There's a flip side to Reed's talents

Is it possible for Ed Reed to have the ball in his hands without lateraling it?

Recent evidence suggests that it isn't. Reed caused the hearts of the Ravens coaching staff to skip a beat Sunday against the New England Patriots when he intercepted Tom Brady's pass, then flipped the ball to Dawan Landry as he was being tackled in the first quarter. That lateral was beneficial to the Ravens, with Landry advancing it nearly 20 yards. But tonight's playoff opponents, the Indianapolis Colts, call to mind Reed's worst lateral of the season, when he fumbled on a punt return with 17 seconds left and the Ravens trailing 17-15.

Reed's penchant for trying to turn a good play into a great play puts the Ravens coaches in a bit of an awkward position. You have to take the Good Reed with the Bad Reed.

"We encourage our guys to make good decisions, and good decisions are usually judged by the result," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "When it turns out to be a good decision, you can easily see why after the fact. My first thought, I'm going to be honest with you, when he was running up the sideline, is not to do it. My first thought is secure the football. But he had a situation that we do practice where he had Dawan in great position. He had control of the ball - nobody was near the ball - and he had free access to get it to Dawan. So he made a good decision, and it worked out."

Reed wasn't thrilled when his unsuccessful lateral against the Colts came up again this week. He said he had no regrets.

"I would never change my game regardless of any play," Reed said. "If I feel like it's there, I'm going to go with it. It's not about being successful or unsuccessful. It's about winning, and at the end of the day, there was 17 seconds left on the clock. We had 59 minutes and something seconds to win the game with many other plays. So one play didn't make the game. Yeah, it probably would have gave us a chance, but what chance are you going to do on a great defense with 17 seconds left and no timeouts?"

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(baltimoresun.com)