Well here we are, the day after a 23-20 loss to the New England Patriots that can be attributed to a complete, winning performance by the Patriots and a lack thereof by the Ravens.
The Ravens jumped ahead early with an eight and a half minute drive composed of screen passes to TJ Houshmandzadeh and passes in the middle of field to Boldin and Heap.
In most of the first quarter the Ravens controlled both the tempo of the game and the momentum. Brady wasn't playing too well but Flacco was. It wasn't until the end of that period that Brady and the offense scored a touchdown.
The emotion and rhythmic leverage shifted toward the Patriots in the fourth quarter when the Bill Belichiek and company appeared to have decoded the Ravens entire game plan. Their offense was using Deion Branch and Danny Woodhead to tire out the Ravens defense with quick screens and short runs up the middle. Their defense remained in eight man coverages to prevent Flacco from throwing freely and limited Rice to a minimal seven rushing yards in the entire quarter.
This led to the Patriots closing up what was at the beginning of the fourth quarter a ten point gap. At this point, the Ravens offense is stagnant, Cam Cameron was not calling daring, creative plays and the run game was shut down by an adaptive Patriots defense.
At the end of regulation the Ravens were declining and seemed to expire all of their energy and their opponents were building upon what was an impressive fourth quarter.
To make a long, depressing story shorter the Ravens allowed the Patriots to drive down the field with five minutes left in overtime and kick the game-winning field goal.
The good news is:
Joe Flacco did not cost his team the game. In fact, he put them ten points ahead in the fourth quarter with his second of two touchdown passes. He didn't have to much trouble throwing in the endzone until the fourth quarter when the Patriots defense closed in on Derrick Mason and knocked out a ball Mason could have hauled in but that wasn't his fault that was just good defensive play by his opponent.
The Ravens pass rush was noticeable yesterday. The most athletic "big man" on the field, Haloti Ngata, had two sacks and was accompanied by Terrell Suggs who had one sack in the game. The Patriots pocket collapsed time to time forcing Brady to step up and deliver the ball, one of his greatest strengths but overall the defense did good job rushing the edge and pressuring Brady to throw sooner then he wanted to. This was most evident on his interception to Chris Carr. Dawan Landry was coming through at Brady on the safety blitz and well… Chris Carr got his first interception of the year.
Next week the Ravens get a bit of a break as they host the lowly ranked 0-5 Buffalo Bills. Although they like New England will be coming off a bye, they will be no match for the disappointed, angry and surely self reflective Ravens who will make sure not to lose for two consecutive weeks.
The bad news is:
The Ravens defense is fallible after all and had its weakness exposed yesterday. The Patriots didn't have great success running the ball because the Ravens did a decent job of defending the run. However, once Brady spread out the offense and got more man coverage he lit the Ravens up. The Patriots excellent screen game proved lethal as Deion Branch got into a habit of catching the short ball, dodging a Lardarius Webb tackle and scurrying for the first down.
They lost. No matter how plush and gentle you try to break it the facts remain, the Ravens came up short and are now second place in the AFC North with a 4-2 record.
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