Patriots take on Ravens without Welker
Can the Patriots win without Wes Welker?
That’s right, the 2010 NFL playoffs continue this Sunday with a huge AFC wild card round match between the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots. In case you didn’t know, the Patriots lost Wes Welker for the playoffs last week, setting the stage for the Ravens D to take advantage.
This playoff matchup between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens is the only playoff game that won’t be a rematch of last week as the Jets and the Bengals, the Eagles and the Cowboys and the Packers and the Cardinals have all played each other last Sunday heading to their wild card matchup.
The first meeting between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens back in Week 4 was as exciting as ever as the Patriots barely edged Baltimore, 27-21. That game left both teams at 3-1 and provided an exciting quarterback battle that might have gone the other way had Derrick Mason not dropped a pass that would have led to a fourth-down conversion.
Joe Flacco threw for 264 yards, but needed nearly 50 completions to get there, numbers indicative of Baltimore’s mark of 7.1 yards per completion. Ray Rice eclipsed the 100-yard mark on the ground in just 11 carries, a number that helped bolster an impressive rushing mark of nearly five yards per carry.
The Ravens will likely have to use that ground game against a defense that gives up just 7.0 yards per pass attempt.
The Patriots boast one of the NFL’s best passing offenses, but lost a key cog in the final week when receiver Wes Welker went down with a knee injury. Quarterback Tom Brady threw for just 258 yards and one touchdown in the Week 4 win, but also ran for another. Now he’ll have to try and tame the Ravens with a depleted receiving corps and most likely not a ton of help on the ground against of the league’s best run defenses.
Can the Patriots overcome with one of their most reliable receivers out? They certainly hope so.
”It’s football and guys go down all the time, on our team, on other teams, and it sucks, it’s unfortunate,” Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson said. ”When you are a team, you have 10 other guys and when one goes down, the other guy fills in and the train keeps on moving. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Can the New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens to advance to the AFC divisional round? SPORTSBETTING.com has the odds.
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