Ravens star pass rusher Terrell Suggs, at age 35, is still dominating

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

The guy who made the biggest play on Monday night was a 35-year-old pass rusher who probably should have been done a few years ago.

The Baltimore Ravens are lucky Terrell Suggs is ageless. With the Ravens offense struggling again and the team clinging to a 20-16 lead in the final few minutes, Suggs exploded off the edge and strip-sacked Houston Texans quarterback Tom Savage. The Ravens recovered with 4:44 left, and that was the most important play in an important Baltimore 23-16 win. Savage threw an interception later to seal it. The Ravens are 6-5 and right in the AFC wild-card mix.

Suggs missed almost all of the 2015 season with a torn Achilles. That’s a tough injury for any pass rusher to come back from, much less one who is 33 years old. He indicated at the end of that season that he’d come back for 2016 because he didn’t want his career to end on an injury like that.

Two seasons later Suggs is still going strong, and he told ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast team he had no plans to retire. Why would he?

When Suggs spoke with ESPN after the game he said he didn’t think he’d lost a step, though his critics probably did.

“What fun would it be if you didn’t get to prove your doubters wrong?” Suggs said on ESPN.

Suggs’ strip-sack was his fourth this season. He had two sacks this season, bringing his season total to nine-and-a-half. It was his 26th career multi-sack game. He has 124 sacks in his career, is a six-time Pro Bowler and a former NFL defensive player of the year. While former teammates Ray Lewis and Ed Reed sometimes overshadowed Suggs on those great Ravens defenses, Suggs is in the same class. All three will likely end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday.

The Ravens are getting by on defense this season, and Suggs is one of the key parts of it. He has 17.5 sacks the past two seasons, at age 34 and 35 after what could have been a career-ending Achilles injury. He shouldn’t still be playing at this level so late in his career, but you wouldn’t have known it on Monday night.

Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs is still going strong at age 35. (AP)
Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs is still going strong at age 35. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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