By Hal Bent
This should be THE game.
This should be the game that the Patriots had circled in red ever since the schedule first came out.
Last January, the Ravens came to Foxboro for the AFC Championship and punched the Patriots in the mouth. Now it’s time for New England to get back on track and punch back.
The Patriots are coming off a difficult loss in the last minutes of last Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins. The game came down to two big plays, one on offense and one on defense.
On defense, the Patriots had a three point lead late in the fourth quarter with less than three minutes to play, and Miami’s offense was faced with a fourth-and-five. The Patriots’ defense did not make the stop.
On offense, the Patriots had five opportunities to get in the end zone in the last 27 seconds of the game inside the 20 yard line, but they failed to make a connection on any of the five passes.
The Ravens are struggling to shake off the tough start to their season and are looking to nab the sixth and final AFC playoff spot from the Dolphins.
Baltimore’s offense has had trouble all season with consistency. They’ve had issues on the offensive line, with running the ball, and in the short passing game. After initial struggles, the Ravens’ defense has now begun to jell into a solid unit. Last week, theRavens were able to defeat the Detroit Lions without scoring a touchdown. In fact, kicker Justin Tucker had to convert a 61 yard field goal at the end of the game in order to grab the win.
The Patriots continue to have injury issues on both sides of the football. It’s getting tiresome to list the all the players not in the lineup each week. Many of these players will be gone for the rest of the season and can no longer count as excuses. Every team in the league has lost key players to injury. The Patriots need to work around the injuries they’ve had and find a way to win....click here for more: http://cover32.com/patriots/2013/12/20/big-bad-baltimore-three-keys-to-revenge-for-the-pats/
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