BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Ravens want one long final ride for Ray Lewis.
Having disposed of Andrew Luck and the Colts, they now face a more imposing challenge.
Next up, Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.
Anquan Boldin set a franchise single-game playoff record with 145 yards receiving, including the clinching touchdown in the Ravens’ 24-9 victory Sunday over Indianapolis in an AFC wild-card game. The victory delays star linebacker Lewis’ retirement for at least another week as Baltimore (11-6) heads to top seeded Denver (13-3) next Saturday.
The Broncos beat the Ravens 34-17 three weeks ago.
“I wanted Denver,” Boldin said, “because they beat us. We’ll make it different.”
He also wanted the Broncos because it prolongs the Ravens’ pursuit of their first NFL title since the 2000 season, when Lewis won the first of two Defensive Player of the Year awards.
“I came to Baltimore to win a championship,” Boldin said. “We all did.”
Lewis, who made 13 tackles Sunday, ended his last home game in Baltimore at fullback, of all things, for the final kneel down. He then went into a short version of his trademark dance before being mobbed by teammates.
He followed with a victory lap, his right arm, covered by a brace, held high in salute to the fans after playing for the first time since tearing his right triceps on Oct. 14 against Dallas.
The loss ended the Colts’ turnaround season in which they went from 2-14 to the playoffs in coach Chuck Pagano’s first year in Indianapolis (11-6). Pagano missed 12 weeks while undergoing treatment for leukemia and returned last week.
He was upbeat after losing to a team he served as an assistant coach for four years.
“The foundation is set, and we said we were going to build one on rock and not on sand,” Pagano said. “You weather storms like this and you learn from times like this.”
Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, who went 9-3 as interim coach, was absent Sunday after being hospitalized with an undisclosed illness. Pagano said Arians “is fine” and would stay overnight for observation before rejoining the Colts today.
Quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen called the plays, but Baltimore’s suddenly revitalized defense - inspired by Lewis - never let rookie quarterback Luck get comfortable.
“It’s great making the playoffs, but you can’t make mistakes and expect to beat a playoff team like we did,” said Luck, who was sacked three times, Paul Kruger getting 2 1/2 of those. “We’ll have to look back at those and hopefully fix them.” Flacco has won at least one postseason game in all five of his pro seasons, the only quarterback to do it in the Super Bowl era. His main target Sunday was Boldin, who had receptions of 50 and 46 yards, plus his 18-yard TD on a floater from Flacco in the corner of the end zone with 9:14 to go.
“I told him [Flacco] before the game I was going to get 200 yards,” Boldin said, with a laugh. “It’s huge for us. It’s huge for this city, they’ve supported us this entire year and they expect a lot from us. In return, we want to give it to them.”
Baltimore overcame the first two lost fumbles of the season by Ray Rice, too, as John Harbaugh became the only head coach in the Super Bowl era with at least one victory in each of his first five seasons.
Backup halfback Bernard Pierce rescued Rice with a 43-yard burst that led to Boldin’s touchdown, and ran for 103 yards.
Flacco also connected with Dennis Pitta for a 20-yard TD and rookie Justin Tucker made a 23-yard field goal.
The Colts’ only points came on three field goals by Adam Vinatieri, from 47, 52 and 26 yards. Luck completed 28 of 54 passes for 288 yards. It was the most attempts by a rookie in a playoff game.
Reggie Wayne had 114 yards on 9 receptions and moved into second in career playoff catches with 92 - 59 behind leader Jerry Rice. But the Colts, who moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984, became the second NFL team to improve to 11 victories after a two-victory season and then lose in the opening round of the playoffs.
Sports, Pages 13 on 01/07/2013