[zsr]

Lol. Im not going to sit here and argue with you. Take the pats. Im just telling you this is the same team that cant beat this type of defense and beating a terrible broncos defense doesnt change that. There not built for the playoffs anymore.

[JACK MATZ]

Baltimore has 2 problems.

1- Joe
2- Flacco

[coop]

There is fundamental reasoning behind why DEFENSE wins championships and Superbowls and it is because defensive success/dominance is far more SUSTAINABLE than offensive.

Playing defense is in large part REACTIONARY, player A lines up over player B and reacts to what he does. Elite NFL defenders make the right read almost every play.

On the contrary, elite offenses need several factors to be clicking. These are: timing, flow, rhythm, protection schemes, correct routes, crisp routes, sure catching, etc. There is simply far more that can go wrong on a given play, making offensive dominance over the long term (a playoff run) less likely than defensive dominance.

The Packers/Giants game was a crystal clear representation of this. Bad routes, bad timing, dropped balls, missed protections, etc caused the Packers dominant offense to be out of rhythm and ineffective.

[Sunde91]

Brady lifetime
6-2 vs Pitt
4-1 vs Balt

folds against elite Ds

[Jonah]

Flaco has digressed. Brady spent over 200 hours in the film room studying Jets and Ravens D since last year's playoff loss. Guy is pissed and motivated. New England can stop the run and get to the passer if the QB is average. Flaco is below average and is one of the worst when pressured and rattled. New England is home. Ray Rice a bit overrated, Boldin slow, better hope Torrey has a monster game and doesn't drop passes - that won't help Flaco's psyche.

Flaco used to be hovering around a top ten QB. Now with the return of Vick and the emergence of Alex Smith, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, heck even Matt Flynn, he is now bottom tier.

Has anyone been impressed with Baltimore since Thanskgiving?

I like the Ravens a lot.

[Daveyboy]

I can see their defence getting a takeaway or two in this match but their offence on the road I'm not so comfortable with. Ray Rice will be refreshed from a quiet performance on Sunday but can we trust Joe Flacco outside Baltimore? Hmmm

[rsnnh12]

Anyone here thinking the Pats are the bullies in this match up just DON'T KNOW FOOTBALL.

Ravens are more physical, hit harder and have a strong armed QB with a solid rushing attack. Patriots play in weak @ss AFC conference where the Bills even beat them. This is a typical paper and soft #1 team this year that will fall when the physical play off caliber teams take them on.

Look how soft the Patriots schedule was this year....the two teams that are physical play-off caliber teams they faced all year (Giants and Steelers) both beat them. Everyone else was average or below average at best.

Ravens take this 31-10 or 31-13.

Some people are clueless. You want to compare regular season losses? Ok. Pats lost to Bills, Steelers, Giants. Ravens lost to the Titans, Jaguars, Seahawks, and Chargers. Go ahead, bring up the Bills game as an example of how bad the Pats are

Nothing from the regular season matters. These teams are different than they were then. All that can really be looked at to cap this game is the personnel available, the matchups they present, and the gameplan each team should use. Ravens will try to control the clock, Pats will try to play their hurry up to tire out the strong front 7 of the Ravens. Gamble accordingly

[aceking]

Flacco won me my +7.5 bet , he's even worse than the Houston QB .

[GunShard]

Home field factor, Revenge factor, Offense factor, Yards per attempt factor, Points per game factor goes to the Patriots.

Ravens get the Defense factor and Opponents points per game factor.

I'll take the Patriots ML, the spread might be good as well.

[nyed1010]

Ed Reed lays out Gronk first play of the game and the Ravens roll 24-17

[Grits n' Gravy]

Ed Reed lays out Gronk first play of the game and the Ravens roll 24-17

Not going to happen. Reed is great but Gronk would run through him. Life long Pats fan and I wouldn't be shocked if they lost to Ravens. If Pats get into rhythm on offense early though, Ravens are in big trouble. Flacco isn't winning playing from 14 points down.

[SXRD71]

Ravens blitz = Brady will make them pay.

Flacco should shave off those bars it doesn't help.

[cant call it]

Ravens +9 and ravens ML

[QuangX]

Iunno if they win outright but Flacco will score 2TD each. Look at alex smith PRop, No one touched that on him scoring 2td+

[The Seer]

Brady is 4-1 in his career vs Baltimore. However, the first match up was in '04 back when NE had a good defense, NE 24-Balt 3. More recently since NE's defense has slipped, the results of those games have been much closer including a Balt win: 07' NE 27 Bal 24, 09' NE 27 Balt 21, 1/10 Bal 33 NE 14, 10/10 NE 23-20. The title of this thread is "How many people think the Ravens can beat Pats straight up?". The answer is clearly that they can. Anyone who doesn't think it's possible has not been watching football. However, I think the best play here is Balt + the points based on recent history.

[2daBank]

certainly think they can win, personally ill just take the points as this line is a joke imo.. amazing to me how many times ive read ppl saying balty cant compete cause they struggled with hou, its like they dont realize that if hou had a qb they would be the best team in fb, guessing these ppl laid the 7.5 with balty last week (another joke line) and like always when balt doesnt come thru for them they overreact and talk about how terrible the ravens are..

[ramones951]

What's the status of Ed Reed?

[p19101]

It can happen, but at current price I don't think Ravens ML carries any value. Let me put it this way, I loved Giants chances in GB and jumped all over +334. I love finding good value dogs and I will try to take the time to evaluate this game later in the week. I suspect I will need +330 or better though and I don't see that happening.

[Full Time Hobo]

Baltimore has 2 problems. 1- Joe 2- Flacco

Wrong.

1:Cam
2:Cameron

And Reed has been playing with some neck issue most of the year.
That's why he cant tackle for shit and week 17 Benson ran through him for a 20 yard TD.

Brady doesn't like getting his skirt dirty so if the Ravens are able to get pressure he is in trouble.
Unfortunately they haven't been able to do shit the past few games as far as getting to the qb, making even Yates look like an allstar.

Texans gave the offense a hard time but are you really comparing them to the Pats? Pats defense is terrible.
If the Ravens can run the ball its over. Don't even need to trust Flacco.

Also I like how people are saying Brady is whatever record against such and such team lifetime.... Like it matters. Every game is different.


No play for me I would rather have my fanatic heart attacks without money involved.
Good Luck.

[2daBank]

Wrong.

1:Cam
2:Cameron

And Reed has been playing with some neck issue most of the year.
That's why he cant tackle for shit and week 17 Benson ran through him for a 20 yard TD.

Brady doesn't like getting his skirt dirty so if the Ravens are able to get pressure he is in trouble.
Unfortunately they haven't been able to do shit the past few games as far as getting to the qb, making even Yates look like an AllStar.

Texans gave the offense a hard time but are you really comparing them to the Pats? Pats defense is terrible.
If the Ravens can run the ball its over. Don't even need to trust Flacco.

Also I like how people are saying Brady is whatever record against such and such team lifetime.... Like it matters. Every game is different.


No play for me I would rather have my fanatic heart attacks without money involved.
Good Luck.

so true..

[SteveRyan]

Ravens backers are throwing their money away.

If the Ravens can barely scrape together 20 points at home vs Houston, how do they stand a chance against New England on the road?

Given that Houston has a better defense than New England, we can put Baltimore in the 24-28 point range at best.

Final score:
Ravens 24
Patriots 34

[2daBank]

Ravens backers are throwing their money away.

If the Ravens can barely scrape together 20 points at home vs Houston, how do they stand a chance against New England on the road?

Given that Houston has a better defense than New England, we can put Baltimore in the 24-28 point range at best.

Final score:
Ravens 24
Patriots 34

this has to be the worst most used arguments for a side ive seen this week..do you not realize that hou has one of the best defenses in football? do you think pats can generate the kind of pass rush that hou does? someone has to tell me how struggling against one of the top defenses in the nfl has anything to do with playing pats cause im confused here????????????If i can count on 24-28 points for balty sign me up for taking more than a td all day..

[yisman]

Ravens can win.

[SteveRyan]

this has to be the worst most used arguments for a side ive seen this week..do you not realize that hou has one of the best defenses in football? do you think pats can generate the kind of pass rush that hou does? someone has to tell me how struggling against one of the top defenses in the nfl has anything to do with playing pats cause im confused here????????????If i can count on 24-28 points for balty sign me up for taking more than a td all day..

How'd the Pats do against Miami this season?

[thetrinity]

complete joke of a spread. new england with 0 wins against teams with winning records, amazing how last weeks games inflated this line so badly.

[k13]

I looked a little closer and the line is spot on. -7.5 is correct.

[agendaman]

fact/do not give a playoff nfl team esp.w/def. of ravens 8 or 9 pts./you will lose/e.g. texans plus 7.5/my bet allready down ml parlay/n.e. and 49rs/ok take spread line movement sharpie money wise guy dough all out of the equation/phuk what other people think or bet/bet who you feel will win/analysis is ok but over analysis equals total confusion /gl

[SteveRyan]

fact/do not give a playoff nfl team esp.w/def. of ravens 8 or 9 pts./you will lose/e.g. texans plus 7.5/my bet allready down ml parlay/n.e. and 49rs/ok take spread line movement sharpie money wise guy dough all out of the equation/phuk what other people think or bet/bet who you feel will win/analysis is ok but over analysis equals total confusion /gl

Your post is total confusion.

[cant call it]

fact/do not give a playoff nfl team esp.w/def. of ravens 8 or 9 pts./you will lose/e.g. texans plus 7.5/my bet allready down ml parlay/n.e. and 49rs/ok take spread line movement sharpie money wise guy dough all out of the equation/phuk what other people think or bet/bet who you feel will win/analysis is ok but over analysis equals total confusion /gl

[Monitor-Tan]

Wrong. Brady/Manning/Brees/Rodgers have the majority of the Super Bowl wins in the past decade. Elite offenses win Super Bowls, elite defenses aren't good for shit against offenses led by the best quarterbacks.

Not true, All of Brady's superbowl wins the pats defense was actually pretty good and was up there .. Indy defense was actually pretty good but not really elite.. But We can make a case about Patriots defense being top notch.. What you are saying is true as years go bye, offense > defense but not the case for Brady's wins. And Packers defense last year when they won was one of the best on defense as well.. I know this year, all 4 teams you mentioned has bad defense, but when you go to the years that they actually did win the superbowl, their defense was pretty good.. So we need both =P

[Monitor-Tan]

Year Packers won: Packers overal defense rank: 5th
Year Saints won: 25th
Year Stealers won: 1st
Year Giants won: 7th
Year colts won: 21st
Year Steelers won: 5th
Year Patriots won: 9th
Year Patriots won: 7th
Year Tampa won: 1st
Year Patriots won: 24th

So, as you can see you are right that as years do go, offense takes over somewhat, but a general consensus is that, your team still needs some kind of descent to very good defense to win Superbowls, doesn't have to be elite, but still pretty good

[seaborneq]

The total looks too high also. 50.5-51. Pats didn't blowout either of their 2007 playoff opponents either. I am on the Ravens +7.5.

[Redchevy]

Good luck to the Ravens backers but Brady is playing at another level that Flacco will never reach in his lifetime. Ring # 4 is in his gunsight and if you believe Joe " I suck on the road " Flacco can stop what's going to happen, then by all means bet them. This is just my opinion on this weeks game.

[GamblerSpirit]

Ed Reed lays out Gronk first play of the game and the Ravens roll 24-17

LMAO!! You obviously don't know each player to be making comments like that.

[BigDaddy]

they will win this game