The Ravens came into Foxborough last night and put up a fight for most of the game but that rally fell short. It’s was a Brady to Hogan 79 yard touchdown pass that would put the dagger into the Ravens comeback hopes.
The Patriots opened up the scoring on a safety after Ryan Allen had a perfectly placed punt that fell right on the one-yard line where the Patriots downed the ball. Allen would have two perfectly placed punts throughout the game as he managed to pin them deep in their own zone thanks to some great punting accuracy.
The special team itself seemed to be on point all night as they had a big influence on the game it was just the kick return team that didn’t play well as they were fumbling left and right last night. Just fair catch the ball or take a knee in the end zone no need to run it out and fumble.
But the Pats did have a nifty blocked field goal by Shea McClellin who jumped just like Collins use to do, it was a perfectly timed jump and he stuffed Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker who was perfect all year up to that point. Belichick had this to say about the blocked kick: “Shea [McClellin]’s pretty athletic. He timed it up perfectly and made a good, clean jump and a good, clean block. Joe Judge did a great job of designing the play. We worked on it all week and just felt like we could take advantage of that and Shea really executed it perfectly, as did the guys up front. ”
The Patriots owned the whole first half of the game they looked like there were going to run away with it for a while. But then came halftime and the Patriots took their foot off the gas peddle for a quick second and it let Baltimore right back into the game.
It was the Brady to Hogan play that put the Patriots over the top and secured a win and it was a great win for the Patriots are they outplayed Baltimore for 95% of the game.
On a totally different note, Ed Hochuli was the typical Ed Hochulii last night as it was some of the worst officiating I have seen all year. The worst was a seeming strip sack by Trey Flowers was undone by Ed Hochuli ruling that the forward progress of Joe Flacco had been stopped. Turnover overturned, the Ravens punted it away. That was a terrible call along with a few others and I was sick of Hochuli by the end of the first quarter.
But it did not cost the Patriots the game and that is all that matters. It is now that time of the week yet again where we check up on Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski who has had an up and down season. But last night he looked good nailing all four of his extra point attempts.
With Monday night football over the Patriots will now have a short week to prepare to go to mile high stadium to take on the Denver Broncos. Next week the Patriots will have attempt number two to clinch the division and the very important first round bye.
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