In their fourth tough road game of the 2010 season, the Baltimore Ravens will take on the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The game will continue an early season that sees the Ravens play four of their first seven games on the road. In their other two road contests in a supercharged atmosphere, New York and Pittsburgh, the Ravens have come out victorious.
Sunday’s game, however, is a bit of a revenge game for the Patriots.
New England has motivation to win this game beyond a win in the regular season. The Ravens went to New England for the Wild-Card matchup and beat them 33-14 in a game that wasn’t even that close. Baltimore got out to a 24-0 first quarter lead and never looked back. They also intercepted Tom Brady three times. The situation gets even tougher for the Ravens with the Patriots coming off of a bye.
The Ravens have never beaten New England in the regular season, including last season’s 27-21 loss in Week 4. This season there’s a different feel to the Ravens, however. For starters, the Ravens have better receivers than they did last season. The additions of Anquan Boldin and T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the offseason have fueled a passing game that gets better every week.
On the other side of the ball, New England’s defense is extremely young. In the playoff game, the Patriots had issues stopping Ray Rice and that shouldn’t change. Their secondary has also struggled at times this season. A three receiver set plus tight end Todd Heap could force New England to play vanilla coverage and open up the run game for Rice.
By the end of this one, the Ravens will have beaten New England down physically and delivered the Pats their first home loss. The final: Baltimore 24, New England 20.
Recent Comments