BALTIMORE — As game time approached for yesterday’s wild-card matchup between the Ravens and Colts at M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore receiver Anquan Boldin approached his quarterback, Joe Flacco, and quietly delivered a message.
“I went up to him before the game and told him I felt like 200 yards today,’’ Boldin said. “I don’t know if he thought I was joking, but he gave me a shot in the second half.’’
Did he ever.
Boldin was targeted just twice by Flacco in the first half and did not have a single catch.
By the time the Ravens had beaten the Colts 24-9 however, Boldin had five catches for 145 yards and a touchdown, setting a franchise record for most receiving yards in a postseason game. All five times Boldin was targeted in the second half he caught the pass, including two deep Flacco heaves of 50 and 46 yards in the third quarter.
The 50-yarder was a wing-and-a-prayer fling by Flacco on third-and-19 from the Baltimore 9-yard line and Boldin simply outworked Colts cornerback Cassius Vaughn, who was called for pass interference, for the ball.
The 46-yarder came on the next Baltimore possession (he again beat Vaughn) and it set up a 20-yard Flacco touchdown pass to Dennis Pitta three plays later to give the Ravens a 17-6 third-quarter lead.
Boldin capped the Ravens scoring with an 18-yard touchdown catch with 9:14 remaining in the game.
“We wanted to show [the Colts] a couple of looks and see what we got early,’’ Boldin said. “We kind of wanted to hold some things back until the second half. We got the looks we thought we were going to get. The second half we made adjustments and opened it up a little bit.’’
Flacco said the Colts were playing tight coverage early in the game and the Ravens were able to loosen that up in the second half by completing a few long passes.
“They were kind of sitting on us early,’’ Flacco said. “In the second half, we definitely put a little emphasis on stretching the field a little bit, and that started with Anquan. We realized we had to take a couple shots down the field.’’
It was nothing new, but it worked.
“That’s the same thing [Boldin has] been doing his whole career,’’ Colts head coach Chuck Pagano said. “He’s a playmaker. He’s deceptively fast and got behind us on some double moves and he made some great plays down the field. He’s got great ability, great hands and he’s tough as heck to defend.
“We knew that going in. He had a big day. Our guys were right there in certain spots and he made the plays and we weren’t able to. Credit Anquan. He’s been doing that for a long time.’’