was an all or nothing scenario for the Ravens. Legendary Linebacker and the heart of the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Lewis declared this run to be his "last ride" after suffering a season ending injury, Ed Reed reached the end of the road as a Ravens safety, and quarterback Joe Flacco had entered his fifth playoff season betting his entire contract on the line and was still criticized by sports journalism outlets like ESPN that he couldn't win the big thing, that the defense was the only thing carrying the team.
For the Broncos, After Tebowmania became a fluke, the organization was still in search of a quarterback to bring this team back to the playoffs. And what quarterback to recruit in your roster other than Super Bowl MVP and Four Time NFL MVP, Peyton Manning? Not many people believed that Manning would become the same after his neck injury in 2011, but man, did Peyton prove them wrong. Manning put up a comeback performance to end all comebacks, putting the Broncos at the No. 1 seed in the AFC with offensive firepower, and future hall-of-famers like Champ Bailey and Von Miller backing the second best defense in the league.
Going into this game, the Ravens meeting the Broncos wasn't their first as Peyton Manning's Broncos in Week 15 had clobbered the Ravens, 34-17, with one of the scores being a pick six (keep this in mind). Before the game started, the Broncos were labeled as a nine point favorite, and every other state in the U.S. (aside from Maryland) voted for them to ride off into the Superbowl sunset, and Ray Lewis to give his goodbye in Denver. The Ravens were the huge underdog.
Then the game began.
I've said this before in my list of my Top Ten Favorite NFL Playoff Games, and I'll say it again: when you hear people say "this game had everything", it's usually a hyperbole. But in this game, in no ways being facetious, THIS GAME HAD EVERYTHING. Trindon Holliday's kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns, Joe Flacco throwing bombs scorching the defense with two touchdowns to Torrey Smith, Peyton Manning proving again to be The Sheriff one touchdown at a time, each defense delivering blows on defense from the Broncos recovering a fumble, to the Ravens defense scoring on a pick six against Peyton Manning (ah, poetic irony).
Then...It's 3rd & 3. 0:43 seconds to go. Ravens, no timeouts. Denver, on it's feet cheering about to celebrate. Me? Tearing uncontrollably while watching the TV while still having hope for them.
And then, Greg Gumbel's commentary said the following, and I still remember it like it was yesterday:
"Flacco stepping up and throwing deep down the far sideline.....CAUGHT!!! Into the endzone! Touchdown, Jacoby Jones!"
Joe Flacco hurls the prettiest pass you can ever see and Jacoby Jones, after dropping a pass on 3rd down and muffing a kick off, catches the pass beating Rahim Moore and runs in for a TD to tie the game at 35. Seeing that moment gave me an out of body experience and I still get emotional even typing this. An absolute miracle and a play remembered as the greatest play in Ravens franchise history and one of the greatest plays of the 2010s known as either "The Flacco Fling", "The Rocky Mountain Rainbow" or what we all know today as "The Mile High Miracle".
The game came into double OT and after each team fought each other with everything they got, the Ravens cornerback, Corey Graham picked off Peyton Manning giving the Ravens a chance to kick the field goal and win. And once reaching field goal range, a rookie, and future hall-of-famer Justin Tucker, kicks the field goal to win 38-35 in 2OT.
As a Ravens fan, watching this game single-handedly gave me this most emotional experience of anything in media. I've never seen something so balanced and so amazing in my life, and it saddens me that no one talks much about this game as one of the greatest games in history.
This is football magic at its apex. A match where titans clash and legends are born. This will remain forever and all time one of the greatest games I have ever seen and my favorite football game of all time. What a time to be a Ravens fan.
