Less than 24 hours after the Patriots vaporized the Denver Broncos by a 45-10 score on Saturday night, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the pesky Houston Texans by a 20-13 count yesterday in Baltimore. The best offense in the AFC now meets perhaps the best defense, the Patriots instilled as 7-1/2-point favorites for the right to go to Super Bowl XLVI.
May the best doctrine win.
"I think Bill [Belichick] and [Tom Brady] and them know,'' said Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis, according to The Baltimore Sun. "They know they are going to definitely see a totally different team, just like we know we're going to see a totally different team. We're not the Denver Broncos. We're the Baltimore Ravens, so I think we're both up to the task.
"I think all we have to do is be the team that we are. We don't take the game from this week into next week. There's a 24-hour rule -- win, lose or draw. You're going to see a totally different Ravens team next week because we're going to be playing a totally different team in the Patriots. That's just the way the playoffs are."
In this modern-day NFL, of course, that is the way football is. The game changes week-to-week. No two games are ever connected. Just ask the New Orleans Saints. Or, for that matter, the Green Bay Packers.
Under the circumstances, this is particularly good news for the Patriots, who turned in the kind of defensive outing on Saturday night that fans have been waiting for all year. (At least since Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Tyler Palko passed for 230 yards against New England in Week 11.) The Patriots spent the large majority of the regular season running into one another on the defensive side of the ball, often making even ordinary quarterbacks look like a collection of surgeons and gunslingers.
But on Saturday? On Saturday, albeit against the erratic Tim Tebow, the Patriots looked rather, well, ferocious. New England's only real blip in the game came after a poorly executed throw by Tom Brady in the first quarter, after which the Patriots allowed a 24-yard touchdown drive. Excluding that, the Patriots allowed only 96 yards of offense during a first half in which they built an insurmountable 35-7 lead.
