Facing Familiar Foes

The Baltimore Ravens overcame a 24-3 second-quarter deficit and pulled out a 30-27 victory over the Arizona Cardinals at M&T Stadium on Sunday. The Ravens’ 21-point comeback win was the largest in franchise history. Baltimore wide receiver Anquan Boldin played a pivotal role in his team’s victory over his former club.

Boldin recorded 7,520 receiving yards on 586 receptions in seven seasons with the Cardinals. Yesterday, however, in his first outing against his former team he led the Ravens with seven catches for 145 yards.  Boldin’s receiving yardage is the most in NFL history for a player facing his former team for which he had at least 7,500 receiving yards.

From a Hall of Famers Perspective

Only three Hall of Fame receivers, Lance Alworth, James Lofton and Jerry Rice, gained more than 7,500 receiving yards with a franchise and then faced that team later in their career. Alworth had one catch for 8 yards when he played the Chargers for the first time after leaving San Diego. Lofton, as a member of Los Angeles Raiders, mustered a pair of catches for 32 yards against his former team, the Green Bay Packers.

Jerry Rice, who spent 16 of his 20 NFL seasons with San Francisco, first faced the 49ers as a member of the Oakland Raiders in a game played on Nov. 3, 2002.  Rice logged six receptions for 74 yards against his former team that day. Two of his receptions for 14 yards came on Oakland’s final drive to help set up a game-tying touchdown with just over six minutes remaining to send the game into overtime. San Francisco eventually pulled out the 23-20 victory in OT.

But, Rice got the last laugh when the Raiders won the AFC title that year and he advanced to his fourth Super Bowl appearance.