Here are some Trends/Patterns that I haven't seen much attention paid to ...

[Golden Era at The U]

I know how the lines are set and move during the course of the week, no thanks to you.

That being said, the bettors, the people who are putting their $$$ on the line, mostly believe the Pats will win by 7.

Congratulations! ... You just contradicted yourself!

; )

[Golden Era at The U]

Because Brady blows the media and is a prince valient.
All these stats posted mean nothing, all what the media says mean nothing. Play the game, hopefully the refs dont dangle from Brady and his crying . If these things happen , the team that wins deserves to win

You got that right, media pretty-boy Brady and Belicheat who's overhyped, for some reason the media have more than manlove for.

I agree, let's hope that we don't get three or four personal foul calls for having Suggs look at Brady's jersey number and stuff like that.

Otherwise, there's all this nonsense about "that look in Brady's eyes when the fact of the matter is that in the playoffs his numbers are much, much lower on average than they are in the regular season, and therefore so are the team's.

Regular Season over the last four years ('07-'10) and after Belicheat got busted for cheating (Brady didn't play '08 either):

Brady: 2.4 TDs/game, .5 INTs/game, 108.1 Rating, 8.0 YPA
Pats: 32.0 PPG for, 18.2 PPG against

Playoffs Career:

Brady: 1.8 TDs/game, .8 INTs/game, 89.1 rating, 6.7 ypa;
Pats: 25 ppg for, ... including defensive/special-teams scores, 19 ppg against

Playoffs over the last four seasons ('07-10) minus '08:

Brady: 2 TDs/game, 1.4 INTs/game
Pats: 20.2 PPG for, 22 PPG against

On another note, this Pats' defense has allowed more points in the regular season since their '02 team which was 9-7.

Also, the most that they've ever scored in a playoff game, ever, under Brady or anyone, was last week vs. the Broncos.

Talk about good timing for the Ravens ...

[PeterB58]

The more I think about it, the more I think this game comes down to turnovers. While the Patriots defense has been average at best, what has allowed them to go on the 9 game winning streak has been turnovers. They have a huge + differential - especially INTs.

The Ravens will need to create several on defense to slow down the Patriots offense, and in turn, the Ravens offense needs to limit them when they have the ball and maximize every possession.

If they do that, they win.

[Golden Era at The U]

The more I think about it, the more I think this game comes down to turnovers. While the Patriots defense has been average at best, what has allowed them to go on the 9 game winning streak has been turnovers. They have a huge + differential - especially INTs.

The Ravens will need to create several on defense to slow down the Patriots offense, and in turn, the Ravens offense needs to limit them when they have the ball and maximize every possession.

If they do that, they win.

That's likely.

But in analyzing this it's critical to parse the data in terms of those TOs for the Pats. I'm not even remotely daunted after we do.

For starters, they have 23 INTs and 11 FRs. I don't know how many of those FRs were on passing plays and how many were on running plays, but two things, it doesn't really matter since from a FR perspective they're in good company since 14 other teams have +/- 1 FRs, i.e., 10-12, and many of those teams sucked. Three teams, including the Vikes who sucked, have more. 15, 15, and 13.

The Ravens have 11 too.

So the delta there is their 23 INTs. No other team in the AFC has 20, only four teams in the NFC have more: GB 31, SF 23, Seattle 22, and Detroit 21.

All of a sudden their success in generating INTs isn't so daunting. But wait, there's more ...

6 were against the Fitzpatrick and the Bills, the league's leading INT team, 3 Palko, 2 Sanchez, 2 Moore, 2 Campbell, 2 Rivers, 1 Grossman, 1 Orolvsky, 1 Young, 1 the Rapist, 1 Eli, 1 Romo

Are you impressed? ... I'm not.

Four of those teams were among the NFL's top-5 INT throwing teams.

Four of those QBs were among the NFL's top-5 INT throwing QBs.

Flacco has thrown as many INTs as Brady has, 12.

The Ravens and Pats are tied for 26th in INTs thrown, meaning fewest, not most.

Of the bottom half of the league, best 16 teams, ranked for fewest INTs, the Pats have only logged 4 INTs. Moore 2, Orlovsky 1, and Romo 1.

Hence, I'm not even slightly concerned. Rice has 2 FUMs all year.

The more I turn rocks over here the less concerned I'm growing and the more I think that I'm going to be thoroughly enjoying wings at halftime!

; )