For three quarters Sunday afternoon, the Baltimore Ravens were the better team in their game against the New England Patriots. They got out to a 20-10 lead by being aggressive and taking the game to the Patriots. However, when the game went to the fourth quarter, momentum shifted towards the Patriots.
Baltimore went in to a shell on offense using short passes and runs up the middle. Early on, the coaching staff was letting Joe Flacco throw the ball downfield to his receivers. It appeared that New England had no answer for Anquan Boldin, Derrick Mason, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Todd Heap, but the play calls got very conservative as if the Ravens were playing not to lose as opposed to playing to win.
On defense, the Ravens dropped eight in coverage and only rushed three. Dropping eight didn’t work because the middle of the field was wide open making New England quarterback Tom Brady deadly. There was no pressure on Brady giving him time to pick apart the Ravens defense and lead New England to their 23-20 win.
For the most part, the Ravens played well, but there were two key plays the cost the Ravens a victory. The first was Billy Cundiff’s kickoff after the Ravens went ahead by 10 points. He kicked the ball short then the ball rolled out of bounds for an illegal procedure penalty giving the Patriots a short field. On that drive, there was a pass interference on Lardarius Webb and New England went on to score a touchdown making the score 20-17.
The second key play was in overtime. Baltimore had the ball with a little more than seven minutes to go in the extra period. On second down, the Ravens ran the ball for no gain, but Le’Ron McClain pushed Brandon Deaderick to the ground. The penalty moved the Ravens back and they punted after a nine yard gain on third down.
On their next drive, New England kicker Stephen Gostkowski won the game on a 35 yard field goal.
The Ravens’ schedule now gets a bit more favorable. Next week they get the winless Buffalo Bills at home before their bye.
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