A QB is as good as the O-Line allows him to be.
Brady is a brilliant timing passer.. disrupt the timing and his effectiveness is reduced.
The success of the Patriots on Sunday will lie in the ability of their O-line to allow Brady to be still in the Pocket.
Conversely if the Pats cannot get to Flacco.. it will be problems for them.
I have to lean towards the Ravens here based on their pass rush of late and the excellent play of their O-Line of late.
Protecting our QBs will be key, this is true. We've played some great pass rushing teams... Miami twice, Denver, SF, Houston twice and have always had good protection.
On the flip side, we havent brought much pressure on opposing QBs without blitzing especially without a healthy Chandler Jones. We have been blitzing much more recently than in the first half of the season.
But you have yet to see our secondary.
Last AFCCG, we played DMC and Arrington on the corners with Sterling Moore in the slot and Ihedigbo and Chung at safety.
Zero of these players start at these spots anymore. Chung doesn't even get dime reps. And we dont play a vanilla zone anymore.
DMC has secured the deep part of the field. Talib and Dennard play aggressive press man. I wouldnt recommend throwing deep in double coverage because DMC is no R Moore. Youre essentially throwing into double coverage with 2 CBs on very good but not great receivers. IE You have no Johnson (either), Fitz, etc.
And to the pats fan saying none of our players could beat Champ 1v1, I say BS. Gronk on Champ, huge mismatch. AH and WW could surely beat him too. None of these players have the straight line speed to consistently get over the top of Champ, however.
The Ravens have a great receiving core with size and speed. If I could snag one from there team for a season it'd be Boldin. I know we need a deep threat but I think we need a physical, big receiver even more. He has great hands and fits perfectly into our short-intermediate passing game. When he's in the slot, Arrington is going to have his hands full. This could be a major mismatch. Hopefuly, Kyle is up to the challenge.
