Geno Stone Joins Baltimore Ravens Elite With Another Interception
When a defender joins the Baltimore Ravens, he goes into the challenge knowing it'll take years, perhaps even decades, for his name to be included among the great tacklers of Charm City history. There is no room for one reason wonders in Baltimore immortality, which includes names like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Rod Woodson.
Geno Smith took the speedy, if not no less difficult, route to inclusion among the secondary legends of Ravens past.
There's no removing Stone from the exclusive purple club he discovered during Sunday's 31-24 victory over the Arizona Cardinals: with an interception in the third quarter, Stone became just the seventh Raven in team history to earn an aerial takeaway in at least three consecutive games.
Reed did it three times, Woodson reached it twice, while Lewis, Duane Starks, and Cary Williams had one occasion each. The all-time record is held by original Raven Eric Turner, who had at least one in five straight games during the inaugural season in 1996.
Through eight games, Stone is the NFL's current leader in interceptions with five
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Stone's latest mastery has caught the eye of the more-renowned Marlon Humphrey who made no secret about where his hypothetical year-end vote would go in the postgame aftermath.
"It's been huge. Geno is getting a pick every week," Humphrey noted, per Ryan Mink of the official Ravens site. "I was talking on the sideline; he's inching into that Defensive Player of the Year (conversation)."
The seventh-round pick from 2020's draft certainly hopes the front office has been paying attention: Stone is due to hit free agency at the end of this ongoing season.
Stone's NFL-leading fifth interception and leap into Ravens history came at a momentum-shifting point on the game's timeline: with Baltimore (6-2) nursing a slim 14-7 lead, the lost Josh Dobbs pass set the offense up at the cusp of the red zone. It took only three plays for Lamar Jackson and Co. to capitalize: a 10-year reception to Isaiah Likely preceded two Gus Edwards rushes, the latter of which was a seven-yard tally that served as the second of his three Sunday touchdowns.
The turnover also allowed the Ravens to gain a bit of a head start in a wildly fluctuating final 17 minutes, which saw points scored on six of the final eight possessions. Stone and the Ravens had recently held Arizona (1-7) in check to the tune of 199 yards through three periods before the late fireworks. Thanks to the prime real estate sold by Stone, Baltimore was able to secure a temporary two-possession lead before things got wild in the desert.
Stone's opportunity to break through to four games lands next Sunday afternoon when the Ravens open a three-game homestand against the Seattle Seahawks (1 p.m. ET, Fox).
