Baltimore Ravens blown out by Patriots as Super Bowl repeat hopes take huge hit
Nick Wass/APJoe Flacco sees Ravens shot at Super repeat take major hit on Sunday.
BALTIMORE - It was supposed to be a clash of two great blood lines, each with championship pedigree.
But from start to finish at M&T Bank Stadium Sunday, the guys who won the rings last weren't any match for the team with more of those rings.
The Ravens were dumped by the Patriots, 41-7, eliminating themselves from the AFC North race and leaving their wild card hopes up for grabs at 8-7.
They can still make it with a win and some help next week. The Ravens play in Cincinnati, but they will not be favored.
Oddly, it was actually the Patriots who were facing more questions coming into the game but in the end, it was a typical December day for Tom Brady and Co. Brady is now 44-7 in December and hasn't lost two straight December games in 11 years.
The Ravens had recently become a bit of a nemesis, especially in the playoffs, and both teams had talked about what a fierce rivalry it had become. Not Sunday.
Even though they continued to have players limp off with injuries, the Patriots, as usual, made the plays and the Ravens, who have been finding ways to win four straight recently, looked as though it was a preseason game, not one with so much at stake. Even placekicker Justin Tucker, who had made 33 straight field goals, slipped when he planted his foot and lost his streak by missing a 37-yarder in the fourth quarter.
They committed undisciplined penalties, they blew assignments on defense, they had the offensive line dominated and they got a terrible game out of reigning Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco.
Perhaps he had an excuse after taking DeAndre Levy's helmet on his left knee Monday night. But Flacco, wearing a brace for the first time since he was at Delaware, simply couldn't rise above the restrictions.
He was 22 for 38 for 260 yards and was intercepted twice by Logan Ryan, making bad throws and bad decisions throughout.
Flacco missed a chance to hit Jacoby Jones for what could have been a 93-yard TD pass on the Ravens' first series and that tilted the field the Patriots' way the rest of the first half.
Jimmy Smith was flagged for a questionable interference call against Julian Edelman and LeGarrette Blount plowed in from the one on the next play to make it 7-0 Pats.
Harbaugh worked the officials into the next series but after Flacco's underthrown pass was deflected into a Patriot interception, another penalty - illegal contact against Lardarous Webb - helped the Patriots drive 54 yards for another touchdown, Brady hitting RB Shane Vereen for four yards on another mixup in the Ravens' secondary.
Steven Gostkowski tacked on a 45-yard field goal in the second quarter and the Ravens did absolutely nothing on offense. Flacco finished it 5-for-10 for 52 yards and was sacked three times by a decimated Pats defense.
There were three instances in the second half when the Ravens inexplicably failed to make the kind of plays winning teams make. They went for it on fourth and three on their first possession of the third quarter but instead of throwing to an open Dennis Pitta at the first down marker, he tried to get it to double covered Jacoby Jones further down the field and the pass was easily batted down by the omnipresent Ryan.
Flacco's second interception wasn't his fault. It should have been an easy third down conversion but Pitta, who has the best hands on the team, simply muffed the short pass and it went off him into Ryan's hands, setting up a field goal that made it 20-0.
Then, after the Ravens got into the red zone for the first time all day, Ray Rice was stopped on fourth at one from the New England four by the 31st-ranked run defense in the league.
Some of the pressure was off the Patriots from the start. They clinched their 11th AFC East title under Bill Belichick when the Dolphins flopped in Buffalo. At 11-4, they can wrap up the second seed and a first round bye home against the Bills in their final game.
Business as usual, at least for one team.
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