Baltimore Ravens vs New England Patriots: A game of points scoring – NFL Feature
Baltimore Ravens have spoken highly of their readiness for their American Football Conference (AFC) championship game.
They are up against one of the toughest sides of the National Football League (NFL), the New England Patriots.
It is a road game, to be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on Sunday, January 22, 2012.
A couple of days before going into the game, their coach, John Harbaugh, has confirmed of the fitness of their entire squad and all seems well on other sides for the team.
Apparently, there has been no word from any of the team’s officials including the coach on the strategy of the team with one of their most crucial games just ahead.
This has left many of their supporters and even their critics worried. Many have expressed their respective fears it might be their old defensive approach that can end up costing them the game.
It is being noted that there is nothing wrong with the defensive approach. It’s only the application of the tactic, against one of the strongest teams, the Patriots, that matters the most.
The team has so far banked on its defence to claim wins in the 2011 NFL regular season. Their win over the Houston Texans on Sunday, January 15, 2012, in the playoff round was also a result of the same approach.
Their offence was on watch for the opportunities to launch an attack on the Texans. Most of those chances came through turnovers.
The Ravens should be wary of the fact now that the Patriots are not the Texans. Unfortunate for the Houston Texans that they were without their number one quarterbacks, Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart.
At the end, it was upto the young and inexperienced, T.J. Yates to come to their rescue. He was unsuccessful most of the times in front of the veterans defence line-up of the Ravens. They did not have answer to strong defence of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.
It will be probably for the first time that the Ravens offence is tested given there will not be anymore turnovers to score the points.
The Patriots offence, which is led by the stars like Tom Brady, is as strong as the Ravens defence. In fact, it is better rated on the league than their defence is.
It will be difficult for the Ravens defence to prolong their resistance against the lashing of Patriots offence attacks.
They will be in even more trouble if their quarterbacks do not launch counterattacks without waiting for opportunities such as turnovers.
The Ravens attack, which is led by the QB, Joe Flacco, face an upheaval task of attacking the Patriots goal-line more frequently than they have done in the previous games. There will hardly be any chance for them to slow down or lapse.
Joe Flacco, who at many times have spoken of not being given enough credit in the Ravens wins given predomination of their defence, will be fully exposed on the weekend, and as pointed out by their safety, Ed Reed, will have to perform better than their
opponents to help his side to secure the win.
Torrey Smith is another player who has echoed the same point. The Ravens wide receiver said "I think it would be safe to say we are going to have to score points to win this game."
It is to be seen if the Ravens offence line lives upto their team’s hopes and expectations.
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