Well that happened.
From the very first play from scrimmage, it was obvious: These aren't your dad's Patriots. (If you dad was a Pats fan two years ago.) Ray Rice took the opening hand-off 83 yards to the endzone to put the Ravens up 7-0 en route to embarrassing Bill Belichick's Patriots 33-14.
On the following Patriots possession, Tom Brady was stripped by Terrell Suggs, who also recovered the fumble to set up a Le'Ron Mclain 1-yard touchdown scat. Two Brady interceptions stopped Patriot drives in their tracks, setting up another Rice score and a Billy Cundiff field goal to bring the score to an impossible 24-0 before the first quarter ended. After that, the Baltimore defense only needed to avoid a monumental collapse as the Raven offense dominated the line of scrimmage for 234 yards on the ground.
The Patriots first touchdown came in the second quarter after questionably recovering a punt that grazed off Raven special teamer Tom Zbikowski. Baltimore Head Coach Jim Harbaugh chose not to challenge, giving the Pats a short field for the Julian Edelman score. At that point it seemed Belichick's boys would use that momentum to get back into the game, but the Ravens' defense refused to yield, forcing three consecutive punts and snagging another interception. Another touchdown and field goal in the third put the game out of reach and ended a phenomenal decade for the Patriots with a whimper.
Harbaugh's Ravens forced four turnovers and only passed the ball ten times in an easy victory. Rushing the ball 52 times for a 4.5 yard average will win you plenty of games in the NFL. They'll travel to Indianapolis next weekend in an attempt to end another decorated quarterback's Super Bowl dreams.
What positives could possibly taken from such a pathetic Patriot loss? Julian Edelman is almost a clone of Wes Welker with his non-stop motor and tough-nosed runs. With Welker's injury possibly extending into next season, Edelman gave Patriot faithful something to cheer for. Other than that, I can't say anything the Patriots did well. They couldn't/gave up on the run, forcing an obviously injured Tom Brady into dangerous situations against the Ravens defense. Randy Moss was a non-factor. Belichick's defense was unprepared and over-matched physically. That's the story of their season.
Is it weird that I actually felt bad for Brady at one point?
Playoff Predictions so far: Well, I managed to cover my butt in my prediction for this game, telling you in a set of parentheses to take the Ravens to to beat the 3.5 point spread. I'll say I'm 3-0 then.
I'll be back later on with a recap of the Packers and Cardinals!
Keywords: Baltimore Ravens, Bill Beichick, Jim Harbuagh, Joe Anello, Joe Flacco, Julian Edelman, New England Patriots, NFL, NFL Playoffs, Randy Moss, Ray Rice, Tom Brady, Wes Welker
