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| Shane Vereen wasn't a mainstay in the Patriots' gameplan, he only had three offensive touches, but one was this four-yard touchdown reception. |
Cory Puffett
In lieu of bashing the Ravens, which they absolutely
deserve, I’d rather focus on the Patriots and how well they played on rainy day
in Maryland.
Tom Brady only threw for 172 yards and a touchdown on 14/26
passing, but that’s because New England came in with a game plan that involved
more running and less passing. This is exactly what they’ve always needed to do
when big targets like Gronkowski aren’t available. Unfortunately, it hasn’t
always been what they’ve done.
Today that’s just what they did and LeGarrette Blount and
Stevan Ridley had really nice games, rushing for 76 and 54 yards respectively.
Blount also had two touchdowns.
New England defense also played very well, giving an injured
Joe Flacco trouble and picking off two of his passes. The Patriots also had a
fumble return touchdown and then a pick-6 off Tyrod Taylor in the game’s final
minutes.
The victory puts New England in a position to clinch a
first-round bye with a win, and maybe even the AFC #1 seed if Oakland manages
to beat Denver, next week.
Baltimore will be in a tough position next week. Though they
hold the tiebreaker over San Diego, Miami has a better in-conference winning
percentage and hold that tiebreaker. And the AFC North is no longer in play as
their loss to New England gave that to Cincinnati.
So Baltimore has to win in Cincy next week (the Bengals are
7-0 at home this season) and they need Miami to lose to the Jets (which looks
more likely now, after a terrible game for them against Buffalo and a pretty
good game for the Jets today). That should make for a pretty interesting Week
17 for the AFC playoff picture.
Final Score:
New England Patriots – 41
Baltimore Ravens – 7
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