The Baltimore Ravens had a lot to celebrate on Saturday, when they clinched their second straight AFC North title. But they had another big moment to celebrate before that.
Late in their 35-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns, 355-pound defensive tackle Michael Pierce put the game away with his first career NFL pick as the crowd erupted at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
His bench also went absolutely wild, mobbing Pierce on the sideline after the interception off of Browns backup quarterback Bailey Zappe, as shown in a mic’d up video shared by the Ravens.
MVP candidate Lamar Jackson even jumped off the bench in excitement and made his way over to Pierce. The quarterback could be heard on the “Ravens Wired” feed giving the big man his flowers.
“You snapped, Cuz. Sacking quarterbacks … catching picks,” Jackson exclaimed with pride as he hugged Pierce.
But one teammate had to give the nose tackle a little bit of a hard time for sliding down after making the pick, instead of going for the beloved “big man” run fans have come to love.
“You ran out of gas after, like, 3 yards,” kicker Justin Tucker told him. (Technically, Pierce gained 6 yards on the return.)
While many defensive players would seize the opportunity to head toward the end zone to try and score after intercepting a pass, Pierce had two very realistic reasons for his decision to just go down to the turf.
One, he didn’t want to become a meme. And, two, “the bus was out of gas.”
The 32-year-old veteran told reporters after the game, “There’s a long history of turning big-guy interceptions and fumbles and all that stuff into memes,” Pierce said.
“At the risk of ruining a career play like that for myself, it’s time to go home. So, the bus was out of gas. We’re good.”
Pierce went undrafted out of Samford College, where he played from 2013-2015. He signed with the Ravens in 2016, spending four years with the team before heading to the Vikings.
The DT returned to the Ravens in 2022 and has a career 238 total tackles with 9.5 sacks — and now, an interception, too.
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