To the Ravens Fans

[Frezo]

I see and understand both sides of this. You can't let one loss hold your season back, so in that perspective, one loss isn't as big.
But from your perspective I see a team losing one winnable game, and one play could have changed the entire game, pushing a possible tie breaker in their favor. You never know how the season will unfold.

While an early loss doesn't necessarily mean the season is over, it does mean that the subsequent outcome of the remaining games is magnified. The margin for error is much smaller.

 

[mayoclinic]

Oh, right. Probably should have seen that emotion.

The Pats were 5-5 in 2001, losing to the Rams 24-17 in week 10 in a close and competitive game. Bill Belichick used that close loss to convince the team that they were competitive with the "Greatest Show on Turf". The Pats won their last 6 games to finish 11-5 and win the division, and beat the Rams in the Super Bowl.

In 2007 the 10-5 Giants were a wild card team behind highly favored Dallas when they took on the 15-0 Patriots in the last game of the season. The Giants played the Pats tough, losing 38-35, and used that loss to fuel their postseason run all the way to the Super Bowl, defeating the Pats 17-14.

In 2005 the Steelers started 6-2 but then fell to 7-5 after consecutive losses in week 12 to the 11-0 Colts (26-7) and week 13 to the 9-3 Bengals (38-31). They were considered long shots to make the playoffs at that point. They won their last 4 games to finish 11-5 and get a wild card spot, then beat the Bengals (31-17) and Colts (21-18) on the road en route to winning the Super Bowl.

In 2000 the Ravens started 5-1 but then lost 3 in a row, going 5 games without scoring a touchdown. They then won their last 7 games to secure a wild card spot (including a tough 24-23 victory over divisional champ and defending AFC champion Tennessee). They then ran the table in the playoffs, crushing all opponents with a stifling defense on the way to winning the Super Bowl.

It's a long season. Every game counts. And what happens in September and October is ancient history by the time December and the postseason roll around.

 

[reflexblue]

So much for optimism.

I wasn't referring to you, that being said there have been times when i sounded like an eighteen year old and i'm fifty five.

 

[reflexblue]

Thanks for the clarification. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Being a teenager is a bad disease - I'm glad I went into remission decades ago.

I wish i WAS a teenager again. Its 52decleetsu's oninion that... The BS rule is because of your little crying golden boy back there behind center, Lord forbid he would have to take a hit in a football game or even get touched for that matter. I would have laughed too if I was Brady and got that call after jumping up and down like a little girl so the flag would come out.

And its my opinion that he sounds like a young kid. I'm sure that if A. Thomas had dove in the same mannor at Flaccos knee's i think he would have a different opinion, its my opinion he would sound quite the opposite.

I'll just tleave it at this, no need to keep it going any longer, except just to say that when it comes to the football forum i almost never question anyones opinion unless it just so outrageous i think i have to. An example of this would be when a member of the Pats Fan Forum said that in ten years no one would remember Tom Bradys... I had to jump in on that one.

 

[jmt57]

Thought this was worth posting but not worthy of it's own thread. It's a post-game assessment from a writer for a Baltimore newspaper.

Ravens: Live by the pass, die by the pass by Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun

Flacco didn't bring his "A" game against the Patriots. Two of his first three passes were poorly thrown, an early sign that he was struggling. But instead of slowing Flacco down, Cameron allowed him to throw 47 times. Flacco threw for 264 yards, but the Ravens ran 17 times for 116 yards.

The Ravens averaged 6.8 yards per carry and seemed as if they could pound the Patriots at will, but the Ravens failed to take advantage because they are infatuated with throwing the football.

They could have controlled the pace of the game. They could have kept Patriots quarterback Tom Brady off the field and allowed a defense that isn't as good as it used to be to rest, particularly a secondary that was in a track meet with New England's receivers.

If the Ravens had run more, it would have helped their play-action passing game. But with no fear of the Ravens' running, New England went directly for Flacco, who took a beating, especially in the first half.

You know why Flacco threw short to wide receiver Derrick Mason, who was 5 yards behind two New England players at the Patriots' 10-yard line early in the second quarter?

On the two previous plays, both passes, he got crushed. On that pass to Mason, Flacco got nervous and didn't step into the throw for fear of having his backside planted into the turf at Gillette Stadium.

Of the Ravens' 66 offensive plays, only 17 were runs, only five by Willis McGahee, one of the hottest running backs in the NFL. Here's another damning statistic: The Ravens have a 6-foot, 260-pound running back on their team named Le'Ron McClain, and he didn't have one carry. Not one.

 

[BradyFTW!]

FWIW, last week the Ravens fans here were warning us that Preston was their Borges, and was useless at best.

Seems about right, since Preston fails to acknowledge that 50 of the Ravens' running yards came on one play, and other than that they mostly got yardage in down/distance situations where the Pats were playing the pass. Doesn't mean that they couldn't have run it effectively, but doesn't make it the slam dunk that his super-deep 'analysis' indicates, either. Seems like Baltimore's Borges to me.

Going into the game, I was as skeptical of the Pats' run D as anyone, and while it certainly wasn't great, it wasn't obvious that the Ravens could have just run it down our throat, either.