In most victories in the NFL, you can usually point to a specific play in the game when the tide turned to a point that the outcome was secured. That play either won the game for one team and lost it, depending on which sideline you were standing on or rooting for. When the Baltimore Ravens beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in week one of the 2011 regular season, there was perhaps that point in the third or early fourth quarter when you could say, "it was over when..."
However, when the Ravens finally had the game in hand in this past Sunday night's 23-20 victory, the game had a mere eight seconds left on the clock. At no point prior to that moment could you have definitively said that the game was either won or lost. Of course, a lot of people might have prematurely said that when the Steelers took the lead with a few minutes left, the game was essentially over, as no one, or very few would have expected what happened next.
By now you know the story, one that is only a few days old but is fast becoming legendary already. In two minutes, the lead changed hands one final time when QB Joe Flacco threw one more time to the rookie wide receiver who had dropped all too many balls during the first 59+ minutes, including a sure TD only a couple of plays earlier. Torrey Smith hauled in his 26-yard TD pass with only the formality of a few seconds more to run off the clock and no miracle to be had for the Pittsburgh faithful.
Then, and only then, "it was over."