The Divisional round of the playoffs is annually one of the best weekends of football. The Saturday bout between the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots more than lived up to the billing. The Patriots weathered big plays from Joe Flacco, who threw four touchdown passes, to come back from deficits of 14-0 and 28-14 to win in Foxborough, 35-31.
Down four points with five minutes left to play following a beautiful touchdown throw from Tom Brady to Brandon LaFell, Flacco and the Ravens offense took over at their own 11-yard line. Flacco was on the verge of putting the Ravens in scoring position, but a deep pass intended for the end zone ended up in the hands of Duron Harmon, effectively ending the game.
The Ravens threatened to roll over the Patriots early. Flacco went 4-for-4 for 69 yards on the opening offensive possession of the game, finding the end zone on a pass to Kamar Aiken. He then connected with Steve Smith for another TD on the team's next possession. The Patriots tied the game with consecutive scores, but a Tom Brady interception helped set up another Baltimore scoring drive late in the half to give the Ravens a 21-14 lead at intermission.
The Ravens went up 28-14 after halftime, but then Brady found his rhythm. If the first half could be scored to Flacco, the second most certainly went to Brady, who threw a touchdown to Rob Gronkowski and later the rainbow to LaFell that gave the Patriots the lead for good.
The Patriots also scored on a wide receiver pass from Julian Edelman to Danny Amendola in the third quarter that tied the game briefly:
Three things we learned:
1) You can make Tom Brady mad, but you can't rattle him
In the first half, Brady flipped out on Ravens players and the referees after taking a sack.
He had been under relentless pressure throughout the day, and was lucky he didn't get flagged for getting in the face of an official. But if you thought Brady was coming unglued, you were sorely mistaken. If anything, Brady was galvanized. After getting outdueled by Joe Flacco early, he won the day by going 33-for-50 passing for 367 yards and three touchdowns.
it’s just too early to count out touchdown tom
— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) January 10, 2015
2) The Patriots will have to win despite their offensive line
The Ravens' pass rush nearly sank the Patriots in the first half, sacking Brady twice and putting him on the move in the pocket several times. The Pats gave up on the run. They didn't give a single carry to a running back in the third quarter after rushing nine times for just 17 yards in the first half, and they finished with 14 yards rushing on 13 carries.
Granted, the Ravens have one of the best defensive fronts in the NFL, but things won't get much easier going forward. The Patriots are good, but the Ravens were able to expose a significant flaw.
Playoff Records
3) Joe Flacco's playoff mystique is real
Flacco can be an easy target for ridicule sometimes. His regular season numbers were pedestrian relative to his contract. But he was once again spectacular in the playoffs. On Saturday, Flacco threw his 17th consecutive touchdown pass since his last interception in a playoff game.
Flacco ended that streak with an (admittedly) bad decision in the third quarter, but it certainly wasn't any worse than Brady's decision to try to throw over Daryl Smith in the second quarter. Flacco went 197 postseason passes without a pick, which is the second-best streak ever behind only Drew Brees' 226 attempts.
Flacco did everything he could to put the Ravens in position to win. He couldn't push past the Patriots in crunch time, but he deserves a lot of credit for his effort.