"Joe Flacco kept his eyes locked upfield, surveyed his options and saw a powder-blue wall of resistance standing between the Baltimore Ravens and survival. In what looked more like an act of resignation than realistic aerial attack, Flacco flipped a short pass to halfback Ray Rice at the Ravens' 39-yard line — two yards past the line of scrimmage, and more than a quarter of a football field away from a seemingly futile first down.

Then, football's equivalent of a massive seismic event occurred: Rice eluded three Chargers defenders, fought through a collision with another who'd been involuntarily launched, and lunged forward while being dragged down by two tacklers. He ended up just past the first-down marker, and a team that's been defying logic all season had just given the NFL another unlikely jolt. After surviving an excruciating replay reversal that left them inches from defeat, the Ravens parlayed their unlikely fourth-and-29 conversion into a game-tying field goal on the final play of regulation and emerged with a 16-13 overtime victory Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium.