 |
| Brady Wins Matchup vs Sugar Ray and Company in my opinion |
It seems as the stars are aligning for the Patriots as the teams that I thought had a chance to beat them are falling by the wayside. This is not to take anything away from the Patriots, but people are probably failing to realize that the Patriots have not beat a team with a better than 8-8 record this season. Pretty crazy, but that is how the chips laid at the end of the day and if the Patriots can do that and get a number one seed, well more power to them. After last weekend, which saw Green Bay and New Orleans lose, two teams that I thought would have been really tough for New England to beat, it seems that it is all about grudge matches for New England. First up, they have the Baltimore Ravens, who embarrassed the Patriots in the first round of the playoffs in 2009 and the possibility of a rematch with the NY Giants in the Super Bowl, if they can get the win today. I think Baltimore is the team that will be the best matchup for the Patriots from an offensive standpoint as opposed to the Texans and overall even the Steelers would have been a tougher matchup. It sounds crazy to say that the Patriots should rather play the Ravens because of their defense, but the Ravens are good against the run and overrated vs the pass in my opinion, which is good news for Patriots fans since they don't run the ball much.
Now that the weather is getting better in New England, more good news for the Patriots as if they would have had to play yesterday, I might have been picking the Ravens to win this game as it would have been tough for Brady to move around in the pocket or throw the ball in general. I am picking the Patriots to win this game on the simple fact that I just don't think Flacco is going to be able to generate enough offense and I don't think the Ravens can slow Brady and company enough to compensate for this. The Ravens best chance lays with the safeties as they have a good and a great one in Bernard Pollard(yes, the same one that tore up Tom Brady's knee a few years back) and Ed Reed, who is as good as it gets. They are going to have to slow down the Patriot tight ends with the help of guys like Ladarious Webb, who is probably the Ravens' best cornerback. I am figuring they might match up Webb with Welker and then focus on doubling Gronkowski with a nickel, maybe Chris Carr. This will be the best chance that the Ravens have to beat the Patriots. If they can find a way to get to Brady, consistently putting a hit on him and finding a way to stop the Big Gronk will be huge keys to a Raven victory.
The Ravens, who are not traditionally a good road team, will need to find different ways to score. If they can hold the Patriots under 20 points and find at least 10 points through special teams or defensively off turnovers is their best chance to win. I don't think Ray Lewis and company will be able to do this against a team that has not beaten itself this year. I also don't think they will be able to slow Brady down enough to keep the Patriots under 20 points, so I wouldn't gamble either way on this game, but I do like the Patriots to win as it seems everything is going their way this post season.
No comments:
Post a Comment