Josh Wilson returned an interception 12 yards for a touchdown in overtime to give the Baltimore Ravens a wild 34-28 victory over the host Houston Texans on Monday night.
The interception of Matt Schaub by Wilson redeemed Baltimore's defense, which allowed Houston to score fourth-quarter touchdowns on drives of 99 and 95 yards to force overtime.
Joe Flacco threw two touchdown passes to Derrick Mason and David Reed returned a kickoff 103 yards for the Ravens (9-4), who remained one game behind Pittsburgh in the AFC North.
Baltimore also moved into a tie with the New York Jets for the wild card lead, although it holds the tiebreaker.
Schaub threw for 393 yards and three touchdowns, the final one to Andre Johnson with 21 seconds left in regulation, but the interception on his 62nd throw of the game all but buried the playoff hopes of Houston (5-8).
Mason had six receptions for 78 yards and two scores while Flacco finished 22 of 33 for 235 yards for the Ravens.
Reed's kick return to open the second half gave Baltimore a seemingly commanding 28-7 lead, but the Texans scored on all four of their second-half possessions.
Schaub capped a 99-yard drive with a 7-yard scoring pass to Jacoby Jones with 6:00 left that pulled Houston within 28-20.
Houston then went 95 yards for the tying score, with Schaub hitting Johnson in the back of the end zone for the TD and a leaping Jones for the 2-point conversion.
Johnson had nine catches for 140 yards and two TDs and Arian Foster rushed for 100 yards on 20 carries.
The Ravens, taking advantage of great field position throughout the first half, jumped out to a 21-0 second-quarter lead.
Willis McGahee's 1-yard burst was the only touchdown of the opener quarter before Flacco connected with Mason on scoring strikes of 9 and 26 yards to finish off short touchdowns drives.
The Texans finally got on the board when Schaub drove them 80 yards in 55 seconds, capping it with a 46-yard strike to Johnson to bring Houston with 42 ticks left in the half.
Baltimore | Houston | |
Ray Rice | Player | Arian Foster |
19 | Attempts | 20 |
54 | Yards | 100 |
2.8 | Avg Yards | 5.0 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
16 | Long | 16 |
Baltimore | Houston | |
Derrick Mason | Player | Andre Johnson |
6 | Receptions | 9 |
78 | Yards | 140 |
13.0 | Avg Yards | 15.6 |
2 | Touchdowns | 2 |
26 | Long | 46 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Baltimore | 253 | 63 | 190 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2.0 | 1 |
Houston | 489 | 111 | 378 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5.0 | 1 |