Sarcastiholic

2010 NFL Season - Wild Card - Ravens at Patriots

Game three of Wild Card Weekend is also a rematch, but at least it’s not a rematch of two teams that met in Week 17 of the regular season.

At last… A new, spicy meatball.

The Baltimore Ravens travel to the bitter fields of Foxboro to face Tom Brady and the Wes Welker-less New England Patriots. Every wonk on the tube, newspapers, and the internet repeatedly spout that the Patriots cannot win without him.

If Wes Welker is such an important player to the New England Patriots (and I know he is) how come he is never mentioned in the same sentence as MVP? He is the leading receiver (1st in catches, 2nd in yards) in the NFL this season. So what’s the deal? How come quarterbacks are the only ones that get votes for MVP?

I guess they’re important. Good thing the Patriots still have Tom Brady. The Baltimore Ravens have Joe Flacco.

Flacco is a good quarterback and has shown the ability to be a competitive quarterback in the NFL for a long time. Good for him. Good for the Ravens. But he is no Tom Brady.

The Patriots still have Randy Moss, whom I expect the Ravens will try and double cover the majority of the game. That leaves the tight ends, and Julian Edelman. Edelman is as close to a Welker clone as you can get without breaking a multitude of international laws.

I wonder if Bill Belichick ever looked into that.

The Ravens will double cover Randy Moss. That is going to leave some openings for these other receivers who will make plays especially since I think the Patriots are going to try and hammer the running game at the Ravens. If the Patriots can get Laurence Maroney and Sammy Morris going it is going to free up Edelman and Moss in the passing game.

Oh… You can’t forget that the Ravens will also have to deal with Kevin Faulk. That is going to be a lot of ground that the Ravens’ linebackers are going to have to cover.

The Ravens have a great running game with Ray Rice and Willis McGahee but really don’t have any receivers that can cause fits for the Patriots’ secondary. (It should be noted that Ray Rice leads the team in receptions this year).

The Patriots can stack the box and force Joe Flacco to beat them. I don’t see how it happens.

I’m not saying it is going to be an easy game for the Patriots. I am saying that they will win though.

Tags: AFC, Baltimore Ravens, Bill Belichick, Joe Flacco, Jullian Edelman, New England Patriots, NFL, Randy Moss, Ray Rice, Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Willis McGahee

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 10:28 AM and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.