This weekend's week 3 match-up between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens has many people imagining another January AFC Championship rematch. These two teams have so far shown themselves to be the top of the class in the AFC. Although the Patriots did stumble last weekend in their loss to Arizona, no one believes that game will be a sign of things to come for this years version of the Pats.
Tom Brady finally has himself a consistent running back in Stevan Ridley and a deep threat in Brandon Lloyd. Ridley is just what the doctor ordered for this team. He's a running back who can also receive passes, something that will definitely come in handy since new Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels loves to the screen pass. He also runs hard on every carry, but also has the finesse to be able to make a defender miss, something the running game lacked with Ben-Jarvis Green-Ellis. The addition of Lloyd as already proved helpful as the receiver has already made several spectacular catches thus far and has enabled all of Patriots Nation to forget the horrible "Ochocinco" experiment of 2011. Add in the growing experience of Gronk, Solder and Hernandez and this offense looks like they're prepared to top last years historic output.
On the defensive side of the ball, the addition of rookie first round picks Chandler Jones and Dont'a Hightower has rejuvenated this defense thus far. The defense suddenly appears to be a strength of the team instead of a weakness as it has been the past couple seasons. Our linebacking core is now one of the tops in the league with Hightower and Jerod Mayo on the sides and Brandon Spikes in the middle. The defensive line now has an actual outside pass rusher in the rookie Jones to join with the already strong line of Wilfork, Love and Ninkovich. Jones so far this season has appeared to be unstoppable and reminds me on a young Jason Taylor. We can only hope he turns out to be that productive. His strip sack and Hightowers fumble recovery in week 1 immediately made me think of the Patriots D back in the early 2000's when we were actually winning Super Bowls instead of just making an appearance. Fuck the Giants.
But anyways, this weeks match-up in my mind seems to be a preview of the AFC Championship game and I think it will be a great test to see what we as Patriot fans actually have this year. The offense has yet to click as we had imagined and the loss of Hernandez definitely puts us in a difficult position for a few weeks, but I'm most interested to see what this defense can do against a quality offense in Baltimore. It's going to be a Primetime Sunday Night Football setting and this team doesn't usually disappoint when the spotlight is on them. The Ravens D is still the powerhouse they usually are, but the rest of the country will now have a look at the up and coming defense the Patriots will bring to the table.
Prediction: Pats 31-Ravens 20
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