In A Monsoon At Gillette Stadium, Pats Pick Up Their Best Win Of the Season, 23-17 vs. Ravens

 

    Starting this season with a woeful record of 2-5, the Patriots (4-5 overall, 3-2 home) put themselves in a major hole to even dream about a shot at the playoffs. However, on a short week after barely getting by the winless Jets (0-9) on Monday, the Pats won back-to-back games for the first time in 2020 as they held off the overrated Ravens (6-3 overall, 4-1 away) 23-17 tonight at rain-soaked Gillette Stadium. So much for tanking since a victory like this shows what they are capable of doing when they play classic complimentary football against one of the better teams in the AFC. It was not a fluke either because they held Baltimore's superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson (24-of-34 for 249 yards, 2 TDs, INT; 55 yards rushing) somewhat in check while New England's new top running back Damien Harris ran for a career-high 121 yards (his 3rd 100-yard game of the season) on just 22 carries. 

    Pats quarterback Cam Newton (13-of-17 for 118 yards, TD; 21 yards rushing, TD) couldn't match the numbers that Jackson put up but he didn't need to with so many of his teammates stepping up to help him and most importantly, he had zero turnovers. Pats wide receiver Jakobi Meyers (5 catches for 59 yards on 7 targets; 24-yard touchdown pass!) continues to make plays while running back Rex Burkhead (66 total yards) caught a pair of touchdowns and cornerback J.C. Jackson set a franchise record with an interception in his fifth straight game and he also leads the NFL in picks this season with six. Besides some terrible snaps by Ravens center Matt Skura that caused three fumbles (!!) the terrible weather didn't affect the outcome as much as you would expect. Rain or no rain, throwing the ball still isn't Jackson's main strength and New England's defense at least contained his explosive play capability for the most part.  

    In a lot of ways, these teams want to do similar things offensively: control the clock and methodically march down the field before scoring. For that reason, neither is really built to play from behind so while Baltimore was up 7-0 in the second quarter then 10-7, New England took a 13-10 halftime lead and never looked back as they did just enough to hang on. Oddly enough, the first quarter and the fourth quarter were both scoreless so all the points came from the middle frames. The Ravens looked like undisciplined front-runners as they clearly let their frustrations get to them to the tune of eight penalties for 64 yards. The Patriots notched six more first downs (25-19) and surprisingly against one of the NFL's top rushing attacks, New England outgained them 173-115 on the ground. 

    Getting the ball to Harris was key from the start for the home team and he actually took hand-offs on the first five offensive plays. On the first play of the second quarter, Willie Snead (5 catches for 64 yards on 7 targets) took a flip from Jackson-officially credited as a pass-and got to the corner of the end zone first. The NFL's best kicker Justin Tucker added the PAT for a 7-0 Ravens lead. To call that drive impressive for Baltimore was an understatement as they went almost the entire field (94 yards in 13 plays) which took up over half a quarter (8:04). The Patriots answered with a strong drive of their own: 75 yards in seven plays that took 3:08. Burkhead caught a screen pass from Newton and rumbled in from seven yards out. Nick Folk's PAT tied it up at seven.

    The next drive for the Ravens stalled in the red zone as Jackson short-hopped a pass to his wide open tight end Mark Andrews (7 catches for 61 yards on 9 targets) in the middle of the end zone so they were forced to settle for a 24-yard field goal by Tucker. The Pats went into halftime with a 13-10 lead thanks to another great drive: 10 plays, 75 yards in 4:30. The go-ahead score came thanks to a moment of brilliance from Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels who called for a pass from Newton to Meyers who then lofted it into the end zone for a diving Burkhead. Folk missed the point after (which I was convinced would come back to bite them later) but that couldn't ruin what otherwise was a great effort in the first 30 minutes by the Patriots. The cherry on top was Lamar forcing a deep pass down the sideline and J.C. (no relation) picking it off which allowed Newton to kneel to end the half. 

    The Patriots added to their lead in the third quarter as Newton rushed for a four-yard touchdown (his 9th rushing TD of the season) followed by Folk's PAT. Speaking of Nick, he was called on for a chip shot (20 yard field goal) after Newton bounced a pass to Meyers that should have been a touchdown. Still, the Patriots were up by two touchdowns (23-10) which was a bit of a shock considering that they entered as a seven-point underdog. Lamar's best throw of the game was unquestionably his 18-yard dart to Snead with eight seconds left in the quarter. After Tucker's point after kick, that was as close as Baltimore would get as New England sacked Jackson twice (by John Simon and rookie Josh Uche) while rookie safety Kyle Duggar (12 tackles, 7 solo, 1/2 tackle for a loss) had his best game as a pro. Undrafted second-year linebacker Terez Hall (10 tackles, 8 solo) played well-whoever that is-while Chase Winovich (7 tackles, 6 solo) continues to dig himself out of Bill Belichick's dog house.

    As I've said before, absolutely nothing is guaranteed for this Patriots team but for once, they will be favored next Sunday (1, CBS) as they visit the awful Texans (2-7 overall, 1-3 home). Quarterback Deshaun Watson is stuck with that loser team while old friend Romeo Crennel is the interim head coach after Bill O'Brien was mercifully fired earlier this season. It is gross to say out loud but simply getting back to .500 (5-5) would be a real nice accomplishment for the Pats after their season looked completely doomed. If nothing else, they are giving us a good reason to watch them while the days get shorter and the weather continues to go downhill toward winter. Thankfully, it looks like we can at least have a football season after all and in 2020, we'll take it!

Patriots Suffer Another Devastating Loss, 31-30 To Ravens On Shady 27-Yd Field Goal

The esteemed Jerry Thornton of Barstool Sports said in his weekly Knee Jerk reactions piece (every Monday or Tuesday after a Patriots game) last Monday that the Patriots never lose in mundane fashion. This was after they fell 20-18 to the Cardinals last week on Stephen Gostkowski's missed field goal attempt.

They felt the other side of that pain tonight as once again they lost in another spectacular way, 31-30 against the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Through incompetence of the replacement refs and the inability of New England's (1-2) defense to make a play/get a stop/get off the field, they allowed Baltimore (2-1) to move down the field and set up rookie Justin Tucker for a 27-yard field goal.

Of course in a game that featured 24 penalties (10 on New England, 14 on Baltimore), this had to end in a controversial manner: Tucker's chip shot appeared to go directly over the right goal post. Luckily with the clock nearing midnight on the East Coast (really) and no replays on field goals (really?), this gongshow was complete.

The easy thing to do which will no doubt be the choice of most Patriots apologists this week is to simply blame the officials. They were only part of the problem as the endless skirmishes after the whistle attest to. Let's start with the defense giving up 503 total yards plus 28 first downs and only 1 tackle for loss to the Ravens, including a monster performance from Joe Flacco (28 of 39, 382 passing yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT), 150 yards for Ray Rice (101 rushing, 49 receiving, 1 rushing TD) and an incredible moment for Torrey Smith (6 catches, 127 yards, 2 TDs), who played after his younger brother tragically died this morning in a motorcycle accident. Steve Gregory had a gift interception and 37-yard return but other than that, the Pats defense didn't make any plays. Pressures, hurries and knockdowns were few and far between and they didn't have any sacks of Flacco.

The main reason the Pats find themselves under .500 for the first time in nine years (0-1 in 2003; but how'd that year turn out?) and 1-2 for the first time since 2001 because as usual, they couldn't protect a fourth-quarter lead (30-21). Stephen Gostkowski's 20-yard field goal put the Patriots up 30-21 with 14:10 left in the fourth but those were their final points. Smith cut it to 30-28 with a 5-yard touchdown catch with 4:01 left. New England moved the ball but Tom Brady (28 of 41, 335 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT) was sacked then had to throw it away on third down.

While this game was going on, a main subplot was Baltimore offensive coordinator Cam Cameron locked into a battle of can you top this in horrible playcalls with New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. I'd say the edge goes to McDaniels since even though Cameron called a handoff to rookie Bernard Pierce on 4th and 1-stopped by Patrick Chung-McDaniels beat him with sheer volume of baffling decisions. An end around to Julian Edelman worked once, why not try it again on the same drive? Danny Woodhead had a few decent runs, let's give him more carries than Stevan Ridley. On and on it went with a guy that suddenly doesn't seem like the wizard we remember from 2007. Now he appears much more like the guy in over his head in Denver and also fired last season in St. Louis.

Brady threw a touchdown pass for the 35th straight game, the fourth longest streak in NFL history. Brandon Lloyd (9 catches, 108 yards) and Wes Welker (8 catches, 142 yards) gave him a combination that the Ravens could never really stop. With no Aaron Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski (2 catches, 21 yards; 3 targets) was just another guy. I guess Baltimore double-teamed him but doesn't the best tight end in the NFL need more touches than that?

Befitting a team that has become a frontrunner the past few seasons, New England jumped out to a quick lead then faded as the game went on. Gostkowski had a pair of field goals (37, 49) sandwiched around a 2-yard score by undrafted rookie running back Brandon Bolden (1st of his NFL career) in the first quarter for a 13-0 advantage.

The Ravens woke up in the second quarter with Flacco and Smith connecting on a pretty 25-yard touchdown. Dennis Pitta's 20-yard catch and run was a disgrace since Gregory and Devin McCourty had the most pathetic tackle attempts (called out by NBC's Cris Collinsworth) that you'll ever see.

Brady answered with a masterful 2-minute drill, still his specialty, that was capped off by a 7-yard touchdown pass to Edelman over the middle with two seconds remaining in the half. New England led 20-14 at halftime.

Cameron remembered that his team had Rice in the third quarter, his 7-yard run made it 21-20 but Woodhead answered with a 3-yard score.

My head hurts from all the terrible calls, on both sides. I can also admit that McCourty needs to make a play when Flacco throws him multiple easy interceptions that he dropped. He also picked up a pass interference on the final drive when Flacco's ball was underthrown to Jacoby Jones (3 catches, 86 yards) and he didn't adjust properly.

The best outcome from this whole debacle is that it was the final straw that makes NFL owners (wake up Bob Kraft!) realize they need to get the real referees back in the games. After the Falcons-Broncos nightmare on Monday, this contest similarly in the national spotlight was more of the same dangerous slop. Plus, have you noticed how much longer these games are? Good lord, they are pushing four hours which is way too long for any sporting event (sorry Red Sox-Yankees).

The good news for the Patriots is that their schedule eases up for a while. They play the Bills (2-1) in Buffalo on Sunday (1 p.m.). Fred Jackson got hurt in Week 1 and C.J. Spiller was hurt early in today's game which means New England will likely be facing Tashard Choice. If there is anything you can count on in this crazy mixed up world, it's that the Patriots own the Bills. Until they prove us otherwise, I will keep clinging to that fact this week and beyond.

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