Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE
@craigballard77
The New England Patriots have earned themselves another trip to the AFC Championship game, and for the second straight season they will host the Baltimore Ravens at Gillette Stadium with the winner heading to the Super Bowl.
We will see the replay all week of the Ravens scrambling to try to get a game-tying field goal in last years AFC Championship game, and hopefully you will see the many massive plays that Sterling Moore made (Moore has since been released, but he had huge pass break-ups in that Championship game).
In last year’s tilt, both Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith had good games, but in this season’s game only Smith repeated a big day vs the Pats. Both receivers are on fire in these playoffs and the Ravens will require big performances from both on Sunday vs the Patriots 29th ranked pass defense.
In the two games, I referenced combined Tom Brady had just one touchdown and a pair of interceptions. The Ravens did well against him, and we know they will feel great heading into this game as they are 2-0 since the return of Ray Lewis which gave their defense Lewis, Ed Reed, Haloti Ngata, and Terrell Suggs on the field at the same time for the first time all season long.
A big storyline (amongst many) will be the loss of Rob Gronkowski who will be OUT for the rest of the playoffs. The combo of Gronk and Aaron Hernandez were excellent vs the Ravens in their playoff win last season, but they did nothing in the Pats week 3 loss to the Ravens (31-30, but Hernandez was injured during that game). Tom Terrific will need Hernandez to play well vs the Ravens, and we know he is very good and he has the potential to help the Pats not miss a stud like Gronk.
As the 2013 NFL Playoffs Insider for Rant Sports I will have a detailed game preview early on in the week. You can see all of my NFL articles RIGHT HERE
