We're on to Baltimore

[obgod3]

I have to agree with some of the folks here, the media sure sounds like NE doesn't have a chance. They haven't come straight out and said that but all the media is talking about is how the Ravens can frustrate. Brady. All they are talking about is the Ravens defense and jump ball Joe. It pisses me off because they are completely ignoring the fact that the NE team has been outstanding this year overall and overall a better defense and offense.

I'm not predicting anything but I hope NE smokes Baltimore. I can't stand the media and even the home town morons on weei. Well at least one or two of them today defended NE, but overall it is crazy.

 

[Archeryaddict12]

I have to agree with some of the folks here, the media sure sounds like NE doesn't have a chance. They haven't come straight out and said that but all the media is talking about is how the Ravens can frustrate. Brady. All they are talking about is the Ravens defense and jump ball Joe. It pisses me off because they are completely ignoring the fact that the NE team has been outstanding this year overall and overall a better defense and offense.

I'm not predicting anything but I hope NE smokes Baltimore. I can't stand the media and even the home town morons on weei. Well at least one or two of them today defended NE, but overall it is crazy.

Good bulletin board material and energy to surge them ahead. The disrespect and you can't do this card can be very motivating considering the leaders we have on this team. Almost feel like they can exploit that card as well as the 2001-2007 teams did.

 

[mosi]

And with all the talk about Baltimore's defense, the Pat D has got to be pissed. A defense that handled Manning, Luck, and Rivers will get schooled by Flacco.

 

[mcmurtry86]

there's another real wildcard ...... forsett in the cold??? 5 years ago he got some carries as the seahwks were getting blown out, but that's actually the last time he's played in the cold.....smith sr? same thing......torrey smith? same thing.....owen daniels? same thing........

Torrey Smith was on the 2012 Ravens. The ones that played in a frigid AFCDG in Denver (13 degrees at kickoff, windchills near 0). He acquitted himself pretty well, 3 catches for 98 yards and 2 TD's.

When was the last time Browner or LaFell played in really cold weather? It cuts both ways and won't have an impact. Flacco and the Ravens DL has proven they can play great in freezing weather and those are the important guys.

 

[mcmurtry86]

And with all the talk about Baltimore's defense, the Pat D has got to be pissed. A defense that handled Manning, Luck, and Rivers will get schooled by Flacco.

Is anyone saying Flacco will "school" the Pats D?

Most of the concern I've seen about this game has been:

1. Browner's tendency to take PI and T.Smith's tendency to draw them
2. The Ravens front 7 vs. the Pats OL

If Brady has a clean pocket and they can run enough to keep Baltimore honest, this game should be an easy win. The problem is that keeping Brady upright has been a challenge both historically and recently. Considering the Ravens just thrashed a similarly talented (or better) Steelers OL, I don't think it's crazy to expect them to disrupt the Pats banged up and mediocre-at-best OL.

 

[Tom meets Kaepernick]

And with all the talk about Baltimore's defense, the Pat D has got to be pissed. A defense that handled Manning, Luck, and Rivers will get schooled by Flacco.

I understand what you're saying but unlike the rest of those quarterbacks, Flacco doesn't **** the bed when the lights get bright.

 

[MossWelkowski]

Can Brady effing hit the deep once

 

[wolverinejoe80]

i'm revising my prediction

ravens 17
pats 41

ravens are due for a good old ass whoopin'. brady will have all day to throw and special team and D will dominate.

we will look like mid season stretch form again, and media and everyone else will switch stance and make us the favorite to win it all.

it's gonna be a good day.

 

[wolverinejoe80]

Can Brady effing hit the deep once

yes he will. to lafell twice. mark my word.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

You can go back to most of the teams the Pats have lost to in the playoffs and make the same argument. Ultimately, how the Ravens play against other teams is completely irrelevant. It is somewhat relevant how the Ravens have played the Patriots in the past. Most relevant, however, is how their personnel, style, and coaching staff matches up with the Patriots right now. Based on their front 7, balanced offense that threatens all parts of the field, and coaching (including someone with inside knowledge of how the Patriots operate), the Ravens match up pretty well. The Patriots now have plenty of experience of losing playoff games to teams that were much worse than them in the regular season. It surprises me that so many are getting caught up on the Ravens' regular season record and not focusing on the obvious matchup problems they present.

Some truth to that, some not:
-Last year Denver was 5-1 going into the Pats game and had demonstrated high level potency numerous times. had played extremely well all year, losing only 1 since mid september.
-The prior year Baltimore had played poorly the last 5, however, they demonstrated high potency in a run of 8-1 during the season (that 8-1 included away game wins and quality opponent wins.
-Prior year to that, the Giants had won 3 of their last 4 going into the playoffs including the last 2 games of the season (needed wins) where they dominated.
-Prior to the Jets beating the Patriots, the Jets had: Beaten Indy in Indy, Walloped Buffalo in the playoff clincher game, Lost by a FG in Chicago 34 to 38, gone into Pitt and won. And two weeks prior where the Patriots throttled them, they had come off of 4 straight and fairly solid wins.

- 2014 Ravens season has nothing really to point to potency except a 2 game dominance against Tampa and Atlanta. The 10 Raven victories of 2014: Atlanta, Cleveland, Cleveland, Jax, Tenn, Carolina, New Orleans, Pitt, Miami, Tampa (coincidentally the only winning team they beat was the same team they beat again last week in the playoffs). The Ravens lack of quality wins is stark and shows very little in the way of
'this team is just waiting to spring out and taking it to a high level' ((if someone has stats that indicate I'm wrong on that, I have missed it))
The 2014 Ravens picture does not stack up particularly well against the season's big picture of the other teams listed above.

A hypothetical: Take the 2014 Patriots, their wins, their losses, points, the exact schedule/opponents -- give those exact scores and schedule and outcomes to Baltimore (including Baltimore now having that impressive record against winning teams). Now do the reverse and put the Ravens exact score, schedule, outcomes to the Patriots (including the Patriots now having that poor record against winning teams). With this juxtaposed situation, the Patriots are now going to play Baltimore in Baltimore for the divisional round playoffs. I'm curious what would be the sense about the Patriots chances of victory?
The Ravens' past years' teams-performances-reputation as well as 1 markedly solid win @Pitt is driving this fan fear of the Ravens. It has to be the reason because from a 2014 perspective the Ravens do not equal a team to be feared ((again if there are metrics that indicate otherwise? I'll certainly listen))

All playoff teams are by default the most potent opponents you can face. Due to this the room for error is smallest. The Patriots are not a clearly dominating team (unless their A+ OL shows up -- then they are) that they can make mistakes and feel confident about achieving victory. But the 2014 Patriots against the 2014 Ravens in Foxboro from a 2014 big view perspective is approaching lopsided in terms of what they both demonstrated this year. So, ultimately, if that week 6 - week 13 Patriot OL shows up Saturday, I'm outright saying the Patriots will 'dismiss' the scary Ravens, they'll beat them as easily or easier than they would the rest of the AFC field except Denver (they would beat Denver too). And if I'm wrong? If the Ravens put it to the Patriots?? I'll be the first hear to say my math/take on the whole thing was pathetically wrong....

 

[JMC00]

Considering the Ravens just thrashed a similarly talented (or better) Steelers OL, I don't think it's crazy to expect them to disrupt the Pats banged up and mediocre-at-best OL.

Well that was in large part because roethlisburger decided to hold the ball longer than he should and that idiot haley didn't adjust to what the ravens were given them which was short quick passes.

As for the banged up mediocre OL, Reiss said that health wise everyone should be available which means the OL should be the most healthiest it's been since Detroit. As for the medicore part, that's laughable. When the OL has been relatively healthy they have been good.

 

[wolverinejoe80]

BALTIMORE BEAT NOBODY

they beat steelers. steelers lost to friggin tampa in september.
they beat browns. barely beat them.
they beat panthers. panthers were awful early in the season.
they beat bucs. jv team.
they beat falcons. another jv team.
they beat titans. another jv team.
they beat aints. team with no bite. old and weary team.
they beat lolphins. miami in december is an early christmas present.
they beat browns again. connor shaw played. that's high school football.

and they beat steelers again in the playoffs. no bell, no running game.


I'm not impressed. i don't care how they beat us in the past. it's a whole new season. and it's in foxborough. we show up and play our B- game we comfortably beat them by 2 TDs. we show up and play our A game, we'll be flipping channels in the 2nd half.

 

[supafly]

Sup, not sure where you concluded I was making stuff up about Flacco. I stated, using his/Ravens 2014 performance, that they have not shown potency or dominance except last week, mostly against mostly the flotsam and jetsam on the league, and their last 5 games of the season were far from a scary team Further, I questioned, is the belief that the Rvaens are scary because pre 2014 and last week?

The Ravens, except last week, have not been a scary team. I, unlike many if not most, don't buy into last year or three years ago they were scary, so they are scary now. The 2014 Patriots are the 2014 Patriots, they are not the 2013 Patriots. The 2014 Ravens are not the 2013 Ravens. And if my opinion is a distinct minority, well, so be it.
Me, personally, I do not get this whole Ravens fear. If the week 5 thru week 13 OL shows up I expect the Patriots to dismiss the Ravens -- just as they have dismissed similar AFC teams (when the OL has shwn up). If our OL doesn't show up? All bets are off....

Peace brother!

I wasn't even coming close to speaking of you, TBS. I honestly had no idea that you even said anything. My comments were simply in general-- 100 percent. I have more respect for you than that, so even if we disagreed, I'd likely not have pointed it out. If I did, it surely wouldn't have been in that manner.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I have to admit that upon further review this is a pretty scary Ravens team. They beat both the Dolphins and Steelers, both of whom had more wins than losses, and won 4 games on the road this year, including an impressive win against the Jags in Jacksonville, and everyone knows how tough that is. They cleanly positioned themselves so that all it took was Chase Daniels beating the Chargers and waltzed right into the playoffs. And nothing says team of destiny like the ability to rely upon another team's home field advantage to make it into the big dance. That's when god is so much on your side that he's on another's teams side as well,just to help you out. Well played Ravens, how to win the tiebreaker....good job.

So how does this work? If the Ravens win it all does Chase Daniels get a share?


He most definitely should.

 

[SVN]

http://espn.go.com/boston/story/_/page/reissmailbagweek0106/facing-ravens-worst-case-scenario

Q. Hi Mike, I'm really nervous. Maybe you can talk me down. I see the Ravens as the kind of matchup the Patriots struggle with. They are physical, disciplined and resilient. They looked pretty good against the Steelers. In the last few years, the Patriots have lost their last game because the O-line could not sufficiently control the line of scrimmage. This year's group doesn't look any better. What do you think? Am I overreacting, or should I prepare myself for the end of the season? -- Will (Sonoma, California)





A. Will, one thing that stands out to me when following our New England teams is that we tend to drill down and highlight all the possible things that could go wrong. But when we look at opponents, especially if they are coming off a solid performance like the Ravens are, we tend to highlight their strengths and maybe overlook some of the deficiencies because we don't see them as much. To me, that's the dynamic in play here. I'm not saying the Patriots don't have their flaws, and they haven't played particularly well of late, but when they have put it together they are very tough to beat. They deserve the same respect that some are giving the Ravens around these parts. One doesn't have to go back too far to see some ugly Ravens football, either (e.g. Week 16 loss at Houston).

 

[SVN]

for some levity

http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/minihane-baltimore-gonna-come-here-and-win

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

I wasn't even coming close to speaking of you, TBS. I honestly had no idea that you even said anything. My comments were simply in general-- 100 percent. I have more respect for you than that, so even if we disagreed, I'd likely not have pointed it out. If I did, it surely wouldn't have been in that manner.

No worries Sup. The poster who responded directly to me was what you stated you compltely agreed with. Rightly or wrongly I assumed the rest.....

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Is anyone saying Flacco will "school" the Pats D?

Most of the concern I've seen about this game has been:

1. Browner's tendency to take PI and T.Smith's tendency to draw them
2. The Ravens front 7 vs. the Pats OL

If Brady has a clean pocket and they can run enough to keep Baltimore honest, this game should be an easy win. The problem is that keeping Brady upright has been a challenge both historically and recently. Considering the Ravens just thrashed a similarly talented (or better) Steelers OL, I don't think it's crazy to expect them to disrupt the Pats banged up and mediocre-at-best OL.

The Ravens just "thrashed" Pitt for the second time. Doing so it keeps the number of winning teams Baltimore has defeated to 1 (they beat Pitt twice. They didn't beat a single other winning team this year - including three teams we walloped yet they lost to 4 different times).

Yes if they get to Brady often enough it could get ugly for us. I do agree with that.
On balance, I believe you are dead wrong about Browner. He has little chance of being anything but a positive on the whole.
On paper the Patriots have multiple established roads to victory that the Ravens have not demonstrated with any potency or frequency.

Yes the game needs to be played, Baltimore is a playoff team and certainly not a cream puff team, it's not as if the Patriots have no weaknesses at all, and 'any given Sunday' all apply. But on balance the 'conversation' about the Ravens seemingly going to put it to the Patriots is pretty far out of balance when comparing these two teams 2014 track records.

 

[The Brandon Five]

One difference between this team and past teams that lost in the SB or AFCCG is ability to close games out. This defense has been like an iron curtain in front of the end zone during the second half of games during the last two months or so. I don't see them giving up long TD drives in the last few minutes like in the two Giant losses nor blowing a lead at halftime like in the 2012 AFCCG (Jan. 2013).

We now have a "closer".

 

[JMC00]

@FO_ScottKacsmar
Patriots have allowed 12 points after halftime in last 6 games (0 TD)
Last team to end season like that: 1989 Redskins (10 PA)