KidNme

My feelings are that we'll play a great game but not sure if we'll pull out the win. I know we "can" but NE always seems to pull something out of their collective hats near the end of games with us. I'll be floating around here on cloud nine if we beat those guys and I'm trying my hardest to not expect the win so I'm not too disappointed if we lose. I guess my main concern would be that we play a great game for 60 minutes with very few mistakes on the field or on the sidelines.
Everyone is going to have to be on top of everything, at all times and leave nothing to chance. The only thing I admire about Brady (and I shudder to say it) is that Tom has that fire and pulls things out of his butt if he thinks he's going to lose (Probably comes more from him being a brat). You couple that with probably the best coach in football (Another shudder!), in the homeless looking, hooded Bilichick and they're hard to beat. Sure would love to play them in our house for once though!

I posted this last night at NFL.com under the Ravens-Patriots game discussion ...

On December 16, 2012 at around 3:00PM EST, Joe Flacco lay on the ground in Baltimore. There was blood trickling onto the Ravens goal line from a cut on Flacco's face. One of the cleats from the Bronco's Chris Harris had caught him as he dove, trying to prevent Harris from scoring on a 98 yard pick 6. Despite being partially blocked near the 50 yard line, Flacco had continued to chase Harris, and almost caught him. His chase was likely as much in frustration as in desperation.

The Ravens had entered December 9-2 and on a four game winning streak which included tough road wins in Pittsburgh and San Diego. They appeared to have their home game with the Steelers in hand when arch-nemesis James Harrison hit Flacco from the blind side and stripped the ball, leading to the deciding TD. This was followed by a close loss to the Redskins in Washington, and now a blowout loss in progress to the playoff-bound Broncos. The Ravens once-promising season appeared to be going down the tubes in a hurry.

And then a miracle happened.

OK, the miracle was a few weeks later, after the Ravens had rebounded against the defending world champion Giants to get into the playoffs, then defeated the wild card Colts at home. They were again playing the Broncos, this time in Denver, and it appeared that the Broncos had the game in hand. They were up 35-28 with under a minute left and the Ravens were facing 3rd and 3 at their own 30 yard line. That's when Flacco unleashed a pass that traveled 60 yards in the air to hit Jacoby Jones with the game tying TD. The Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl, and in the process Joe Flacco tied Joe Montana for the most post-season TD's without an interception.

Two years later in the divisional championship game, Flacco matched Brady TD for TD, twice taking 14 point leads in Foxboro. But the Ravens eventually fell victim to the Pats as their defensive secondary wasn't up to the task of covering the Patriots receivers.

This year is shaping up similarly to 2012. The Ravens started 3-0, but then went 0-for-October, losing four games in a row to the Raiders, Redskins, Giants, and (ugh) Jets. They were all close games, and there were serious injury problems throughout that time, but regardless of that, the Ravens entered November 3-4, lucky that the rest of the AFC North was faring just as badly or worse. Since then they have gone 4-1 with that one loss being to the Cowboys in Dallas. They have also gotten healthy. And if they can remain without significant injuries, their chances at taking it all again are far better than their 7-5 record might suggest.

After that loss to the Pats in the 2014 playoffs, the Ravens were predicted by many to win the SB in 2015. That was before a raft of injuries hit the team, eventually leaving half the opening day starters on IR, with other key injuries as well, including first round draft pick Brashad Perriman who never played a snap in 2015. Their season of frustration was made all the worse when, in the same game, Justin Forsett broke his arm and Joe Flacco went down with torn ACL and MCL in his left knee.

They finished 5-11, their first losing season under John Harbaugh. The one bright spot was that they DID get some nifty draft picks - picks which have paid off well. Perhaps the most important have been first round pick Ronnie Stanley at left guard, and fourth round pick Tavon Young at CB. Stanley has lived up to his hype as a quality offensive lineman, and the Ravens four game losing streak just happened to correspond to the four games Stanley missed due to injury. Meanwhile Young has played his way into the starting cornerback spot, winning the job from opening day starter Shareece Wright.

The Ravens defensive backfield also has PFF's top rated strong safety, Eric Weddle, and converted CB Ladarius Webb who is rapidly developing into a quality free safety. They are a far stronger unit than the one that Brady picked apart in the 2014 playoffs. Meanwhile, Flacco has better offensive weapons than he has ever enjoyed. Whereas his only deep threat in 2014 was Torrey Smith, he now has Mike Wallace, Brashad Perriman, and Chris Moore who can all burn down the field. He also has big-bodied tight end Darren Waller who has the speed of a wide receiver and the height to be able to go up high in the back of the endzone.

The Ravens also have two quality running backs in Terrence West and Kenneth Dixon. Dixon, another fourth round pick, has recovered from the knee injury that kept him from playing the first several games of the season, and is showing the kind of elusiveness that made him the Ravens top running back this preseason. Now that the offensive line has gotten healthy and learned to play as a unit, both the running game and the passing game have improved.

If the Pats want to win on Monday they had better be significantly better than they were in 2014, because the Ravens are.

Nice, KBman. Love the positive attitude!

I agree, Let Lewis get fully healed, we got this as long as Ducasse limits the penalties. It will be nice to have him in there helping if we need him but we can afford to bring him back slowly. I believe he's going to be a great player for us just hope we don't bring him back as slow as we did with Perriman.

No doubt they'll miss him but it all starts with Bilichick and that man knows football. They are a top notch team and it's going to be fun matching wits with them.
It's always a chess match and I'm sure this one will be no different. They're expecting and planning for our best and I'm sure they'll get it.
Go RAVENS!!

As always, great article Kevin! You could tell from the "mic'd up" segment, that our guys were having fun with Miami and the guys are feeling good about themselves ans that's half the battle to winning games like we'll play Monday night.
Keep the Mojo going and I'll do my part here at home!
GO RAVENS!!!

I'm predicting the Patriots injury report will be a bit longer after Monday night!

3 hours ago, ibleedpurpleandblack said:

I'd look for a lot of hard counts to try and draw our guys off sides, mainly Suggs bc (who will no doubt get at least one called on him). Defense has to play disciplined because they will also be looking to get other penalties called too (cough cough Smith Sr don't let them get in your head!!!!) Will need to score quick and then establish the run and keep Brady off the field as much as possible, time of possession is going to be key in this game...

I agree! Score quick then run the ball and eat the clock with some play action thrown in once we draw them in to stop the run. Suggs gets one off sides call almost every game and when Smith Sr is pumped up, he can come dangerously close to getting those taunting flags. We need to play disciplined and focused and hope the refs are getting tired at how little they are paid under the table by the pats to skew the game in their favor. 

The Pats and Bilichick are students of game film. I believe that this is a game to pull out some plays and formations we haven't done much of and hope we've practiced and kept a few of those for games like this one. Since we haven't showed we're a running team this year, maybe we should emphasize the run Monday night with a lot of play action passing thrown in. I also believe our pass rush will get to Brady early and often which is always good! The 4th qtr is where it all comes to fruition, as it usually does for us so, I'm hoping we have more gas in the tank in the final minutes of this game. Of course, having a 3 possession lead by the middle of the 4th, would help a lot too! :-)

I'm way too pumped for this game against NE. My wife says it's not good for my heart to be so frantic over games like this one coming up Monday night but I say, that which doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!
All my bobble heads will be facing north and all the photos and jerseys on my "Ravens wall of fame" get a good tap for luck!
Last game against the Squeelers, I put every starting player's number and name for Pittsburgh on a clay pigeon and shot the heck out of them for 2 hours before the game. Had a big purple bruise on my shoulder after that but it worked!
I'm doing the same Monday after work and Brady gets a few extra clays thrown for good measure.
Not that I'm superstitious or anything :-)

15 hours ago, ravenwildman said:

Monday is my birthday, I can't wait to party while watching the Ravens hammer the Pats! GO RAVENS! CB 25

Happy Birthday! When you blow out your birthday candles, can you kindly use your wish on a dominating performance by us on Monday night?  
Thanks!

I love playing the Squeelers and the rivalry has always been a good one. We're close enough that we can interact with their fans and talk smack back and forth. The Pats however, is more of a hate/hate relationship for me. I absolutely hate Tom Brady and his attitude. One of those "better than everyone else" Boston attitudes. He complains to the refs when things don't go his way (I'm reminded of Tanya Harding's' Olympic skating fiasco, to date myself a little). The cheating, lying and deception they rely on to win games is teetering on blasphemy to the NFL IMHO.
If it were me, and I'm glad it isn't, I'd take 2 PS players (and the penalty and possibly the ejection), one to hold him up and the other to smack Brady so hard in the chest, he doesn't get up for a week (Down on their own 5yd line or something of course!) and he's the only player I would ever think of doing that to. I'd love to have Brady fake having the flu every time he knew we were coming to town to get out of playing us.

22 hours ago, Sherly_Tebow said:

 

10 minutes ago, Ravensfansince03 said:

I have a feeling we will lose this game in a very heartbreaking fashion. One of those games where we play our hearts out, but still end up falling short. It will be a tough, physical game, but I just keep envisioning Julian Edelman catching that last TD pass to seal the win. We need to play very physical in this game. Especially against Bennett. This envision I have is liable to change in the upcoming days leading to Sunday. I will let you guys know what's what on Saturday night...Stay tuned.

Aww, now don't be like that. I'm doing every Mojo thing I can do to help us with this game and you go and say something like that. We almost always play NE hard and with no Gronk or Amendola playing and NE's shaky depth at WR, I believe we have a great chance to pull this one out.

I think the most awesome thing about this game is we can definitely win it!
5 weeks ago, there was little confidence about that. With no Gronk or Amondola and a weak WR depth, we have a good shot at this one! Our corners are going to have to press at the line of scrimmage to throw off Brady's quick, short passing game and give Suggs and Doom a chance at disrupting Brady's throws. I'm so excited, I think I'd give away 5 days of my life to play this game now!
It would also be nice if we could play them just ONCE in our own stadium!
It really irritates me to no end that NE always seems to have the upper hand with things like that.

Each team is different every year so trying to compare possibilities of winning against any team on past performances is a bit of a fools errand. Out of the 8 games we've played in Foxboro, we've only won 2 of them. The one thing you can take from that is, we have beat them in the past but that in no way means we'll do it again this year however, Gronk being out is a help because he got over 100 yds and a couple TD's against us in the divisional round in a close 35-31 game. We hung with them all game and had a 21-14 lead at the half. We actually had a 14pt lead twice in that game! It was an awesome game and we have most of the same players playing this year. We beat on Brady all game long. I'm hoping Mornhigweg comes up with a great game plan for Monday night. I'm sure Bilichick is pouring through the rule book to see what he can do to bend the rules again simply because he knows straight up, we're going to be tough to beat. I'd love to see a flea flicker to Steve Smith in the 4th qtr to seal the game. That would be epic!

Why was Suggs in the last play of the game?

"veteran defender Terrell Suggs wasn’t interested in coming out of the game early"

5 hours ago, Sherly_Tebow said:

The Patriots have won 6 of 8 all-time in Foxboro, not the Ravens.

Gosh darn it, you're right! Must have been my wishful thinking!

Thanks for the correction!

It's going to be tough. Brady and company, especially Belichick knows how to win games and playing in Foxboro only makes it harder however, if any team can beat them, we can! I don't think we do great on Monday night games (about 50-50) but we do have a slightly better Monday night record % than they do, .524 to .500 so there's that!
I believe our last 2 Monday night games were against the cardinals @ Arizona in Oct, which we lost 26-18 then we beat the Browns @ Cleveland with a 33-27 score in Nov 2015, keeping with our 50-50 Ratio. Another stat is, we usually win when we only play one Monday night game in that year (Which is the case this year) and in 2010, we actually won both Monday night matchups on the road! (Jets 10 to 9 and Houston 34 to 28).
The stat I love the best is the fact that we have won 6 out of 8 in Foxboro! Now that's a stat I can get behind! We rule NE in their house!

I sure hope our players don't think that Monday nights game isn't a must win. That's not the mentality we need nor do we need to lose a game to let Pittsburgh have any hope of winning the division. Go kick some butt and let's get some recognition for a change!

  12 hours ago, Crusader said:

So if fans on here do it it's called critizing and if player does it it's called challenging? Got it.!

It is called challenging when you are a peer of the person you are challenging. You can challenge if you can do it yourself, otherwise, your just a complainer.

How many of you would tolerate someone coming behind you, not knowing your job, and telling you how to do your job, even though you know they don't have a clue about your job and how to do it and what needs to be done. Especially an artist. I can see some of these people on this comments board coming behind Da Vinci and asking "Well, why are the people in the Sistine Chapel naked when its a church?" "You should have used better oils in the "Nativity" and it wouldn't be fading." Would you consider that challenging you to do better, or just a complainer who doesn't have a clue. I would say it was just complainers.

I think that answers your question.

I agree, why are the people in the Sistine chapel naked in church?

I was really worried about Webby earlier this year. I have a large canvas print signed by him in person at a charity event we went to last year and a game jersey my wife had him sign at another charity event later that year that he let us take a selfie with him with it that we ended up spending four times more on the frame for it than the jersey itself so we could put it on our man cave "wall of fame" then all the sudden, he started stinking up the joint. We thought we had jinxed him! I'm so glad he's on track and hope he keeps on trucking with outstanding plays like that INT!

13 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

You see this type comment invites counter arguments which some people on this website will readily see as "hate on Flacco" You are essentially implying that if the offense isn't playing well to look no further than the Oline and the WRs. That I completely disagree. Flacoo played an excellent game last Sunday, but let's not pretend that he has not been mediocre WRs and Oline not withstanding.
What I think is more likely the case is 1. Flacco is getting healthier 2. He was determined to elevate his game and that of others around him - when's the last time you saw Flacco get in anyone's face like he did Wallace yesterday? 3. The Oline is jelling 4. The OC called a better game 5. The whole offense consequently played better

I agree Completely! I also believe it has a lot to do with the fans criticism. It may not be him reading these comments himself but it could be friends and family relaying it to him OR, it could be that we're right about what we're seeing and he's taking to heart. He corrected every criticism I've had about him this year in that game. More animated and active on the sidelines, talking to Wallace about just standing there on that INT, his mechanics were much improved and he moved in the pocket and threw it out of bounds when he had to. No happy feet. I'd have to really be picking to find anything to complain about with his play Sunday. Great job and I hope he builds on this and does the same thing in NE Monday night.

We should do it after every score against NE too! :-)

I've never seen our receivers be so open, so often. From my Lazy Boy, it was hard to tell if it was our guys finally finding holes or if it was Miami just playing very soft D but either way, we exploited it. Our D, did their jobs all day long, our O line was on point by keeping Joe upright and Joe definitely looked happy during and after the game. I almost shed a tear many times during that game and for once, they were tears of joy! :-) I'm sure it was a great moral booster for the team. Mornhinwig did his homework for this game for sure and he has an extra day to come up with another game plan for NE.
The really great news is, beside the awesome win, we came out of this game healthy and have an extra day to rest (and watch tape) before heading out to Gillette.
GO RAVENS!!!

A complete game from the coaching on down to the ball boy! Joe looked great, the O line looked great, everyone looked great! What a way to head into Foxboro!

Finally, A complete game in all phases! Joe looked like "December Joe", O line looked good, the few runs we had were good, receivers looked good. We didn't let off the gas or play prevent D in the 2nd half! What an awesome way to head into a Monday night game in Gillette stadium! Let's ride this wave and show NE, they're not all that!!
Really proud of our team tonight!
As of 7pm, the Giants aren't doing us any favors tonight with Pittsburgh so it's going to come down to Xmas day it looks like.
Let's hunt!