AFC Championship Preview

Ravens at Patriots: After knocking off the Denver Broncos in a stunning double overtime win the Ravens now look ahead to yet another Conference Championship game against the New England Patriots, but this game has a different feel to it. The Ravens were only 31 seconds from being eliminated when all of a sudden the deep ball from Joe Flacco connected with wide-out Jacoby Jones for a 70-yard touchdown to send the game into overtime. The Ravens would cap that off with a field goal in double overtime to seal its fate. The Patriots seemed to have no problem in its first playoff match-up though as they smothered the Houston Texans in a 41-28 blowout. The Ravens and Patriots met once during the regular season and it was a 31-30 win for the Baltimore Ravens. This wasn’t the same outcome though last postseason when the Patriots knocked out the Ravens in a 23-20 game that included a dropped pass by Lee Evans and a missed field goal from 32 yards out by Billy Cundiff in the last minute. This year the Ravens have more to play for though coming into this game knowing it could be the last game ever played by the great Ray Lewis. We all know Lewis isn’t going to lay down to end his career, he will be doing everything humanly possible to win this game. Two major injuries will also plague this meeting with Patriots without tight end Rob Gronkowski and the Ravens without cornerback Lardarius Webb. This meeting also brings in 2 new players not seen in their week 3 match-up with the Patriots having Aqib Talib and the Ravens bringing back a healthier Terrell Suggs. The Patriots can dominate on offense and have proved it from the past few weeks with a newly found running game in rookie Steven Ridley but the Ravens have the experience on defense to match this high powered offense. If the Ravens are going to win this game they need to use the big plays on offense and jam the wide receivers off the line early to give their defensive line time to get to Brady. The Patriots on the other hand are going to need Aqib Talib to be able to cover the speedy wide receiver Torrey Smith and stop him from being the deep threat. I’m predicting we see the opposite outcome this year and the ravens make the field goal to send them to the Super Bowl in a 31-28 win over the Patriots.