Baltimore Ravens blind side Tom Brady and the New England Patriots
In a completely unexpected turn of events, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were completely dominated by the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, falling in their wild card game 33 to 14 at Gillette Stadium.
The Ravens came out swinging, scoring a touchdown on the first play of the game on an 83-yard run by Ray Rice. Their pressure only intensified, forcing Tom Brady to fumble the ball on the Patriots’ first possession, recovering it and returning it for a second touchdown. In less than four and a half minutes, the Ravens had a 14-point lead.
While the Patriots were able to attempt a drive later in the first quarter, Brady’s interception, grabbed up by Chris Carr, ended that try real fast. Once again the Ravens effortlessly brought the ball in for a third touchdown.
“if you play like that in the first quarter and you can’t overcome it,” Brady noted after the game. “We just couldn’t do it. It was certainly not the way we expected to play the game. We had a lot of confidence coming into the game; we just didn’t get it done.”
In a painful moment of deja vu, Brady threw a second interception on the very next drive. A few plays later Baltimore put more points on the board, going up 24-0 after a field goal.
Finally getting a break, the Patriots were able to recover a punt in their own territory, much to the help of Julian Edelman. Edelman was also key a few plays later when he caught a six-yard pass from Brady for the touchdown. The play however was Brady’s 27th career playoff touchdown, tying John Elway for fifth in NFL history.
After a three-and-out for each team to start the second half, the Patriots appeared to gain some steam. Brady threw an 11-yard pass up to Edelman to begin a drive, topping 4,000 career passing yards in the postseason, the six player to ever do so.
Unfortunately, three plays later, Brady threw yet another interception, as a pass meant for Benjamin Watson landed in the hands of Dawan Landry. Just as earlier, the Ravens marched down the field, scoring a field goal to reach a 27-7 lead.
New England regrouped and managed a long drive, complete with a one-yard pass from Brady to Edelman for a touchdown. While Steven Gostkowski notched the extra point, it left the Patriots with a 13-point deficit.
Baltimore quickly made that deficit 19 points when they notched a final touchdown to start the fourth quarter. A two-point conversion, which would have made it a three-score game failed, at least according to the replay officials.
The lead, along with the insane defensive of the Ravens was quite enough for the win however as the Patriots failed to put any additional points on the board in the game. They attempted a late field goal, but were unsuccessful, taking the painful, season-ending 33 to 14 loss in front of the few fans remaining in the stands.
“This was a really tough loss for us, and we’ve had some good teams, obviously, over the years,” Brady added. “This one, I felt we did a lot of good things and wish we would have played better today, but we didn’t. Like I said, we’ve got to give the Ravens a lot of credit. We wish them luck and they’ve got a lot of good players and they really earned it and that’s what it takes.”
posted : 2 years ago Monday, January 11
