Originally Posted by ivanvamp

When I think back on the game I think of how the Ravens totally outplayed the Patriots. But in reality, that's not the case at all.

The Patriots outplayed the Ravens thoroughly in the first half. Here were the Pats' drives:

5 plays, 22 yds, 2:12
13 plays, 67 yds, 5:03, FG
6 plays, 24 yds, 2:12
3 plays, 8 yds, 0:48
TOT: 27 plays, 121 yds, 10:15

Here were the Ravens' drives:

3 plays, 6 yds, 1:11
4 plays, 15 yds, 1:21
4 plays, 14 yds, 1:12

And then they had one play at the start of their second drive: a 3-yard run by Rice.

So their total production in the first quarter was 12 plays, 38 yards, and possessed the ball for 4:45.

Dominant first quarter by New England, but you wouldn't know it by the 3-0 score.

Second quarter drives... New England:

11 plays, 76 yds, 5:10, TD
9 plays, 36 yds, 2:32, FG
TOT: 20 plays, 112 yds, 7:42, 10 points

Here were Baltimore's 2nd quarter drives (remember, the first play I counted in the first quarter):

12 plays, 87 yds, 5:32, TD
3 plays, 0 yds, 1:46
TOT: 15 plays, 87 yds, 7:18, 7 points

So in the first half, here was the total production of each team:

New England: 47 plays, 208 yds, 17:57, 13 points
Baltimore: 27 plays, 125 yds, 12:03, 7 points

That's a pretty big advantage for the Patriots across the board. Doubled the Ravens (thereabouts) in every major category: plays, yards, and points. The Patriots were moving the ball, while the Ravens did so on only one possession.

And then we start the third quarter, and it's more of the same for Baltimore:

6 plays, 25 yds, 2:14

Followed by New England's first drive, which wasn't great, but was better than Baltimore's:

7 plays, 33 yds, 2:43

So with 10:03 left in the 3rd quarter, the Patriots had thoroughly outplayed Baltimore for 35 full minutes:

NE: 54 plays, 241 yds, 19:40
Bal: 33 plays, 150 yds, 14:17

Even though the score was 13-7, the Pats were outplaying them for more than that.

Then the tsunami hit. Over the next 13:50, the Ravens owned the Patriots. Here were their drives over that span of time:

Baltimore:
10 plays, 87 yds, 3:49, TD
10 plays, 63 yds, 4:50, TD
4 plays, 47 yds, 1:33, TD
TOT: 24 plays, 197 yds, 10:12, 21 points

New England:
3 plays, 12 yds, 1:28
4 plays, 23 yds, 2:10, fumble
TOT: 7 plays, 35 yds, 3:38, 1 turnover

That was a totally dominant 13:50 by the Ravens. After that, the Patriots actually got things going again. They continually had trouble actually scoring points, but they really started moving the ball once again. Over the last 11:13 of the game, here's what each team produced:

New England: 20 plays, 135 yds, 4:13, 2 turnovers

Baltimore: 15 plays, 23 yds, 6:52

So for 35 minutes plus 11 minutes = 46 minutes, the Patriots outplayed the Ravens (except the 2 TOs, which were huge):

NE: 74 plays, 376 yds, 23:53
Bal: 48 plays, 173 yds, 21:09

So for 3/4 of the game, the Patriots moved the ball at will against Baltimore. They just made a few crucial errors and just could not, for the life of them, get it into the end zone.

And for that other 1/4 of the game, the Ravens completely dominated, and it was in that crucial 14 minute span that they did what they needed to do to win the game.

Originally Posted by AndyJohnson

In a tight game, the Ravens had 3 consecutive TD drives covering a total of 197 yards.
They faced one 3rd down. They ran for 11 yards on 3rd and 2 on it.
You just aren't going to win games if you let a team drive for 3 straight TDS without even putting up a fight.
It would be hard to find 3 consecutive drives of worse defense in any game.

As you illustrate, aside from that (and breakdowns on 3rd and short on offense) we did control the game.