This past Saturday, the 10th of January, 2015, we had the pleasure of seeing the 2014-15 AFC Divisional playoff game. It featured the 10-6 Baltimore Ravens playing the 12-4 New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA, and was seen on NBC TV. Let’s recap how the Pats beat the Ravens in this one.
The Patriots had to overcome to different 14 point deficits in the game to beat the Ravens, and move on to the AFC Title game. The New England defense also got a critical interception late in the 4th quarter. The Patriots displayed to great re-bounding comebacks in this game for the win, which according to Patriots QB Brady, it took a lot of team execution to overcome the deficits.
This was a game where the Patriots did a lot of un-ordinary things to overcome their deficits, like having the longest TD in the game thrown by their receiver Edelman. This was a game where the Patriots only managed 14 yards on 13 rushing attempts.
The Ravens had 28 first downs on 73 plays for 428 total yards with 292 passing and 136 rushing yards, with 2 turnovers and possessed the ball for 32:39 minutes of the game. The Patriots meanwhile had 29-1st downs on 66 plays for 422 total offensive yards, with 408 passing and 14 yards rushing with 1 turnover, and had ball possession for 27:21 minutes of the 60 minute game.
The offensive leaders in the game for the Patriots was QB Flacco, who completed 28 of his 45 pass attempts, for 292 yards with 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, without being sacked in the game. RB’s Forsett and Toussaint combined for 26 carries for 134 yards and no touchdowns. Receivers Smith & S. Smith combined for 6 receptions for 106 yards, with S. Smith scoring 1 TD.
Leading the offense for the Patriots was QB Brady who completed 33 of 50 passes for 367 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception, and was sacked 2 times for a total of 10 yards lost. WR Edelman completed 1 pass for 51 yards and 1 TD on a trick play, the longest of the game. RBs Bolden and Vereen combined for 4 carries for 13 yards and no touchdowns. Receivers Gronkowski and Amendola combined for 13 receptions for 189 yards, with Gronkowski scoring 1 TD and Amendola scoring 1 TD.
This was a game where Ravens QB Flacco’s four touchdowns and their incredible defense against the run, which only allowed the Patriots 14 yards in the game, was not enough to compensate for their defensive secondary, that lost them the game and brought the Ravens season to an end.
So football fans who bet on NFL football at a sportsbook, the Ravens defense definitely stumbled with their pass defense as New England passed on 54 of their 64 offensive plays representing 81.8 percent, and normally teams who passed more than in more than 80 % of their plays had a record of 3-59 in the last 5 seasons of playoff games. But with the Ravens defense, it proved on the contrary, to be a winning formula!