This Week
The New England Patriots visit the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore MD. Kickoff is at 8:30 p.m. This is the Patriots third consecutive primetime game, it is New England’s 2nd Monday Night Football appearance of the season.
The Patriots are 6-0 on the road this season, 2-0 against the AFC North and 8-0 against the AFC. The Ravens are 3-2 at home, 1-1 against the AFC East and 1-7 in the conference in 2007.
Here are the rosters for the Patriots and Ravens.
The Line/Prediction
As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -20. The over/under is 50.5.
My prediction is Patriots 35, Ravens, 10. Give the points and take the under. I am 9-2 against the spread and have called the over/under nine out of eleven times in 2007.
Tickets
The Ravens are reporting the game as a sell out.
Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here. Many times tickets are released in the last 48 hours prior to the game.
Getting To The Game
If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game in Baltimore make sure you check out the links.
Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from Accu Weather.
Click for stadium directions and parking information, fan guide and stadium information and a M&T Bank Stadium seating chart.
Tailgating
Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgaiting America. There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack. I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good and for good measure here is one of my own.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Television
ESPN is televising the game, it is a national broadcast. The play-by-play duties will be handled by Mike Tirico with Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser doing game analysis.
Radio
The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color.
It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresch and the pregame show at 5 p.m. along the network.
The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.
Check this out for the low down on the Patriots Rock Radio Network and stations in your area.
If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.
All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots radio call is available on Channel 126, the Ravens radio call is available on Channel 123.
The game will also be broadcast nationally by Westwood One. Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason will call the game. Find a Westwood One station near you.
Last Week
The Patriots survived their closest game of the season and beat the Eagles at “The Razor” 31-28 to improve to 11-0. The Ravens got spanked in San Diego, 32-14 and dropped to 4-7.
History
This is the first visit by the the Patriots to Baltimore since 1996 and it’s their first appearance at M&T Bank Stadium.
This is the fourt meeting between the Ravens and Patriots with New England owning a 3-0 series lead. The last meeting between the two was on November 28, 2004 in Foxboro a game the Patriots won 24-3.
The Patriots have only played the Houston Texans fewer times (2) than Ravens.
Connections
- Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was raised in Annapolis, Md., approximately 30 miles from Baltimore.
- Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli was the Ravens’ director of pro personnel in the team’s inaugural season of 1996.
- Ravens general manager/executive vice president Ozzie Newsome was hired by Bill Belichick as the Cleveland Browns’ special assignment scout in 1991.
- Adalius Thomas was originally selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the sixth round (186th overall) of the 2000 NFL Draft.
- Patriots tackle Ryan O’Callaghan blocked for Ravens quarterback Kyle Boller at California in 2002. Patriots defensive lineman Vince Wilfork, Ravens running back Willis McGahee and Ravens safety Ed Reed were teammates at the University of Miami.
- Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour, Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson and Ravens running back Musa Smith all played on the same Georgia team.
- Ravens center Mike Flynn is an alumnus of the University of Maine. He is originally from Springfield, MA.
- Patriots fullback Kyle Eckel attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
Other News
This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Ravens. You can also see what Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick had to say about the game in a conference call with the New England media.
This is Tom Brady’s 105th consecutive start. It is the third longest streak among NFL quarterbacks behind only Peyton Manning and Brett Favre. He is 80-24 in his career during the regular season.
Here is the injury list for the game.
The Patriots clinched their fifth consecutive AFC East title last Sunday before they even took the field. The team tied for the earliest anyone has clinched the division title since the 16-game schedule came about in 1978.
The Patriots are 11-0 for the first time in franchise history. They have won 14 consecutive regular season games dating back to last season.
The 14-game regular season win streak is second only to the NFL record streak of 18 consecutive games the club set in 2003 and 2004. That was part of an overall 21 game win streak that set an all-time pro football record.
WR Troy Brown, who was activated to the 53-man roster on Tuesday, and LB Tedy Bruschi are the only two Patriots to have played in the three previous meetings between the two teams.
In other roster moves DL Kareem Brown was released to make room for Troy Brown and LB Rosevelt Colvin was placed on the IR with a season ending foot injury and replaced on the roster by LB Chad Brown.
NFL Pro Bowl balloting runs through Dec. 11. Fans may vote online at nfl.com/probowl or by sending the text message “PRO” to 7777 from a phone with Sprint wireless service. The AFC and NFC All-Star squads are determined by the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group’s vote counts one-third towards determining each conference’s 43-man roster.
Tom Brady now has 39 TD passes just 10 from Peyton Manning’s record of 49. Baltimore and the NY Giants are the only two franchises Brady has failed to victimize with a TD pass in his career.
Brady is 1-0 in his career vs. the Ravens.
With the Pats playing at M&T Bank Stadium on Monday, University of Phoeniex Stadium (Arizona) and Qwest Field (Seattle) are the only stadiums the Patriots haven’t played in. The 1996 game was played at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, the former home of the Ravens, Colts and Orioles.
New England is +16 in turnovers after 11 games.
The game features the NFL’s 3rd best (New England) and 4th best (Baltimore) defenses. New England has the league’s top ranked offense while Baltimore is ranked 24th.
Ron Jaworski of ESPN made a conference call with the local media and he head this to say on the performance of Randy Moss last week vs. Eagles:
“When I went through the tape, it was the first time that I was personally disappointed in a Randy Moss performance. I did not see the same energy on every single play that I had seen so far this season. When he was the No. 1 go-to guy on a route, he gave great effort and hustle. There were some plays on the back side, when he wasn’t the primary receiver, I did not see the great effort. Knowing how the Patriots handle things internally, I’m sure there have been some discussions on Randy, ‘Every snap, we need 100 percent out of you.’ I thought a few times Tom (Brady) tried to get him involved in the game and tried to force some balls in to him.”
Anyone who has seen ESPN Sunday Countdown and Monday Night Countdown knows all about Emmitt Smith and his butchering of the english language and it’s grammar rules. So with that I bring you this from the “Kissing Suzy Kolber” blog. Enjoy.
News from this weeks opponent:
The Ravens have only scored 17 touchdowns all season by comparision the Patriots have had 20 different players score 58 TD’s.
Batimore is usually known for their takeaways but currently sit at -11 in the turnover department.
Baltimore QB Steve McNair is out again this week, his third week in a row. McNair has been out the last two weeks with a shoulder injury and Kyle Boller has been starting in his place. Boller is 0-1 against the Patriots he took the loss in the last meeting between the two clubs.
Ravens player Mike Flynn who is a Springield, Massachusetts native was interviewed by the teams website. Flynn has started 110 games for the Ravens.
Brian Billick is 0-2 in games vs. New England.
The Ravens have lost a franchise record 5 consecutive games.
Ray Lewis spoke to the media and this comes from the Baltimore Sun. It’s pretty obvious he is distraught over the death of fellow former Miami Hurricane, Sean Taylor:
In his only comments to the media, Lewis said: “I understand the magnitude of this game with the Patriots coming in. But the bottom line is I was more than a friend to Sean Taylor. I was someone he definitely looked up to. It’s unfortunate that situations happen like this. But when they do happen, some things pull you away from everything else that everybody wants you to worry about. This right here is life and it doesn’t change. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. For me, as a man, there is a lot that I’m going through right now, that I have to ask God for my strength and my faith to keep pushing on through life and keep encouraging young men to do the right things here and there.
“To think of anything else really outside of trying find a way to really deal with my personal feelings would be very selfish of me to even try to comment on anything without trying to create something that I would be making up. As a man, I would ask for your guys’ sympathy just to understand that it’s a very challenging time. Not just for me but for the University of Miami family. You don’t lose a 24-year-old kid with that much promise in life. It makes you take a step back. For me, it made me take a huge, huge step back to ask God: ‘What is it that you want me to do and stop being selfish about?’ If anything, the game is going to take care of itself. I’m just going to get through this week and hopefully help a lot of my teammates get through this week as well as a lot of Hurricane family and we’re just going to go from there.”
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick couldn’t stop raving about how good a player the Ravens safety Ed Reed is saying:
“Ed Reed is an awesome football player,” Belichick said. “To me, he’s one of the best football players in the league. He’s really, really good, as good as anybody I’ve ever seen.”
Asked about Belichick’s affection for Reed, New England quarterback Tom Brady joked that the coach was going to adopt Ed Reed.
“It’s going to be Ed Belichick,” Brady said.
Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun writes that the Ravens are stuck with Billick as coach because they gave him a four year extension last year at $5 million per season. Preston thinks the 9 year head coach’s message has become stale to the veteran players on the team and that the deal offers them little way out.
Next Week
The Patriots host the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA. Kickoff is at 4:15 p.m. on CBS. You can also follow all the action on the Patriots Rock Radio Network.
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