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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Tom Brady and the New England Patriots dispatched the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football, doing what they so often do when challenged at Gillette Stadium by a supposed contender. The Patriots (11-2) simply took care of business and re-established themselves as the team to beat in the AFC playoff picture.
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Brady improved to 7-0 in his career in home games against the NFL's No. 1 defense, torching Baltimore (7-6) for 406 yards through the air and three touchdowns on the way to 496 yards of total offense.
Conversely the New England defense -- a unit that now ranks No. 2 in points allowed and No. 9 in total defense -- held Joe Flacco and what had been an evolving passing attack very much in check.
Really, the only thing that kept the visitors in the game were consecutive turnovers on a muffed punt by Cyrus Jones and Matthew Slater's fumbled kickoff return that led to a pair of Baltimore touchdowns to turn a 23-3 third-quarter advantage into a game that needed a 79-yard Chris Hogan touchdown catch and an onside kick recovery by Patrick Chung to close the door on the rival Ravens.
Really, though, it was a signature win for a Patriots team that hasn't played an overly tough schedule and lost to the Seahawks 31-24 in its last measuring-stick game on Sunday Night Football at Gillette on Nov. 13.
"It wasn't perfect. We had three turnovers, obviously hurt us. But we kept battling and made some big plays in all three areas of the game there at the end when we had to make them," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of the mettle-testing, resume-building outcome. "That's the important thing, is to come out of here with a win against a good football team. Like I said, it was about the game I thought we would get in terms of 60 minutes, coming down to the wire, situational plays, needing everybody, and we did. It's good to have this one."
Brady actually had one of the three turnovers, a poor decision and throw into an Eric Weddle interception in the end zone with New England up 16-0 in the second quarter and looking to build on the lead. But that was one of the few mistakes the Patriots made on offense. Battling the No. 1 third-down defense, New England converted 8 of 16 chances. Running into the No. 1 rush defense, LeGarrette churned out 72 yards on 18 attempts and the opening touchdown.
"It was a big game for us," said Brady, who showed a lot of fire and emotion throughout. "We played at home in December on Monday night against a great defense. It was important for us to come out and play well. We knew it was going to be a 60-minute game. They're a tough defense."
New England's own defense was tough as well, though. The unit opened the scoring with a safety, held the Ravens to just 42 yards rushing on 14 attempts, notched a Devin McCourty interception and held Baltimore to 38 percent on third-down conversions.
"Definitely that type of atmosphere," McCourty said of a playoff-like feel to the game. "I mean ... on the first possession that we went out on defensively the stadium was rocking. It was loud. We were screaming to try and make checks. I feel like I lost my voice. You love that, though. It's that time of year where every game matters. Everybody's playing for something. We've just got to try to keep it rolling.
"Whether you want to call it a playoff game, must wins, any of that stuff, once you get into December and towards the end of December and every game's really important. It's not as much rebounding and trying to fix things. You want to try and play your best ball each time you go out there and play."
Aside from a couple costly turnovers in the kicking game, New England did just that Monday night. Brady led the way into a game with a playoff feel and the Patriots responded in winning fashion on both sides of the ball against an opponent with a history of putting up a fight in Foxborough.
But Belichick's team met the challenge to more than get the job done heading into another test Sunday afternoon at the Denver the Broncos.
"It's good to have this one. A quick turnaround, short week, trip to Denver so we'll have to turn the page here in a hurry and get on the Broncos, but it feels good to win," Belichick declared.
REPORT CARD VS. RAVENS
PASSING OFFENSE: B-plus -- Tom Brady shook off a slow start against Baltimore -- and a bad decision/throw leading to an interception in the end zone -- to put up big numbers in the big win. Brady finished 25 of 38 for 406 yards with three touchdowns and just the one pick for a 116.8 rating. He made the most of his passes with big plays. That included a 79-yard touchdown to a wide-open Chris Hogan, but he also connected with five different targets with a reception of 27 yards or longer. Julian Edelman was actually the least efficient pass catcher with a team-best seven catches for 73 yards on his 15 targets. Hogan notched his second career 100-yard day with five catches for 129 yards. Martellus Bennett and Malcolm Mitchell each caught four passes and a touchdown, totaling 70 and 41 yards, respectively. Brady was sacked just once and avoided the limited rush that got near him, although he was forced into an intentional grounding that cost his team a field goal attempt. Still, it was a very impressive, productive day against the NFL's No. 1 defense, including a solid 8 for 16 conversions on third downs against the Raven's No. 1 third-down defense.
RUSHING OFFENSE: B -- Despite facing the NFL's No. 1 rush defense, LeGarrette Blount gave the Patriots enough production to balance out the offense. The big back continued his career year with 18 rushes for 72 yards for a 4.0 average and a touchdown. His 1-yard score was his 14th of the season, tying Curtis Martin's franchise record. He topped the 1,000-yard mark on the year and his 1,029 yards are a career high. Blount notched New England's first touchdown and then closed out the game with a first down on fourth-and-1 to run out the clock on the win. Pass-catching back Dion Lewis was the only other Patriots player to do much on the ground, picking up 14 yards on his three attempts. It was far from a dominant day on the ground, but Blount gave the Patriots more than might have been expected against the best run defense in the NFL, reaching at least 18 carries for the 10th time in 13 games this season.
PASS DEFENSE: B -- Joe Flacco and the Ravens seemed content to throw a lot of short passes. New England's pass defense, a point of criticism at times this season, seemed content to allow Baltimore to do so and then come up and tackle to keep the Ravens in check. For the most part, the plan worked far better for the home team. Flacco threw 52 passes, completing 37 for 324 yards with two touchdowns and one interception for a 92.1 rating. The two scores were set up by short fields thanks to New England special teams turnovers. Devin McCourty's interception came on a deep ball that seemed to go right through Mike Wallace's hands, one of the veteran's two key drops. Flacco spread the ball around to 11 different targets, with running back Kenneth Dixon pacing the way with eight catches for 42 yards and a score. Breshad Perriman had the biggest play, beating Cyrus Jones for a late 47-yard catch down the left sideline to set up a field goal in the comeback attempt that came up short. Aside from that, and a catch-and-run for 40 yards by fullback Kyle Juszczyk, New England did an impressive job of keeping everything in front and tackling to avoid too much production after the catch. Trey Flowers and Rob Ninkovich notched sacks for a limited pass rush that only hit Flacco twice all night.
RUSH DEFENSE: A -- New England's rush defense not only was solid against Baltimore, it actually opened the game's scoring. Defensive tackle Malcom Brown got key penetration with Baltimore backed up on the goal line in the first quarter and tackled Dixon in the end zone for the safety. Overall, Dixon ran it 11 times for 39 yards (3.5 average) with a long of nine. As a team, Baltimore had a mere 14 attempts for 42 yards, with New England holding a third straight opponent to an average of three yards per carry or worse with what is now the No. 6 overall rush defense. As has been the case in recent weeks, the Patriots' front and the score took away an opponent's run game.
SPECIAL TEAMS: D -- When Shea McClellin was able to leap over Baltimore long snapper Morgan Cox in the first quarter to block Justin Tucker's 34-yard field goal, it looked like the Patriots were well on their way to an impressive victory keyed by big plays in all three phases. But that storyline fell apart in the third quarter when error-prone rookie punt returner Cyrus Jones got too close to a bouncing punt and allowed Baltimore to recover the miscue at the 3-yard line. The Ravens not only turned that into a touchdown, but got back into the game a few plays later with another touchdown after Matthew Slater fumbled away the ensuing kickoff. Those two huge mistakes and turnovers gave the Ravens life and made the game a dogfight late into the fourth quarter, when Chung recovered an onside kick to essentially seal the win. Ryan Allen had a solid day with a 43.7 net on six punts. He had a long of 56 yards and two downed inside the 20, one at the 1 to set up the safety for the New England defense. Beyond the big mistakes, the return game did virtually nothing positive. Stephen Gostkowski did not attempt a field goal, but did hit his four PATs. The story, though, was all about the two hellacious mistakes in the return game.
COACHING: B-plus -- New England had impressive game plans on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Josh McDaniels mixed in some hurry-up looks and trick plays to a balanced attack that kept the Ravens guessing for much of the night. On the other side of the ball, Matt Patricia played it relatively safe, with lots of zone coverages, solid tackling and limited mistakes to keep Flacco from making big plays. The real coaching questions come in the return game, where Bill Belichick and special teams coach Joe Judge continue to run the rookie Jones out to return both punts and kicks despite his issues with both ball security and decision-making. Despite repeated mistakes, the coaches continue to give Jones chances to ruin games. On Monday night, that allowed the Ravens to get back into a game that appeared well on its way to an easy Patriots win. Physically that's on Jones, but it's just as much on the coaches for putting him out there. Otherwise, New England had strong game plans and got the team ready to play a full 60 minutes in a key battle against a playoff-caliber heated rival.
