So the NFL made up for their ho-hum Wild Card weekend with an amazing slate of football games! We had comebacks, crazy calls, and de-throning. With so much to talk about, let’s just take it in order.
Ravens at Patriots:
Very crazy back and forth contest. Baltimore took the wind out of the stadium with a quick 14 points, but the Patriots stormed back to tie it up. The Ravens then jumped to another 14 point lead only to see it squandered away again! It’s 28-28 going into the 4th and it’s clear we have a shootout on our hands. The Ravens constantly had the Patriots on their heels, and the only way they won was with trickeration. The first one was sweet, a fake reverse to Julian Edelman who then threw it 51 yards to a wide open Danny Amendola. The second one was smart, but a bit cheap. The Pats lined up only 4 offensive lineman, and Shane Vereen went wide and declared himself “ineligible.” Being smart, the Ravens should have blitzed the hell out of Brady, with essentially one of his lineman 25 yards away from him. But instead they tried to cover the ineligible player. It was technically a legal formation, but they didn’t get much time to figure it out. This drive led to another TD for the Pats, and eventually a close win. The final drive for the Ravens had me screaming at the TV. Flacco had 1:46 and a timeout left to go only 36 yards. They should have drove down the field and they would have easily had 4 shots to get in within the 10 yard line. Instead Flacco heaves a prayer that gets picked off. Even if that succeeds, you don’t want to give Brady the ball back with 1:40 and only a FG needed to tie.
Broadcast Alert:
I’m not particularly a fan of Chris Collinsworth, but don’t dislike him either. But for the second straight week, he has contributed a lot to the game in my opinion. He almost creates a storyline with his insight which makes the viewer pay more attention to that note. Last week it was the Le’Veon Bell analysis, how the Steelers essentially stopped the run on their own. This week Collinsworth made a comment when the Ravens kicked their field goal at the beginning of the 4th quarter. He said that settling for a field goal after having First and Goal and not getting a TD could be the deciding factor of the game. It doesn’t seem that profound, but keep in mind that Baltimore takes the lead with this play, had just held Brady to a 3 and out, and there are easily 2 more possessions for Baltimore in the game. Lo and behold, that FG became the deciding factor of the game. It’s a good thing that Collinsworth is broadcasting the Super Bowl this year.
FMQB 