Congratulations to the Patriots, who are on their way back to the Super Bowl. While this was a huge win for the Patriots they needed a huge stroke of luck to get there. I still really can’t believe that Billy Cundiff missed that field goal. Let’s go over some other points of the game that had some impact.
-Patriots D started out the game where they left off last week. Stopped Ravens on first 3 possessions and forced punts. I know that everyone is going to say that the Patriots D has improved drastically since the season, and to a point they have, but lets not get too carried away. During the second half the Patriots 3rd down defense was absolutely horrible. Horrible.Without Vince Wilfork, the Patriots don’t win this game.
-Sterling Moore will be a hero this week after his play in the last minutes of the game, but he needed to make some plays after letting Torrey Smith break a tackle for a TD on 3rd down. No reason that Lee Evans should have dropped that ball in the end zone either. Easy touchdown.
-Who thought that the running game would be a bigger part of the offense during this game? Green-Ellis ran good through the game. We got to see Hernandez line up in the backfield for a few runs again.
-Hernandez is going to have to be huge in the Super Bowl if Gronkowski’s ankle is injured.
-Gronkowski injury is going to be huge news in the weeks until the Super Bowl. He did come in on a play down on the 1, but didn’t dome in again. If he is hurt Brady’s biggest target is gone.
-Brandon Spikes had a huge interception which I thought was going to seal the game. Then Brady goes out and makes one of the stupidest throws I’ve ever seen him make. I thought that Slater only got onto the field during special teams. Stick to what your good at.
-Flacco wasn’t as bad as I thought he was going to be. He made the throws, his receivers just didn’t catch the ball.
-Ravens started playing better as soon as Ray Rice started getting going. The Ravens gave Ricky Williams more touches than I thought he was going to get probably thanks to Ed Reed. They must be smoking partners.
-There was finally an Anquan Boldin sighting. Had a good catch and run to get the Ravens inside the 20 and in field goal range.
-Billy Cundiff tried to pull that kick a little too much because the ball was placed on the right hash mark of the field.
-Ed Reed had a huge knockdown on that 3rd down at the end of the game to force the Patriots to put. Brady was trying to get the ball to Hernandez and Ed Reed came over him to knock down the ball and give the Ravens another chance. Absolute Ball Hawk.
-Ray Lewis was pretty quiet during the game. Lewis is going to het some action after the game though when he kills Billy Cundiff. Sure Lewis would be more than willing to confess to this one. Cundiff better hope that Lewis gets to him before this guy, at least you know Lewis would put him down clean-
-Brady said it himself after the game, he sucked. Forced the ball a few time and threw 2 interceptions, 1 of which was totally uncalled for. Look for him to come out with a vengeance in the Super Bowl.
Make no doubt about it, the Patriots are extremely lucky to come out of this game with a win. The Ravens literally threw and kicked the game away. Talking about kicking, how big of a kick in the balls is it to the Colts to have to watch the Patriots play in the Super Bowl in their stadium? The Colts are being taken apart from the inside as we speak, and now they have to watch the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Whether the 49ers or Giants win, look for the Patriots to come out hot since they will be playing in a dome. I’d just like to send a huge thank you to the Ravens and Billy Cundiff for punching the Patriots ticket to the Super Bowl. 2 weeks cannot come soon enough.
sportzandstuff 