Is It Me or is NE Being Underestimated?

MossWelkowski · Jan 6, 2015

It seems like every channel is saying ... Watch out for the Ravens. Ravens own patriots. Blah blah blah...

This is going to focus pats even more I bet.

voluntarysaftey · Jan 6, 2015

The Patriots have shown a weakness over the past 8 years against teams that can generate a good pass rush without blitzing. The Ravens are capable of that, so they have a better shot at winning than I would say a 'well rounded' team like Indy or Pittsburgh would've.
Hopefully our improved secondary can turn Flacco's tendency to just chuck it up in the air and hope it gets caught into a negative if McCourty and Revis are better able to intercept those balls than most teams.

And the Ravens have shown historically they're able to play the Patriots well at home. So I'm slightly nervous -- I wouldn't be surprised if the Ravens won by 3 points; or if the Patriots won by 30 points.

Brady_to_Moss · Jan 6, 2015

So many people are just going purely on the fact they have beaten us here before in the playoffs. Which is a stupid way to go about it.

New England Pride · Jan 6, 2015

I'll be shocked if Baltimore scores more than 17. I hope the offense has a 30 burger in the tank, but I honestly think 20-21 should do it.

MossWelkowski · Jan 6, 2015

Brady_to_Moss said:
So many people are just going purely on the fact they have beaten us here before in the playoffs. Which is a stupid way to go about it.

I've just never seen this before... I have a different feel about this game that it's going to be a patriots blowout.

mcmurtry86 · Jan 6, 2015

Brady_to_Moss said:
So many people are just going purely on the fact they have beaten us here before in the playoffs. Which is a stupid way to go about it.

You sure those people aren't going "purely" on Baltimore's biggest strength (front 7) is matched up against the Pats' biggest weakness (the OL)?

The Ravens are a great passrushing and run stopping team. They have exactly the type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). I don't think that's "stupid". The fact that the Ravens have beaten the Pats (recently) in the playoffs is relevant only insofar as those same matchup problems exist. If Brady is harassed, the Pats will struggle to score points. Anyone who pooh-poohs that notion is living in a fantasy world.

MossWelkowski · Jan 6, 2015

mcmurtry86 said:
You sure those people aren't going "purely" on Baltimore's biggest strength (front 7) is matched up against the Pats' biggest weakness (the OL)?

The Ravens are a great passrushing and run stopping team. They have exactly the type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). I don't think that's "stupid". The fact that the Ravens have beaten the Pats (recently) in the playoffs is relevant only insofar as those same matchup problems exist. If Brady is harassed, the Pats will struggle to score points. Anyone who pooh-poohs that notion is living in a fantasy world.

The patriots have been beat like that too many times in the regular season and playoffs to lose like that again. I fully believe they did not show anything versus the jets because of potential playoff matchups.

The media is playing like this is a Baltimore win and they are going to eat this up in the pats locker room

ausbacker · Jan 6, 2015

I think we should ignore the form of the Patriots this season and only reference past match ups against the Ravens. It's not like the Patriots have a healthy Gronk and a defense this season...

TBR · Jan 6, 2015

mcmurtry86 said:
You sure those people aren't going "purely" on Baltimore's biggest strength (front 7) is matched up against the Pats' biggest weakness (the OL)?

The Ravens are a great passrushing and run stopping team. They have exactly the type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). I don't think that's "stupid". The fact that the Ravens have beaten the Pats (recently) in the playoffs is relevant only insofar as those same matchup problems exist. If Brady is harassed, the Pats will struggle to score points. Anyone who pooh-poohs that notion is living in a fantasy world.

Beat us "recently" in the playoffs? What's more recent is the fact they no longer have Ray Lewis and Ed Reed on their team (2 future Hall Of Famers) and we have Gronkowski and Revis this time (2 future Hall Of Famers). Our defense as a whole is also 100x better than it was in any of those previous 3 games.

MossWelkowski · Jan 6, 2015

This game Isn't about brady.. Go look at the 41-7 game. Brady was only 14-26 for 170 and 1 TD..

This is about forcing TOs and pats defense ..

Blount also ran for 76 and 2 TDs in that game

KamikazeKnight · Jan 6, 2015

Like I said in another thread, the chicken littles are just morons spouting their knee-jerk reactions to the big scary Ravens. In reality the most recent sample we have shows NE dominating Baltimore in their own stadium, and that was without our upgraded defense.

wolverinejoe80 · Jan 6, 2015

we are going to show the country why we are the best team in the NFL. we are going to put on a show. just watch.

SHOWTIME15 · Jan 6, 2015

Some of you need to re-watch the last time the pats and ravens played in the playoffs - 2012 AFCCG. The pats did well the first half. However, they made stupid mistakes. With 30 secs to go in the first half, hernandez catches the ball for a first down and inexplicably does not go out of bounds to stop the clock. Pats burn their second timeout and are later forced to kick a field goal. They should have been up 17-7 at the half. For the most part they were able to move the ball fairly easily the first half against a defense better than the current group. Defensively, the pats did a good job on the ravens offense. Then talib went down early in the first quarter with a hamstring pull. Flacco then started to exploit the arrington on torey smith match up in the second half. This ravens team is not as good as the 2012 team.

MossWelkowski · Jan 6, 2015

TommyBrady12 said:
Some of you need to re-watch the last time the pats and ravens played in the playoffs - 2012 AFCCG. The pats did well the first half. However, they made stupid mistakes. With 30 secs to go in the first half, hernandez catches the bsll for a first down and inexplicably does not go out of bounds to stop the clock. Pats burn their second timeout and arw later forced to kick a fild goal. They should have been up 17-7 at the half. For the most part they were able to move the ball fairly easily the first half against a defense better than the current group. Defensively, the pats did a good job on the ravens offense. Then talib went down early in the first quarter with a hamstring pull. Flacco then started to exploit the arrington on torey smith match up In the second half. This ravens team is not as good as the 2012 team.

Nice memory.. I'm hoping that game is on NFL rewind this week

I am so effing amped for the game.. Gillette is going to be rocking ..

And I'll be there..

MossWelkowski · Jan 6, 2015

I like that baltimore is trying to play the underdog game and they can't due to everyone saying.. Ravens own pats in playoffs

Ozymandias · Jan 6, 2015

mcmurtry86 said:
The Ravens are a great passrushing and run stopping team. They have exactly the type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best).

The rhetoric was...

Before Week 5: The Bengals had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 43 - Bengals 17. Oh...

Before Week 6: The Bills had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 37 - Bills 22. Oh...

Before Week 7: The Jets had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 27 - Jets 25.

Before Week 9: The Broncos had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 43 - Broncos 21. Oh...

Before Week 12: The Lions had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 34 - Lions 9. Oh...

Before Week 15: The Dolphins had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 41 - Dolphins 13. Oh...

Those were teams with defensive fronts as good as Baltimore's if not better that were supposed to make Brady look pedestrian at best, as you say, only to lose by an average of 37.5 to 17.8. If all these vaunted defensive lines are being beaten by almost 3 scores on average, clearly then beating the Patriots in terms of totality isn't all about just pressuring Brady. There are other phases to the game too, and as it stands the Patriots have a decisive advantage to the Ravens in all those areas, because if having a strong defensive front that could make Brady look "pedestrian" was all it took to beat New England, then those other six teams wouldn't have been blown out the way they were.

Baltimore hasn't played a defense this fast and physical all season. Using past ghosts from year's past as a barometer for this game is a faulty line of thinking.

JMC00 · Jan 6, 2015

mcmurtry86 said:
You sure those people aren't going "purely" on Baltimore's biggest strength (front 7) is matched up against the Pats' biggest weakness (the OL)?

The Ravens are a great passrushing and run stopping team. They have exactly the type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). I don't think that's "stupid". The fact that the Ravens have beaten the Pats (recently) in the playoffs is relevant only insofar as those same matchup problems exist. If Brady is harassed, the Pats will struggle to score points. Anyone who pooh-poohs that notion is living in a fantasy world.

So are people allowed to reference last year when the Pats won in a rout with the OL of Mankins-Kline-Wendell-Connolly-Cannon against almost the same DL?

Ravens gave up almost the same YPC. In '14 they allowed 3.6 ypc. In '13 allowed 3.8. Pats ran for a 4.2 ypc average in the game.

Sack wise and I know this isn't the be-all indicator in pass rush but they had 9 more sacks than they did last year. So they averaged about a .5 sack more a game.

JMC00 · Jan 6, 2015

Ozymandias said:
Before Week 7: The Jets had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 27 - Jets 25.

Remember that was 27 points in only 19 minutes of possession

supafly · Jan 6, 2015

MossWelkowski said:
I fully believe they did not show anything versus the jets because of potential playoff matchups.

That's just silly...

At the time, they needed to continue winning to even have a shot at the #1 seed (as opposed to going to DEN for the AFCCG), not to mention the fact that the first round bye wasn't even wrapped up yet. They were smack dab in the middle of fighting for the postseason seeding.

The only game that you could argue this would have been in week 17 vs BUF, and that's simply because DEN had lost the week earlier. If not, Belichick would have started most of the players that sat. They play to win the games, simple as that.

To take it one step further, the NYJ have held us within 3 points in 4/5 last games vs. them. C'mon...

JMC00 · Jan 6, 2015

Ozymandias said:
The rhetoric was...

Before Week 5: The Bengals had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 43 - Bengals 17. Oh...

Before Week 6: The Bills had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 37 - Bills 22. Oh...

Before Week 7: The Jets had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 27 - Jets 25.

Before Week 9: The Broncos had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 43 - Broncos 21. Oh...

Before Week 12: The Lions had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 34 - Lions 9. Oh...

Before Week 15: The Dolphins had exactly type of defensive front that has made Brady look pedestrian (at best). Final Score Patriots 41 - Dolphins 13. Oh...

Those were teams with defensive fronts as good as Baltimore's if not better that were supposed to make Brady look pedestrian at best, as you say, only to lose by an average of 37.5 to 17.8. If all these vaunted defensive lines are being beaten by almost 3 scores on average, clearly then beating the Patriots in terms of totality isn't all about just pressuring Brady. There are other phases to the game too, and as it stands the Patriots have a decisive advantage to the Ravens in all those areas, because if having a strong defensive front that could make Brady look "pedestrian" was all it took to beat New England, then those other six teams wouldn't have been blown out the way they were.

Baltimore hasn't played a defense this fast and physical all season. Using past ghosts from year's past as a barometer for this game is a faulty line of thinking.

He will now probably bring up the jests and jills Week 16 and 17 games.

Jests games, yes while the DL played good in the 1st half while Pats were rotating OL guys, their LG was out, as well and Edelman and Blount. In the 2nd half jests DL really only stopped them on their first drive other than that the Pats pretty much moved the ball. TD, FG, 11 play 5 min game ending drive.

As for the Buffalo game- Vollmer, Connolly, Gronk, and Edelman all were out.

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