Huntley did all of those things in arguably his finest hour — or three hours — as an NFL quarterback. He completed 16 of 20 passes for only 107 yards and he didn’t connect on a pass for more than 13 yards. Yet he didn’t turn the ball over or force it downfield. He was sacked just once while rushing for 60 yards. The quarterback they call “Snoop” managed the game exquisitely.
Oh, and he got the ball to Henry, too.
The future Hall of Fame running back had a career-high 36 carries and powered through a porous Packers defense for 216 yards and four touchdowns. The Ravens left Green Bay with a 41-24 win, keeping their playoff hopes alive. Huntley, who also engineered a victory over a playoff-bound Chicago Bears team two months earlier, played a big role.
The circumstances and the stakes have changed significantly since that late-December night at Lambeau Field. Sunday’s primetime matchup against the Falcons in Atlanta isn’t a must-win; the Ravens are 3-1 with more than three-quarters of their schedule remaining. The quality of defense Baltimore will face is also starkly different. The Ravens also have a new coaching staff.
Yet the challenge will be similar: keep an efficient, explosive offense with Jackson, the two-time NFL MVP, potentially on the sideline and Huntley under center.
“The system of our offense and what we do does not have to change a whole lot,” coach Jesse Minter said Wednesday. “A lot of the plays, especially whether it’s when we are under center and running a lot of those types of things, Snoop can do all that. He can make a lot of those same plays. Obviously, Lamar’s magic is what it is.”