SB Nation’s Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit, offers their look at just what went wrong for New England in Sunday’s 33-14 loss to the Ravens. The answer obviously is “a lot,” but more specifically, it was the ability to run the ball. Simply put, the Ravens could, and the Patriots could not.
Pats Pulpit: Ravens’ Running Game, And Patriots’ Lack Of It, Was Difference
Ray Rice. 22 carries, 159 yards, 7.2 average, 2 TDs. No, we did not stop him. No, we did not contain him. No, we did not slow him. After ripping off an 83 yard run to open the game, the tone was set. We never really had a chance ... Complementing Rice was McGahee who had 20 additional carries for 62 yards a TD. [...]
[Patriots’] Running Game. 18 carries for 64 yards and 0 TDs. 52 of those yards were from Faulk. Morris, Maroney and Taylor had 4 carries COMBINED for 12 yards. That’s inexcusable. Faulk spent a lot of the game trying to fire people up on the sidelines to blank stares and non-reactions.
Pats Pulpit puts a bow on it all with some “Fun Facts.” But it reads more like nails on a chalkboard for Patriots fans.
- We had 146 Return Yards. That's over twice as many rushing yards. That's almost as many passing yards. That's the stats of a losing team. I'm not saying it's bad that we had so many return yards, but the fact that we couldn't capitalize shows how poorly our team executed today.
- Tom Brady averaged as many yards per throwing attempt as Kevin did rushing attempt- 3.7 yards/attempt.
- Ray Rice ran for more yards (159) than Tom Brady threw (154)
It goes on like that. I tried reading them all, but before I could finish I found myself curled up on the floor, crying into my Tom Brady jersey. Being a fan is fun!
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