Four Ups, Four Downs From Patriots' 35-31 Win Over Ravens
FOXBORO (CBS) -- Twenty times this season -- four times in the preseason, 16 in the regular season -- we've run the "Four Ups, Four Downs" feature following Patriots games. Yet at no point in the season has the title been more appropriate than it is now, following the Patriots' 35-31 win over the Ravens in the divisional playoffs.
This game featured some serious, serious swings of momentum, with the Ravens twice building 14-point leads and Patriots twice tearing them down. The Ravens then went up by a field goal in the fourth quarter before Tom Brady and the offense drove for the game-winning touchdown.
It was truly a wild one in every sense of the word, and before it gets lost to history, let's run through the Four Ups and Four Downs.
FOUR UPS
Tom Brady
The quarterback will end up in the "Downs" section of this story, but that's for later. He lands in the "Ups" for one reason: With the game on the line, the 37-year-old was as good as he's ever been.
When he and the Patriots took over with just over 10 minutes left and the Ravens leading by three points, they needed to at least drive 50 or so yards to get into field goal range. But Brady did not intend on settling for a field goal, instead going 8-for-9 for 71 yards, completing passes to six different receivers.
He capped it off with a beautiful 23-yard touchdown pass up the left sideline to Brandon LaFell, a pass so perfect that the tightly covered receiver was able to make a catch in stride at the bread basket.
The Patriots took a lead, and with that, Brady had his 19th career postseason victory. His final statline was quite nice (33-for-50, 367 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT) but his work on that final drive is what makes Brady ... Brady.
Danny Amendola
Is it possible that Amendola's lack of role in the offense this season was just the Patriots keeping him in bubble wrap until the most important time of the season? Perhaps.
The receiver put together his most dominant game in a Patriots uniform since Week 1 of the 2013 season. He caught five passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns. In 16 games this regular season, he caught just 27 passes for 200 yards and one touchdown, so he was able to produce 18.5 percent of his regular-season receptions, 40.5 percent of his yards and 200 percent of his touchdowns, all in 60 minutes of football.
Interestingly enough, it was the first two-touchdown game of Amendola's entire career.
And he was better than the stats showed. He broke a tackle before bursting up the left sideline and Superman-ing his way across the pylon to tie the game at 14-14. On that signature Brady drive, Amendola again broke a tackle and fought his way to the sticks on a third-and-6. And he was perfect on the trick play that tied the game -- a 51-yard pass from receiver Julian Edelman.
This was, without a doubt, what the Patriots had in mind when they signed Amendola prior to the 2013 season.
Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski
Do you think Gronk was eager to get a taste of the postseason again.
The massive tight end caught consecutive passes to pick up 62 yards, and he finished the night with seven receptions for 108 yards and a touchdown. And he made it look really, really easy.
Edelman was his usual excellent self as a receiver, catching eight passes for 74 yards, and as a punt returner, picking up 45 yards on three opportunities.
But Edelman unveiled the skills that previously only existed in the voices of TV broadcasters who felt the need to repeat themselves every single game with this line: "Edelman was a quarterback in college."
Well, at long last, Edelman showed that yes indeed, he was a quarterback in college. For the first time in his five-year NFL career, Edelman threw a pass, and it was a beauty. Edelman motioned right to left, caught a lateral from Brady, set his feet and chucked it deep to Amendola. It was complete for 51-yard touchdown, again tying the game at 28-28.
"We've hit in practice a couple times. Practice execution becomes game reality," Edelman said. "We saw it in practice, we did it right, and we were able to do it again."
Duron Harmon
For all of the hype surrounding Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner, go figure that it was that duo that combined to have a pretty bad game.
And go figure that Duron Harmon, of all people, made the game-clinching play.
That's just how sports works sometimes.
Joe Flacco, the NFL's king of deep balls that are either caught or draw pass interference, looked to answer Brady's exceptional drive with one of his own. The quarterback threw off his back foot at his own 45-yard line, sending a pass intended for Torrey Smith at the left pylon. But Harmon, playing center field, played the ball perfectly and picked it off.
The play all but sealed the victory, and it came from the unlikeliest of sources.
FOUR DOWNS
The Defense
Darrelle Revis. Brandon Browner. Chandler Jones. Jamie Collins. Vince Wilfork. Rob Ninkovich. Devin McCourty. Dont'a Hightower.
This unit is supposed to be great. Yet for much of the night against Baltimore, the defense was dreadful.
Flacco started the game going 21-for-29 for 231 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. Justin Forsett gained 129 yards on 24 carries. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk (try saying that 10 times fast) went unaccounted for, catching four passes for 29 yards. Same goes for seldom-used receiver Michael Campanaro, who caught four passes for 39 yards after catching just seven for 102 yards all year long.
Because of the defense, the Ravens were able to go 3-for-3 on fourth downs, twice open up 14-point leads, and really come as close to winning a football game as you can get without winning.
The defense is supposed to be the difference between this year's Patriots team and every other Patriots team from the past five years. If it plays like that again, the team may not be so lucky to come away with a win.
Tom Brady
Yeah, he passed Peyton Manning for most playoff passing yards of all time, and yeah, he passed Joe Montana for most playoff passing touchdowns of all time. Oh, and yeah, he tied Curtis Martin for the franchise record for most playoff rushing touchdowns. And yeah, he won the game and he's Tom Brady.
But Brady had his moments in this game that made it unnecessarily dicey for New England.
The first: Late in the second quarter, first-and-10, Patriots looking to take a lead before halftime and pull off the "Dreaded Double Score." Brady threw a pass over the middle to Gronkowski ... well, sort of. Brady underthrew the big target by a good four yards when Gronkowski was in double coverage. When that happens, you tend to get picked off. And Brady did. The Ravens turned it into seven points very quickly, taking a 28-21 lead into halftime.
The second: Devin McCourty intercepted Flacco just two plays after Edelman's pass to Amendola tied the game at 28 points apiece. The building was rocking. The Patriots were going for the kill. Instead ... they went three-and-out. Brady badly missed an open Gronkowski on second and third downs, and after taking over at the Baltimore 37-yard line, they had to settle for a punt.
Of course, all's well that ends well. But just like the defense, the Patriots won't always be so lucky to survive such lapses from the quarterback.
Darrelle Revis
This may be the first time that Revis has ended up on this list, but let's face it: When you're selected as one of the two All-Pros in the entire league, there are some high expectations on you. And in that regard, Revis came up short.
He was called for a costly pass interference penalty for putting an arm bar on Steve Smith, a penalty which gave the Ravens 20 free yards and helped set up their go-ahead score just before halftime. And his next penalty was arguably more costly, as his grab of Smith later in the game negated a strip-sack and fumble recover by Jamie Collins on the Baltimore goal line.
Revis also trailed in coverage on Smith's first-quarter touchdown, and he just was not the otherworldly talent that he's supposed to be.
It's not cause for alarm or anything like that. But Revis is supposed to be better.
Bryan Stork
The rookie center is the lone injury concern coming out of this win and heading into the AFC Championship Game, after he left late in the first half with a knee injury and did not return.
That's particularly troubling for the Patriots, whose offensive line depth has proven nonexistent this season. In the games when the trio of Stork, Dan Connolly and Ryan Wendell have been together, the Patriots had one of the most powerful offenses in the NFL. When any one of those three did not man the guard or center positions, replaced by either Jordan Devey or Josh Kline or Marcus Cannon, Brady was constantly a man under fire.
The Patriots made it work in this one, but it took some bells and whistles. They ran three plays with four linemen (unprecedented) and an ineligible receiver off the line, and they ran a play that called for Edelman to throw deep.
There are only so many monkeys the Patriots can pull out of their hats on offense, and Stork's status is something that ought to be monitored very closely this upcoming week.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here, or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
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