Ravens wanted Zay Flowers to go down after the first down, if nothing other than to spare them from the TD celebrations

Monken, and others, were wanting rookie Zay Flowers to go down after the first-down run to ice the game

As rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers slashed through the Los Angeles Chargers defense late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, teammates wanted him to get down. His first-down run officially iced the game and every Raven wanted to get out of Inglewood, California, with a win and head to their bye week.

“We were a little salty about that — the defense — but I’m glad he got in the [end zone],” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “We were ready to unstrap the pads, but I’m glad he scored a touchdown. That’s cool.”

Instead, Flowers sprinted for the 37-yard touchdown and went forward with his second touchdown celebration of the night, imitating Cristiano Ronaldo’s “SUI” celebration.

Like Lamar Jackson wasn’t a fan of Flowers’ first touchdown celebration, calling it “ass,” Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken wanted to be spared the second one.

“That would’ve ended the game right there. Then we wouldn’t have had to see another silly touchdown celebration by Zay,” Monken said. “That would’ve saved us all from that.”

Monken was then asked about the time the players spend choreographing their celebrations, which he ribbed about.

“It’s really sad, isn’t it? You would think that — and Odell [Beckham Jr.] was like the first guy in the end zone. I didn’t know he had that much juice. He’d been out half the week and of course he found enough energy to choreograph the end zone celebrations.”

It wasn’t without reprieve as Monken did say it’s good the players have fun, it’s just not on his time.

“But I think it’s great,” Monken said. “It’s fun. Guys having fun. [The celebrations] shows their personalities. I’m certainly not involved. Some things we did certainly weren’t as choreographed as those, so we have our work cut out for us trying to choreograph our offense.

After Monken left the press conference I asked Defensive Coordinator Mike Macdonald about his views on touchdown celebrations. He, like the rest of his defense, didn’t care for the second, wanting to get out of the West Coast with a victory.

“I was hoping there was just one of them yesterday,” Macdonald said with a grin. “The second one, I don’t know if it was necessary or not.”