New England Improves To 3-1 With Win Over Baltimore
Two weeks after being thoroughly outplayed by the New York Jets, the New England Patriots have won two straight and on Sunday ended the Baltimore Ravens undefeated start to the NFL season with a 27-21 victory. They needed a little luck along the way”usually sure handed receiver Mark Clayton dropped a wide open fourth down pass in the final minute to kill a potential game winning drive deep in New England territory. Both teams are now 3-1 on the season.
The Patriots got the NFL pointspread victory as well, covering as -2 home favorites. It was Baltimore’s first ATS setback on the season, while New England evened their pointspread record at 2-2. The 48 points scored barely exceeded the posted total of 45. The Ravens have now gone OVER in three of four games this season, while the Patriots evened their NFL over/under record at 2-2.
After the contest, Clayton didnt make any excuses about his rare miscue:
“Flat out drop. It was a perfect ball. Joe put it on the money. To not come up with it is tough. It cost us the game.”
Ravens safety Ed Reed said it should have never gotten to that point, blaming the officials for giving the team bad spots:
“The spots were terrible.
Defensive stalwart Ray Lewis complained about what he felt were bad roughing the passer calls:
Without totally going off the wall here, it is embarrassing to the game. Brady is good enough to make his own plays, let him make the play.”
Pats running back Sammy Morris was glad to have come out on top of the tough battle:
“We thought we had them down, but they started coming back. It was just one of those tough slugfests.”
New England coach Bill Belichick shared those sentiments:
“That was quite a finish,” . Stop them on fourth down twice in the fourth quarter, that’s when you’ve got to be there. Luckily, we were.”
Despite the victory, Pats safety Brandon Meriweather wasnt happy with the performance of the New England defense:
“We gave up too many big plays and couldn’t get off the field on third down. We did a lot of things that good defenses don’t do.”
The Patriots will face another tough challenge from an undefeated team this Sunday as they travel to Denver to face the surprising Broncos. New England is a -3 road favorite with the total set at 41. Theyll return home the following week for a game against the Tennessee Titans before traveling to Tampa Bay to face the Bucs on October 25th. The Ravens will host the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday, with Baltimore a -9 home favorite. The total in the game has been set at 42. Baltimore will travel to Minnesota to face the Vikings the following week before a bye week.
Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on baseball betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.
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