Last year’s AFC Championship Game was a classic, back-and-forth battle between two of the finest franchises of the past decade; in the end, Billy Cundiff’s last field goal attempt as a Raven boomeranged far, far away from anything approaching the goalposts and the Patriots won the right to lose another heartbreaking Super Bowl to the Giants. So far in 2012, both New England and Baltimore have one blowout win and one very close loss on their records and a 1-2 start wouldn’t exactly be what the fanbases of these two Super Bowl contenders had in mind when the season began. Time for Game of the Week to break it all down in a loving but forceful manner…
Who: New England Patriots vs. Baltimore Ravens
Where: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, MD
When: 7:30 P.M., Sunday, September 23rd
Network: NBC (Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya)
Key Storylines:
- Why is WELKAHHHHH being phased out of the Patriots’ offense? You would think a guy who’s averaged 110.8 catches for 1221 yards the past five years might be able to hang on to a starting slot ahead of Julian Edelman. But for reasons that are only clear to Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels, Welker started the game against the Cardinals on the bench, with Edelman – who has 62 fewer catches on his career than Welker caught LAST SEASON – in the lineup ahead of him. Bill Barnwell noted in his Grantland column that the Patriots did the same thing with Randy Moss in 2010 before they eventually traded him to the Vikings. It’s only one game, but it bears repeating: starting Edelman ahead of Welker makes NO sense and Darth Hoodie would be getting killed for this if he hadn’t built up all that good will a decade ago. A major plot of the game Sunday night will revolve around the amount of playing time Welker gets on an offense that is already missing one of its best receivers (Aaron Hernandez).
- Will Joe Flacco finally snap and attempt to behead the replacement officials with his howitzer? …of an arm, that is. The normally mild-mannered Flacco had some scathing remarks for the officials following the Ravens’ 24-23 loss to the Eagles. In particular, Joe took issue with the iffy Offensive Pass Interference call on Jacoby Jones in the fourth quarter that took a Ravens touchdown off the board. So if another bad call goes against the Ravens Sunday night, will Flacco try picking off the replacements one-by-one with his cannon? I was about to toss out the question of which quarterback in the NFL would be the best at murdering mass amounts of people simply by throwing a football at them. But, as it is with most quarterback discussions these days, the correct answer to that question is Aaron Rodgers and there’s not really any debate about it. Still, here’s hoping that Joe gets even slightly unhinged Sunday night!
- How will Zoltan Mesko respond to the worst game of his career? This, undoubtedly, has been the major story in the NFL the past week, as America’s never-ending fascination with punters continues. Mesko suffered the first punt block of his career against the Cardinals and later botched the hold on the game-winning field goal attempt, so obviously all the people calling in to sports talk radio have just one thing on their minds: WHAT’S WRONG WITH ZOLTAN? Relax, everyone: Zoltan has proven himself to be a very capable punter in his first two years in the league, averaging a solid 44.2 yards per punt for his career. If anyone’s capable of having strong bounce-back performance, it’s the Zoltan. And if/when that bounce-back occurs, finally this massive controversy that’s sweeping the nation can finally be put to rest.
Steve Stone’s Said in Stone Cold Lock of the Game: “I take a look at the Cincinnati Reds, the Big Red Machine, with Johnny Bench behind the plate, Davey Concepcion and Joe Morgan in the middle, and Cesar Geronimo in center field. That was a very strong team up the middle, as well as at the corners.”
Projected Final Score: Patriots 27, Ravens 24
Team To Bet On If Gambling Were Legal: Patriots (+2.5)
Someone Still Loves You, Alberto Riveron 