19-0: 7 to go[/B]
Wow. OMG. Holy &$^%. That was the most sensational, confrontational, thrilling, chilling, heart-stopping gut-wrenching football game I\'ve seen since...since...since last season\'s AFC Championship!!! Hehe.
For real, all due props to the Ravens, they played their hearts out. Monday night home game + team\'s personal Super Bowl to knock off the Pats + 3 former Sean Taylor teammates at Miami=uber-jacked Ravens. They were awesome.
I have a question for the readers of this thread, answer honestly: This week, were you more excited to watch your team win or to watch the Patriots lose? The highs and lows you experienced tonight as the Patriots were pushed to the absolute brink...were these peaks and valleys greater than what you felt watching your team yesterday? Tell me if I\'m wrong, but I think for many people it has gotten to that point.
There was one very lucky play tonight, the rest of it was just superior gameplay when it mattered. Remember, luck has to be rooted in something chaotic, such as how a football bounces or when the wind blows. The lucky play was the Brady pass on the last drive that got deflected about 20 feet in the air and perfectly bisected 4 Raven defenders such that none could intercept it. That\'s as lucky as it gets. When the Baltimore sideline calls timeout right before their defense makes the game-winning stuff on 4th and one, that\'s not luck, it\'s poor gameplay. So the Patriots
were lucky to win based on that one play, but hey, you\'ve got to win some of those games too if you\'re going to be perfect. You\'re just not going to beat everyone by 30 every week. The Pats played the far superior 4th quarter, which is of course what matters most. They scored 10 unanswered points in the 4th while posting 3 consecutive 3-and-outs when Baltimore just needed one more score or even just a couple of first downs to seal it. The Ravens did an amazing job for 3 quarters, but it wasn\'t enough to overcome the Patriots doing a great job for 1 quarter, because of course the Patriots played their best in the 4th quarter.
And how about that last Pats kickoff from the
Baltimore 35!. Never seen anything like that!
The Patriots look exhausted. They have to be. They\'ve played three straight night games, the last two as draining and exhausting as can be. And now, with two less days of rest and prep, they take on a very tough Pittsburgh team. This game coming up is the toughest game the Patriots will play the rest of this season, regular or postseason. Obviously I\'m not going to predict a Pats loss, but lets just say that it wouldn\'t shock me this week. Haters unite, this is it. After this it\'s Jets, Dolphins, and a final game against a Giants team with nothing on the line who will be taking the week off to rest for the playoffs. The Patriots are going 16-0 if they can get through this Pittsburgh game, there is no doubt about it.
