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It only took 10 games, but the Ravens finally got a big play out of their return unit.
They might also have found their long-term kickoff returner in the process.
Rookie David Reed, getting the kick return duties for the third straight game, started the second half with a bang, taking the opening kickoff 84 yards all the way to the Carolina 18-yard line.
The return directly resulted in three points after Billy Cundiff booted through a 33-yard field goal four plays later.
Reed told me earlier in the week that he felt he was getting close to breaking a long return, and promised a big play would happen "sooner or later".
He wasn't lying.
The Ravens' previous season-long on a kickoff return was 39 yards. Reed more than doubled that, and averaged 45 yards overall on his three run-backs.
Special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg loves Reed's work ethic and his spirit in practice, and the rookie out of Utah will continue to be Baltimore's kick returner as long as he keeps running hard, taking the play vertical, and protecting the football high and tight.
In the punt return aspect, Lardarius Webb was solid this afternoon in Carolina, averaging a modest, yet acceptable, 8.2 yards on five returns.
The second-year cornerback bounced back from a rough game against the Falcons last week, in which he fumbled the ball away on one return. He did a much better job today getting his second hand on the ball when he felt contact coming, something which was emphasized heavily in practices this week.
While Webb didn't break a long return as Reed did (Webb's long on the day was 11 yards), he just appeared more comfortable with the ball in his hands than in weeks past.
As a result, Webb might not be too far away from breaking a big return of his own.
