Since you hit on all my major takeaways from the game, I'll just add my $0.02:
1. I think both roughing penalties against the Ravens have to be called. Neither seemed flagrant, dirty or with intent to harm to me. In part, both were caused by the terrific speed at which the game was played. But under NFL rules, a forearm to the face/head of the QB has to be called every time. And the Suggs play was clearly at Brady's legs, the kind of play that could very easily have resulted in an injury, intentional or not. I certainly did not see any flagrant difference in the way the refs called the game between the two teams.
Agree and the people who suggest otherwise need to think about what the NFL would be like without the top QBs playing. Imagine Cleveland playing Tampa being the only game on TV every week. Nobody would watch and no eyeballs translates into fewer digits on Ray Ray's paycheck.
And the lack of common sense just kills me. Brady gets whacked in the knee and misses the season. The league thinks this is a bad thing so creates a rule to keep players off the knees of QBs. If you hit a QB in the knee and don't expect a penalty, you are foolish. If you hit Brady in the knee and don't expect a penalty, you are a moron.
2. I was impressed again by the overall speed and intensity on both sides. Two very good teams. If the Ravens just shut up and played they'd be a lot better. Flacco and Rice are the real deal.
Agree, but Flacco needs to improve his decision making a bit before the playoffs. I lost count of how many of his passes ended up deflected into the air. Any one of them getting picked off probably turns the game into a comfortable Pats win. From the Pats perspective, I'm spending some more time on tip drills.
3. The Pats did a fabulous job of adjusting after Derrick Mason shredded them on the first drive.
We comment all the time that the Pats are solid at taking away certain players from the offense (TO/Evans, Washington, Gonzalez), but that leaves other players with less attention. I think that was the case with Mason in the first quarter.
4. D*mn Meriweather and McGowan are good. They are all over the place, with a nose for the ball, and hit like a ton of bricks. Meriweather clearly outplayed Ed Reed in that game.
Totally agree on M&M. As for Reed, making him invisible for this game was an overlooked part of the gameplan. Reed was never in position to make a play all game, which is a great combination of playcalling by coaches and decision making by Brady. The only play I can remember him even being close was the long pass to Watson down the middle. Everything else was Reed cleaning up after a solid gain. He is the most dangerous defensive player in the NFL and he was absolutely a non-factor. Great job all the way around.
5. I'm not a huge James Sanders fan and he certainly didn't shine like McGowan and Meriweather, but I really can't blame him for missing the tackle on Ray Rice. Rice was moving like a bat out of h*ll, and I don't know anyone that makes that tackle on him at that angle. Rice is a beast.
I don't blame Sanders but that play (and others) didn't make me feel better about his attack angles on defense. He still has enough "Mr. Magoo" moments to make me scared.
6. Butler looks like the real deal. He does not look at all like a rookie CB. Butler and Bodden will be one of the top CB tandems in the league by the end of the year at this rate. The blanket coverage and big hitting by the secondary at the end of each half was the difference in the game.
7. The DL and overall pressure looked the best it has all year.
I believe these two points are absolutely related. As the backs have show they can handle receivers without soft zones and linebacker help, the coaches are able to commit 5 or even 6 players to the pass rush. McGowan is especially useful in that he can play pseudo-linebacker and free up Guyton to rush...or even bring pressure himself. I'm most interested in seeing what they draw up against the Colts and Saints. It looks like the Pats finally have the right mix of DBs to scheme a little more against the pass-happy teams in the league and bring different pressure packages.
8. Both touchdowns scored by opposing defenses against our offense so far this season came on outstanding plays by the other team. But giving up those kind of scores is devastating. Just devastating. The game almost turned around on the Suggs play.
Gotta call out Light on both of these. Horrific technique on both plays. Can't leave a 6'5" DE standing in direct line of a screen pass. Can't get snookered inside on a speed rusher leaving a direct line to Brady's blind side. Light can (and better) clean this up before it does not only costs a game but ends a playoff run.
9. The only call where we got lucky was the fake field goal. It was clearly a catch. And I can understand the refs ruling that we made the 1st down - it's a judgment call, and NFL refs have always seemed pretty liberal in where they spot the ball when an offensive player reaches out with the ball. But it was a generous spot, and could easily have gone against us.
The officials blew this one all to hell. Did they even spot the ball on that play? I never saw them mark the out of bounds spot before dealing with the penalty. The officials also don't help themselves by being completely inconsistent about marking players when they go out of bounds. They are supposed to mark the ball, not the point where the player touched out of bounds. Granted it is much easier to see/mark where their body hits (and usually it isn't enough of a difference to matter), but it confuses the TV watching public on where a ball should be spotted.
10. No way did Willis McGahee make it on 4th and 1. His momentum was stopped, his knee was down, and then he tried to reach the ball forward to get the spot.
The fact that the Ravens even brought this up eliminates any credibility they might have had. Wasn't even close.
11. Having Brady roll out to his right on the last Pats offensive play was a bad call. He's not a good QB throwing on the run, especially not now. Dumb call. It was not a controlled throw.
I called this out in another thread. I'm not one to criticize playcalling since there are a billion factors I couldn't possibly know about. But this may have been the single worst call I have ever seen. They had the 2 perfect players for the situation (Brady and Welker) but put them in a position to do the singular thing they don't do particularly well...Brady to throw on the run and Welker on a straight path to the sideline. I'm flushing this memory and I hope that page of the playbook gets the same treatment.
12. LoMo didn't look bad to me. He was fabulous on the catch and run, and he was running hard with minimal dancing on the carries that I saw. In most cases there just weren't yards to be had against a top run defense. I actually think he could have a big game against Denver.
The people who understand what you are saying don't need convincing. The people who need convincing will never understand what you are saying.
13. Hanson really hurt us in that game. Pinning the opponent deep could have made a huge difference, and he blew it at least twice. For a guy without a particularly big leg, he's got to be able to pin the ball inside the 20.
KICK TO THE SIDELINES!!!! How freakin' hard is that to do??? The coverage team has less area to cover if you kick it high, the sidelines take care of it if you kick it too long and you remove the possibility of a fair catch outside the 10. Much less of a chance to put it in the end zone. The only downside is that there is no chance of a muff and it is harder to pin them back by rolling it down to the 1. I'll take backing up a team consistently at the 10 versus putting them consistently at the 15-20 in hopes of getting one downed at the goal line.
