Immaculate perfection: New England Patriots outscore Baltimore Ravens 27-24
Top Line: New England Patriots somehow, someway, outscored Baltimore Ravens 27-24. Yes, they outscored the Ravens, but they hardly beat or defeated them. The Ravens laid it all on the line and came up just short, in part because of their poor discipline, in part because the Patriots are just too good and in part because of pure bad luck.
Offensive Line: The Patriots fielded their normal starters, meaning left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, right guard Stephen Neal and right tackle Nick Kaczur. Neal got hurt and was replaced by back-up interior offensive lineman Russ Hochstein in the second half.
Patriots gave up three sacks, two of which the offensive line must take responsibility first. The very first sack essentially killed New England’s last drive of the first quarter. The Patriots ran an empty backfield shotgun formation while the Ravens threw a well-designed overload blitz on the the right side of the Patriots offensive line. Raven cornerback Corey Ivy got an uncontested shot at Brady and had he somehow missed him he had linebacker Jarret Johnson right behind. Johnson had started out in a right outside linebacker position, then sauntered over to the middle, then at the snap looped around Kaczur. Three down defensive linemen lined up over the right side of the Patriots line made sure nobody could get in the way of Ivy or Johnson. More than that, a hard stunt to the inside by the defensive end moved the whole scrum to the Patriots left, shortening the loop for Johnson.
The second sack was a pure bull rush by defensive tackle Haltoi Ngata who drove back Mankins and threw Brady to the ground early in the fourth quarter with the Ravens up, 24-17. On the very next play Antwan Barnes beat Light outside and sacked Brady. That play was probably a little bit Brady’s fault and perhaps a consequence of Ngata’s sack on the previous play. Ngata sacked Brady 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage. On the next play Brady took a couple of extra step back, perhaps mindful of the previous sack, allowing Barnes better leverage against Light.
Koppen deserves mentioning for his just about perfect shotgun snapping against a tough, physical hard-charging opponent for the second week in a row. I don’t know that he is the best center in the NFL, but he certainly does what the Patriots ask of him.
The Gist: Gusting winds and a physical Ravens defense disrupted New England’s offense. On the other side of the ball Ravens offense ran all over the Patriots in the second and third quarters only to get stiffed in the fourth quarter.
A different definition of strong and weak sides: Once again defensive end Ty Warren and outside linebacker Mike Vrabel stood their ground on the left side of New England’s defense and once again the right side cratered against the run.
Baltimore’s third and fourth quarter touchdown drives were essentially a series of runs up the middle and over right side of Patriots’ defense. The longest run of the two drives started out as aa run right, were it was stuffed by Vrabel and Warren, prompting McGahee to reverse field and pick up 18 yards down the left sideline.
Another concern is that for the second week in a row nose tackle Vince Wilfork got blocked out of the running lanes. Wilfork shed lot of weight during the last off-season and maybe that’s starting to catch up with him as the wear and tear of the season has taken an extra few pounds off of him. That’s pure speculation but it is odd that the defensive line that started out the season as a dominant unit is seemingly growing increasingly weak.
The peaks and flatlands of Laurence Maroney: It wasn’t just another pedestrian outing for Laurence Maroney. It was even worse than usual. But then made two big plays in the second half on passes from Brady.
It’s been pretty much established by now that Maroney is unlikely to ever live up to the expectations one can reasonably have on a first-round draft pick but last night he hit a new low in the first quarter on a second-and-ten play from the New England 12 yard line. Maroney has struggled all year long finding gaps on zone-blocking plays but he had at least been running hard behind pulling linemen inside the tackles. But on that first-quarter play he had the chance to slam into Ray Lewis who was engaged with a Patriots offensive lineman in the middle but instead broke off the run and headed outside where he was dropped for a two-yard gain that inflicted no pain on any Raven.
But then there were those two big plays. The first came on a second-and-eight play at the Patriots 28-yard line. Brady scrambled to his right out of the shotgun trying to find a receiver when Maroney managed to pull away from Lewis to give Brady an easy target. Maroney caught the ball and headed downfield for a gain of 36 yards. It was a very good play by Maroney that set up New England’s second touchdown nine plays later.
The second play set up Gostkowski’s second field goal. Brady faked hand-off to Maroney But the second play also betrayed two of Maroney’s many limits as a player: His lack of raw speed and his poor field vision. A top ten runningback would have scored a touchdown on that play, but Maroney is far from the ten best runningbacks in the league so that would have been unreasonable to expect, but it was Maroney-esque of Maroney to get tackled not by a defender but by the block Welker threw on a Raven defensive back. The only thing consistent about Maroney is his inability to squeeze anything extra out of a play.
Maroney also successfully picked up blitzes five times, including on the touchdown pass to Moss, and also chipped Suggs once. His third blitz pick up was probably the most impressive one as it called on him to pickup a blitzer attacking in the gap between Light and Mankins.
Officiating is what it is: It has been argued that the officiating was inconsistent throughout the game, that for three quarters it was reminiscent of the Patriots rough up the Indianapolis Colts in the 2003 playoffs, only with the Ravens playing the role of Patriots and Patriots standing in for the Colts. Then in the fourth quarter the crew suddenly called the game as if it was the 2006 AFC Championship between the Patriots and the Colts. In reality, the officials called some of defensive infractions in the pass coverage throughout the game and let some other go. Had the Patriots receivers not dropped passes all over the field it wouldn’t have mattered much how the officials called the game. t the same time, the Ravens played a very physical game game and richly deserved every single flag thrown their way.
A couple of Ravens were upset with official Phil McKinnely for allegedly calling Samari Rolle “boy” on numerous occasions. I think it’s unprofessional for an official to call a player “boy,” but Rolle made the mistake of questioning McKinnely’s football credentials. McKinnely played in the NFL for seven years in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Bottom Line: The Patriots may not have much of a running game and their defense isn’t exactly of the shut-down variety. But what they do have in spades are toughness, resilience and discipline. They fight until the end.
