No meeting seems additional evenly matched, and that is the 1st rematch inside a conference championship because the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers met 3 many years inside a row (1992-94).
It could possibly be the last game from the fantastic profession for Ray Lewis, and potential Hall of Fame security Ed Reed isn't far behind him for retirement. Consequently, the Ravens possess a smaller sized window of possibility, however they will be the secondary story.
If your New England Patriots fall at your home or fail to win the Super Bowl this yr, it is going to carry on the biggest run of playoff disappointment in NFL historical past.
Patriots will need to validate their record success
Although coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady won 3 Super Bowls with each other from 2001-2004, that was an eternity ago. The only other latest Patriots to get won a Super Bowl together with the group are Deion Branch (backup receiver) and Vince Wilfork (being a rookie in 2004).
New England's regular-season achievement has only elevated, but no far more championships have come. The Patriots did come excruciatingly near 3 times, losing two Super Bowls on last-minute touchdown drives through the New York Giants and blowing the biggest lead ever in the championship game (18 factors), losing towards the Indianapolis Colts.
The 2007 season began with controversy right after the Spygate story of illegal videotaping broke, questioning the validity of New England's historic achievement. Belichick answered with on the list of most dominant seasons in historical past.
However they had been nevertheless ahead of your curve offensively in these days, in 2007 the Patriots transformed the dynamic of their crew by including receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker, the latter defining the function on the slot receiver. There was tiny comparison with their championship teams, which have been developed on sturdy defenses.
New England's 2007 offense became the very first to work with the shotgun on greater than 50 % of their plays, using factors of your spread offense Belichick picked up on from school coach Urban Meyer.
The outcomes had been spectacular since the 2007 Patriots scored a record 589 factors. Brady threw a record 50 touchdown passes with Moss catching 23 of them. Once the crew commenced 10-0, it had been outscoring opponents by 25.four factors per game, on the lookout like arguably essentially the most dominant group in background.
However the grind of the march on the ideal season took its toll. The Patriots fell behind by twelve factors for the New York Giants in Week 17, but came back to win to clinch the only 16-0 standard season ever. Even so, the game developed self-assurance within the Giants, who took down the Patriots (twelve.5-point favorites) in Super Bowl XLII, holding by far the most prolific offense ever to just 14 factors. Brady, who scoffed at Giants' receiver Plaxico Burress' prediction of New England scoring 17 factors, was sacked 5 instances just after enjoying pristine pass safety all season.
It nonetheless took the biggest drive in NFL historical past, engineered by Eli Manning, to have the 17-14 win, however the Giants pulled off the upset, leaving the Patriots by using a hollow 18-1 finish.
Brady tore his ACL during the initial quarter from the initial game in 2008, however the Patriots even now managed to finish 11-5 behind Matt Cassel. Nonetheless, they became just the 2nd 11-5 group ever (1985 Denver Broncos) to not qualify to the playoffs.
Returning to start out the 2009 season, Brady led the Patriots to a thrilling comeback win more than Buffalo in Week one, but that might be Brady's only game-winning drive in the season. The 2009 crew struggled to near video games out, which was the hallmark of New England's earlier good results from the decade.
The season-changing second came in Week ten once the Patriots (6-2) played the Colts (8-0) in prime time. As soon as holding a 17-point lead inside the fourth quarter, the Patriots faced a 4th-and-2 at their particular 28, holding onto a 34-28 lead with two:08 left. Most coaches would punt, but Belichick kept the offense around the field. Brady's pass to Kevin Faulk was brief from the to start with down, and Peyton Manning threw the game-winning touchdown with 0:13 left inside a 35-34 comeback win.
From that stage the Patriots completed just 4-4, lost Welker to injury in Week 17, and hosted the Ravens within the Wild Card round. Ray Rice started off the game with an 83-yard touchdown run, and Brady turned the ball in excess of 3 times while in the initial quarter. Baltimore led 24-0 at that stage, and went on to win 33-14. The Ravens lost in New England by a 27-21 last in Week four.
In 2010 the Patriots once again began to evolve their offense right after drafting tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. They completed the standard season on an eight-game winning streak, turning the ball more than just one particular time (+23 in turnover differential), and averaging 37.four factors per game (at the least 31 factors in each game). No functionality was additional amazing than a 45-3 rout from the Jets in Week 13.
The 2010 Patriots scored 518 factors. Brady won his 2nd MVP award, starting to be the primary unanimous assortment ever. He threw 36 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions, going a record 335 pass attempts without having an interception.
This was the scariest group getting into the playoffs in recent times. Owning clinched the league's most effective record (14-2), the Patriots had by now beaten the Steelers (39-26), Jets (45-3), Bears (36-7) and Packers (31-27). These 4 teams ended up becoming the last 4 in 2010, because the Patriots fell flat on their encounter in your own home while in the Divisional round against the Jets.
Brady threw an interception on his initial possession, snapping his streak. Mark Sanchez confidently guided the Jets to an upset win, although the scoring juggernaut managed 11 factors from the game's to start with 58 minutes against Rex Ryan's defense. Two late scores had been as well minor also late because the Jets won 28-21.
From 2006-2011, Brady set a NFL record with 31 consecutive wins at your home inside the frequent season. But hidden from the streak had been these two house playoff losses.
In 2011 the Patriots once more reshaped their offense, thoroughly using Gronkowski and Hernandez, now inside their 2nd season, for the tune of 169 receptions for two,237 yards and 24 touchdowns. Gronkowski had the biggest getting season ever by a tight finish with 18 complete touchdowns.
Brady passed for five,235 yards (2nd most in NFL background), as well as Patriots scored 513 factors during the season. Nevertheless they once more couldn't resolve Tom Coughlin's Giants, losing in each the normal season and Super Bowl, scoring 17 factors this time in the 21-17 reduction.
Right here the Patriots are once again in 2012, scoring 557 factors within the common season, that is the third-highest complete in NFL background. Certainly one of their most up-to-date offensive developments is definitely the utilization of one-word play-calls to run a no-huddle offense so rapidly the defense can't even get set (here is taking a look at you, Houston). It had been a further stellar typical season, and now they sit two wins far from that elusive ring.
But we've witnessed this in advance of. During the finish, a crew the Patriots played during the standard season has come back to beat them, and that is what has occurred all 6 occasions while in the playoffs because 2005. It may be Baltimore, who previously beat the Patriots 31-30 in Week three (in Baltimore), or it can be the San Francisco 49ers from the Super Bowl, who also beat the Patriots this yr.
Virtually each of the gamers about the Patriots never understand what it is actually want to win a Super Bowl, however the shadow Belichick and Brady carry in excess of the crew meshes their previous title achievement with each other together with the regular-season records due to the fact 2007.
These two eras are mutually unique, along with the failure to win a championship within this offense-driven era must reflect a lot more poorly over the crew, Belichick and Brady than it has up to now.
The Patriots are 76-20 (.792) during the typical season considering that 2007, and that is among the ideal six-year runs ever. Additionally it is the most beneficial run to not develop a championship.
Regardless of the many offensive records, the Patriots haven't sealed the deal given that that final Super Bowl win almost eight many years ago. New England has presently had 3 of your highest-scoring teams in NFL historical past and only managed to score 14, 21 and 17 factors within a season-ending reduction for which it had been the favored every time.
Like a 9-point preferred more than Baltimore, the Patriots of course are not able to win the Super Bowl this Sunday, however they can get rid of a different shot at 1 soon after nonetheless a different historic typical season.
The possibilities are operating out for Brady and Belichick. Even though individuals two can rest on their laurels, historical past won't deal with the Patriots as kindly with no a championship to validate this era's accomplishment.
Ravens look for breakthrough win and great ending for Lewis
Nobody really should be sleeping to the Ravens. The return of leader Ray Lewis has lifted the crew, because they hope to produce that storybook ending using a walk-off Super Bowl victory, appreciated in previous many years by John Elway (1998) and Jerome Bettis (2005).
The Ravens are during the AFC Championship game to the third time considering the fact that 2008, the get started of your John Harbaugh/Joe Flacco era. Once more these are within the road, obtaining lost 23-14 in Pittsburgh (2008) soon after Flacco threw an interception returned to get a touchdown by Troy Polamalu.
You can find the bitter taste of final year's reduction, during which Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore knocked what would have already been the game-winning touchdown from Lee Evans' hands with 22 seconds left. Seconds later on, Billy Cundiff rushed and missed the game-tying kick, just the 2nd time in background a kicker missed a do-or-die field objective in the championship game or Super Bowl.
(The 1st time was once the Buffalo Bills' Scott Norwood missed the game-winner in Super Bowl XXV, lifting then-New York Giants defensive coordinator Belichick with all the win.
Harbaugh came from Philadelphia, in which he was the unique teams coordinator throughout the Eagles' streak of 3 straight losses from the NFC Championship (2001-2003). His crew has sufficient big-game encounter to have above the hump, however it is often a difficult undertaking to win in Foxboro.
Baltimore is 2-4 against New England considering the fact that 2007, but every single reduction was a nail-biter that went down on the wire. These teams know one another nicely, and also the Ravens can stage to a couple of good indicators just after dealing with a so-so standard season.
The Ravens presently have beaten the Patriots this yr, as well as 503 yards of offense they piled up that evening will be the most New England has permitted this season. The Patriots have enhanced on defense considering the fact that Week three, but so has Baltimore.
The postseason continues to be the only time this yr the Ravens have had their major 4 on defense intact. Which is Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata. Whilst they've got faced 174 offensive snaps the final two weeks, this defense is back to creating plays and limiting factors. They'll also get some assistance from your reality that Rob Gronkowski is out for your Patriots.
If winning a Super Bowl nowadays is extra about peaking in the proper time, needing to conquer adversity, then the Ravens match the bill. They've the rallying cry to win a single for Lewis, Flacco is thriving with major pass plays just after the group replaced offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, and immediately after the Giants, no group has offered the Patriots a lot more complications than the Ravens.
New England's not the only constant winner on this game that lacks a current championship. The Ravens are just the sixth crew to ever win a playoff game in 5 consecutive seasons, however they would be the only crew to not attain at the very least one particular Super Bowl. Only the 2000-04 Eagles failed to win a Super Bowl, although another 4 teams all came by means of at the least after.
With legacies about the line, and windows closing on a few of the game's greats, this must be a traditional AFC Championship.
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