I don’t think any other Ravens blogger experienced Baltimore’s 33-14 beat down on the New England Patriots. While the actual game was taking place, I was sitting in the Towson Center with a few thousand of my closet friends preparing to graduate.
Knowing that I couldn’t ignore the biggest game of the year, I was receiving text messages from everyone, watching the ESPN Scorecenter on my iPhone, and of course tapping that guy in front of me with the earbud in his ear about what was taking place.
Regardless of how I enjoyed the game, here are my thoughts of the outcome after finally watching it.
- The small players stepped up – One of my favorite texts from a friend read, “Frank Walker just laid the wood on a receiver.” Frank Walker? Really? But it wasn’t just walker that stepped up, Domonique Foxworth, Chris Carr, Terrell Suggs, and Willis McGahee all stepped up.
- This was the defense of old – People that were calling for Greg Mattison‘s job just weren’t patient enough. Give great credit to Mattison and the entire coaching staff for his game plan against a powerful New England offense. They pressured Tom Brady all day and masked their bad secondary with an all around strong pressure upfront.
- I’m proud to be from Baltimore – I read an awesome article on Boston.com about Ravens fans venturing north for the game. While Camden Yards has been noted as Fenway Park South, Albert Breer wrote that Foxboro was M&T Bank Stadium North. The Ravens fans shouted “O” loudly during the national anthem. I can’t wait til the Red Sox fans come to Camden Yards and I start the “Let’s go Patriots” chant while they start the stupid “Let’s go Red Sox” chant.
- Rice was big, Flacco wasn’t – The Ravens ran the ball down the Pats throat. We all thought New England’s defense was soft, but not this soft. An 83 yard touchdown run by Ray Rice was just the beginning of his day. He finished with 159 yards and 2 touchdowns. Joe Flacco had just four completions for 34 yards and a pick. But it didn’t matter, as long as he was able to avoid too many costly turnovers.
I loved watching Kelley Washington wave good bye to the fans in New England. All around it was one hell of a ride.
As a Jets fan, I just want to thank the Ravens for that beat down of Brady and the Patriots. While the possibility still exists that the Ravens and Jets may yet face each other (probably a better possibility of you guys getting there than us), I have to say that I enjoyed that thorough beat down you laid on the Pats almost as much as I enjoyed the Jets win at Cincy. The 12" Humility on rye served up to that collection of smug a-holes in Gillette Stadium was a sight to behold. Every Pats fan I had the unfortunate circumstance to talk to last week was more concerned over how large of a margin they would beat you by….the thought of actually *losing* was never a possibility. Man oh man, was that just awesome to watch. Good luck the rest of the way!
Well you're quite welcome! It was our pleasure. As a Ravens fan I had a blast watching Rex, Bart, and Jim defeat Cincy. I might even take a little pride in that win. Good luck next week!
Speaking of Kelley Washington, I am not certain but I thought I heard Harbs yeall "where's Kelley Washington" at the end f the game when he was looking to dump his cups of gatorade on someone. That made me laugh.
Zach you hould have hired an undergrad to walk for you so you could have watched the game live.
The team showed a lot of character yesterday. In many ways it has been a disappointing season with unrealized expectations. Playing their best game when it mattered most showed a lot of toughness. Now they need to do it 2 weeks in a row.
I also think the secondary is not bad anymore. They have been playing much better for going on 5 weeks now. Granted some of the teams they have played have been bad, but they played well at Pittsburgh and NE. Have to give them credit for improving and getting tougher. The whole team hit like we are used to seeing Ravens defenses hit.
I definitely should have Jeff. I know I'll remember that day forever though.
Funny thing was, I promised myself, Zach, and Zach's mom that I would dedicate this day to the proud event of Zach's Graduation from Towson University. Most of the texts I received Sunday ended up being from the graduate himself who was supposed to be preparing for one of the biggest days of his life!?!? It ends up it was one of the biggest days of his life – graduation AND a monumental Ravens' ass whoppin of The Genius and The Wonder Boy.
Congrats Zach and Ravens!!!
Thanks dad! It ended up being quite the day. I had a great time. By the way, what do you think of the new site?
Looks good. Keep up the good work.