The rest of the 4th Qtr.
KO - Sweet, Redd is one of the wall busters and first ones down. He stacks, sheds, and gets a hit on the KR to send him stumbling to the ground. Ventrone, Evans, and Guyton where the others first on the scene.
Pats on Defense. L-R Woods (Redd is out again), Adams, Fifita, Kenny, Crable; Alexander and Guyton (Hobson is out); same secondary.
- Troy Smith tries to touch pass it over the LB and under the CB but didn't bring a step stool and Alexander drops the int after stretching for the ball.
- Play action holds Alexander, if he'd read it a little faster and dropped sooner he would have been under another WR in the throwing lane. Crable gets to Smith and gives him some Wolverine love as he releases. Pats actually rush 5, but Ravens in max protect. 1st down on a drag route.
- Woods swats down a screen pass. Adams was stoned on his rush, but appears to have read the screen and started sliding out with the RB.
- Inside zone, Crable is still too heads up on his blocker, but does set the edge and has good ball awareness. Fifita and Adams get blown out, Kenny holds the line, but can't cover enough area to make up for the other two disappearing, Alexander overplays and gets sealed outside, Woods gets too deep into the backfield as backside pursuit and gets sealed downfield when the RB cuts back, Guyton was moved back by the RG, but shed the block and made the tackle after about a 4-5 yd gain.
- Woods flushes Smith out of the pocket where Guyton stretches him outside giving Kenny a chance to run him down from behind - Guyton, Kenny, and Alexander all get a hand in to trip him up.
- Punt. CJ Jones screws up and catches inside the 5.
Pats on Offense.
- O'Con hits Slater on an out for a drop.
- O'Con to Ventrone after a nice scramble and Referee's review. Decent blocking.
- O'Con to Jordan in the flat for 4-5 yds. Face mask Ravens for 15 more yds.
- Pats false start on Wendell
- Good blocking on a roll out, but no one open and O'Con wisely throws in away.
- O'Con up top along the sideline for CJ Jones, just past his finger tips, well covered by the Birds, again good blocking.
- O'Con takes TO - Ravens showing blitz everywhere, but O'Con takes his time and communicates with the OL. He's forced to scramble and throw the ball away, but a good play to take the punt. McMahon called for holding is declined.
- Punt. Ventrone working as a Gunner gets mugged, possible block in the back - he fought through a double-team to be first down. Evans got down there and was unable to set contain, Guyton actually turned the PR back into the pursuit where Dunlap brought him down after he juked Paxton.
Pats on Defense. L-R Woods, Santonio, Adams, Kenny, Redd; Alexander, Hobson; Dillard in for Meriweather.
- Flacco in. Long throw to the sideline is broken up by L.Sanders. Flacco was unable to step into it from Kenny collapsing the pocket.
- Pats send 5, Woods strip sack and fumble recovery. Kenny drew a double-team, this allowed Adams to work one-on-one, so when Woods gets in and misses his first swipe, Adams penetration forced Flacco to hesitate and Woods got him on the rebound.
Pats on Offense.
- O'Con shows good arm strength to hit CJ Jones along the sideline, nice quick release. CJ made a nice move to spin out of a tackle and get the 1st down.
- Jorden unable to make the backside S blitz miss on an inside zone.
- Jorden powers into another inside zone to push the pile for a couple.
- Another inside zone on 3rd and 5 allows the O-line to take charge and escort Jorden for a 1st.
- Yet another inside zone gives Jorden a nice hole to get down to the 2.
- Stupar seals the LB on the edge long enough for Jorden to power off LT and push the LB into the end zone. Nice blocking by the O-line and TEs on this drive.
- 2 pt. conversion is deflected by an unblocked LB off the edge, Ventrone was open in the left front corner of the end zone. Ravens took a risk and won.
KO - Short kick to the 8, nice blocking, Green-Ellis is engaged with the wall and fights off the block enough to grab some KR jersey and slow him for a L.Sanders shoe-string tackle. Ventrone makes another appearance, he must have been the left wing and came slashing behind the wall a little too late. 20 yd return, not bad as it looked like a long return before Ben-Jarvis got grabby.
Pats on Defense. Crable in for Woods. Fifita at NT and Adams to LDE. Hobson and Alexander. Meriweather is back.
- Inside zone, Crable slashes in from outside to catch the RB and drag him down.
- Quick slant, incomplete - Flacco was behind him.
- Kenny with a sack, good pressure from Crable too.
- Punt. CJ Jones makes a nice catch, but is stripped as he tries to run it back. He did a nice job keeping his head and making the tackle - then he showed his frustration after the play was dead.
- Inside zone, Redd is too heads up on his blocker, but sets the edge. Kenny is doubled. Alexander overplays the outside. I couldn't see if it was Fifita or Hobson who tripped up the runner, but I think it was Fifita. Gain of 5. Dillard is in, Meriweather out.
- Run off RT, Adams and Alexander get stoned, Crable fights off his blocker and makes the tackle after the RB goes by in the "c" gap. Gain of 4.
- Pats in a goal line set inside the 10 for a third and 1. Ravens FB dive right side is checked by Fifita and Santonio, and pushed back by the swarm flying in to help.
- Pats time out. 4th and inches, Pats goal line D - Pass to the right flat is batted down by a flying Vince Redd. Poor cut block by the RB allowed Redd to jump into the throwing lane...it would have to have been a great pass because Spann was trailing the receiver and might have had an int.
Pats on Offense.
- O'Con throws it away from the Ravens blitz. Wendell missed the ILB coming behind the DL he handed off to the C - there were three Pats on the right side staring down one DE and sleeping on the LB.
- No one open, O'Con scrambles out of bounds.
- O'Con takes too long looking upfield for an open receiver and steps into a sack. Green-Ellis with a nice blitz pick-up. I don't think McMahon is making the squad, though he did buy O'Con enough time.
- Pats take a delay of game moving the ball back 1 foot.
- 4th and 18 from the 1 foot line, O'Con keeps the play alive with his feet and caroms the ball off CJ. Jones who tried to body catch it, picked by the Ravens.
Pats on Defense.
- Ravens kneel down to end the game.
Kenny Smith makes for a nice shadow roster addition.
CJ Jones made some mistakes and a couple nice plays, I think he was trying too hard and I'm not ready to write him off despite the mistakes.
Add Redd to the young LBs who showed promise.
Green-Ellis showed me something, keep it up kid.
Guyton and Ventrone - those two just keep showing up. I hope we get to see what they develop into in a Patriots uni, vice one of those other 31.
I didn't see much of Dillard as a S, but he looked good on STs.
Evans is a lock.
Spach and Stupar aren't half bad blockers.
The O-line reserves have some potential, I'm looking forward to Dante's wizardry.
Crable and Redd both show some good ball awareness on the edge, that height and long arms helps them keep the sight lines clear.