Posted 18 February 2012 - 12:54 PM
Looking at the picture of Manning holding the Lombardy Trophy up is extremely frustrating to me. The Giants may have peaked, but they weren't the best team in the NFL.
Flacco was impressive in moving the team down field on their last possession and positioning them to win the AFC Championship game in the last few seconds of the game. The defensive plays were magnificent, the running game a disappointment, the passing game a pleasant surprise.
The obvious biggest disappointments to me was the play of Evans in the end zone and the missed field goal. Evans is a professional receiver who was brought here to make those types of catches but couldn't stay focused and fight to keep the ball. The kicker wasn't kicking a 50 yard field goal, but an extra point. If he wasn't comfortable, the he should have taken the penalty and not kick it, it still would have been an easy kick. These were amateur mistakes, not something I would expect of professionals with the Championship game on the line.
I don't know if its true, but I've heard thru the press that the Ravens front office is accommodating and down playing the negative impacts of these individuals in the title game. In my world, if people don't get the job done, they are replaced with people who do. The Ravens don't have the luxury of waiting till a player decides to perform, or waiting for 1 out of 3. They've had 4 years in the playoffs and have nothing to show for it, except impressive statistics in the W-L column. I feel for guys like Ray, Reed and Johnson, guys that have put it on the line and excelled for consecutive years, and yet can't share in holding the Trophy. Instead, it falls to a Giants team that didn't show up for half the season, played in a weak division and therefore had the opportunities to get another chance to gain the playoffs, and then beat a New England team very vulnerable away from their home stadium in Indianapolis. I know some would say that is football, but to me being a Ravens fan is the highlight of frustration. Next year will be a lot tougher, Houston looks to be hard to beat, they remind me of a young 2000 Ravens defense.
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