What do you guys expect from this game? All biased aside im expecting a Ravens win. They just had a tough loss against Philly, now the Pats are coming to Baltimore in a grudge match. IMO this is Flaccos time to prove why hes Elite or not. Hes going against an average defense in primetime against the team you get instant respect if you beat. Its in Baltimore, it should be telling on whos the best in the AFC.
FYI The Patriots have the 4th ranked total defense in the league right now. While a small sample size, this game should be a good test for both teams. Jets are 17th.
I think home field and the hernandez injury swing this game in favor of the Ravens. I think its too much for the Pats to overcome. I'm also not convinced that the secondary of the Pats defense is that good. I think their front seven has a chance to be very good, but i'm still not seeing any significant improvement from the corners and safeties.
Did you expect the Cards to beat NE? No right? So any given Sunday anything can happen as usual. NE is also coming after a tough loss, so they would want to win too.
The Ravens should be favored, probably by 3.5. They're tougher at home. They should win this game. Which is why the Patriots will probably pull off an upset. This seems to be a year of the unexpected so far. I think it'll be close either way though.
This is a real tough game for the Pats. I kinda think they find a way to pull out a win too even though conventional wisdom would say otherwise. No hernandez hurts a lot. Teams will really double down on Gronk now. Hernandez is a big part of that offense and it will look a lot different without him. Hopefully they go to Wes Welker more since he is rotting on my fantasy bench. I don't think the Ravens will be able to run on the Pats like they would have last year. pats look tougher up front. Anyway this is definitely game of the week. Hoping Jets spank the Phins and the Ravens beat the pats putting us in first at least for a short while
Ravens should be favored by at least 3+ at home. My crew was going to go make a weekend of it and go to this game, but decided to go to the Pats home opener instead.... The Troy Brown induction was fun.... :beer:
In Baltimore, I give Baltimore a slight edge. I thinking losing Hernandez hurts them and of course they are going against arch nemesis in Bernard Pollard. If I was a Patriots fan, I would be very afraid of Bernard. If I was a Patriots who didn't believe in curses, make Flacco throw it. Keep Ray Rice out of it. You win the game. Ravens gameplan should stay similar to last years playoff game. Pressure up the middle, force Brady to move around and feel the pressure.
Defensively, the Patriots will stack up on Rice and make Flacco beat them. No brainer there. But Flacco is not totally inept so if he has a good game, could be trouble for NE. Offensively I have no idea what the Patriots are going to try to do. Hernandez was clearly a huge piece of their philosophy and game-planning this year. Winslow is not Hernandez, even if he's a decent pass-catching TE. The injury should help you with Welker though. It turns out old GoPats may have not been too far off last week, LOL! Check out this article from yesterday's Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/2012/09/16/role-patriots-welker-further-doubt/Dg7RK1CauYzErdx6d0uT7M/story.html
So are they purposely not featuring him or he really doesn't have a spot? I haven't seen the last two Pats game so not really sure.
I'm excited for this game. It will let us know about about where both teams stand. Its hard for me to cheer for the ravens, but ats_suck:
Should be a good game to watch. Clearly hoping for a Ravens win. Its certainly looking like Welker will be gone after this season
For all that fazing out Welker talk, he caught 5 balls for 95 yards this week. He also dropped one and him and Brady got crossed up on another. The guy was slightly injured in the preseason and missed over a week besides with a death in his family. I think there are conspiracy theorists all around, but when the season is over he'll have 80+ catches for 1200 yards.
Have we spoken about this shitbag yet? http://www.brobible.com/sports/article/most-hated-person-in-baltimore-twitter