As glad as I am that the Ravens FINALLY beat the pretender Steelers in the playoffs, I'm still rather grumpy that they lost to the Pats. Once again, it was pretty apparent they "had the Pats number", leading by 14 points TWICE in the game. But unfortunately that historically (for the Ravens) bad secondary reared it's ugly head again, and Flacco decided now would be a good time to break his "zero INTs" playoff streak. They still could have won the game right there at the end, and sent Tom Brady packing once again, but instead, Flacco threw a bad long pass that caused a game ending pick. If only they had run Forsett again, or thrown for another couple shorter-range "chunk plays", which had been working just fine, they might've won.

I "should be happy" that the Ravens did as good as they did with everything they had to face in 2014. In that I am proud of them. And they did play the "mighty" Patriots to the hilt, once again, and continued to give Brady more trouble than anyone this side of the hot and cold NY Giants have in the postseason. I'd call 2 blowout wins and 2 "near-miss" losses, all on the road in NE, pretty impressive. However, at the end of the day it still doesn't make me feel any better about Tom Brady advancing in the playoffs at our expense. And I really wish Flacco hadn't picked such a bad time to run out of his "playoff" magic. He still played a pretty good game, most TDs he's thrown in a playoff game, but he also stalled in second quarter, when we could have been piling on the points, at least with FGs, and then he decided to start throwing INTs in the 4th quarter.

I guess I hope that INDY can keep it up, and beats NE on the road, though I don't want to see the Colts get another SB win either. So really, I'm left cheering for the Seahawks once again, which is okay, because I do like them. I just hope their D keeps it up, and trashes GB, and then whatever AFC team makes it to the SB. I guess I'm left hoping for a Seattle repeat.

Well, Fleener made some pretty great catches in the previous Colts/Pats game, didn't he?  Yeah, 7 for 144...ick.  Those are the kinda numbers that give me pause.  Wayne was 5 for 91, and for all intents and purposes TY Hilton was erased from the game (3 for 24).

That game was pretty much over by halftime so I'm guessing a lot of those yards where garbage yards.  Fleener is nowhere near being a top level TE at most he is a above avarage mid level TE.  Plus all those yards didn't amount to much since NE kept him from scoring and they still won by 22 points.

Well, I'm a thorough pessimist/cynic, so I'm always looking at the bad.  It's good you're here to balance it out hah.

DevilRising I'd call 2 blowout wins and 2 "near-miss" losses, all on the road in NE, pretty impressive.


that fist win was when n.e receiving core was at its all time worse in the brady era,welker tore his knee the last week of the season that year in a meaningless game vs houston and didnt play vs bal...even if he was not injured,its still a bad receiving core with the rest of the guys ne had that year.....


and in 2012 loss,gronk didnt play in that game,and that makes all the difference in the world.. pats had a halftime lead in that game... im not impressed with those bal wins,especially in 09,that was a horrible pats team on both sides of the football.....

As a Patriots fan, all I can say is I would be thoroughly scared of Baltimore if they ever decided to start playing in the regular season with half of the consistency and clutchness that they do in the playoffs.

No doubt.  If they showed up for all 16, like they do when they face the Pats, they could very well have had a bye.

Manning looks like he's tired of playing football. If he retires, it will be a legendary career. He'll be considered the best by a lot of people even with one ring.

Rol's picks:
BAL by 3, SEA by 10, GB by 7, DEN by 17.

Burek's picks:
SEA by 10
DAL by 4
BAL by 3
DEN by 11

Burek made a bold choice to change his Green Bay-Dallas pick a few hours before kickoff, on the assumption that Rol either picked the Patriots or had a home field advantage by picking the Ravens. The gamble did not pay off. Had he changed his Broncos-Colts pick though, things would have been different!

P.S. fuck the Broncos. Chocoloco, I blame you personally. You wish you were a Raiders fan!

P.P.S. Good game Zorro! I see we had largely the same picks. Great minds...

Originally, I had GB by 14.

If I stayed put, I would have lost on HFA by a few points. I deliberately took a risk on DAL because I was certain that Rol picked GB, and could not guess his other pick.

Congrats to Rol, good luck to all semi-finalists.