AFC Championship Preview

            For the second straight year, the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots will meet in the AFC Championship Game. Last year, former Ravens K Billy Cundiff missed an easy field goal to send QB Tom Brady and the Pats to the Super Bowl.

            These two teams continued right where they left off last year in week three when the Patriots traveled to Baltimore. The Ravens were playing with a heavy heart as WR Torrey Smith lost his brother the day before in a motorcycle accident. Smith played one of the best games of his career as he caught six catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns. The game went down to the wire as the Pats lead 30-28 to with 0:02 left as Ravens rookie K Justin Tucker lined up for a 27 yard field goal. Tucker’s field goal barely made it as Pats players thought that it went wide right.

            The past two meetings between the teams have gone down to the wire and I think Sunday’s will be the same in Foxborough.

            This postseason has been about the “Ray Lewis” effect for the Ravens as Lewis said before the postseason that this season would be his last. Lewis had 13 tackles in the AFC wild card game, his first game since week six when he tore his right triceps.  Last week was all about the pass from QB Joe Flacco to WR Jacoby Jones to tie the game at 35 with :31 seconds left as Tucker made a 47 yard field goal in double overtime as the Ravens upset the #1 seeded Denver Broncos, 38-35.

            In the Divisional round, the Patriots hosted the Houston Texans in a rematch of the week 14 42-14 blowout victory by the Patriots. Brady had a Brady like playoff game as he threw for 335 yards and three touchdowns and picked up his 17^th career playoff victory that passed QB Joe Montana for most all time. The only bad news on the night for the Pats was that they lost TE Rob Gronkowski for the remainder of the postseason as Gronk left the game in the first quarter with a broken right arm. Although it is a huge lost for the Patriots, they are used to not having Gronkowski on the field this season as he missed five games during the regular season.

            Both teams are very familiar with each other as the Pats will need to slow down the Ravens offense that had 503 total yards in the week three victory. The Patriots had a 13 point lead after the first quarter in that game and if the Ravens don’t show up in the first quarter in Foxborough, the game could be over at halftime.

            Sunday’s game will be fun to watch as the Ravens look to go back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2000 while the Patriots want to go back for the second straight season.

image was used from patriots.com