![]() ![]() Stork’s ascension into the starting lineup in Week 4 played a huge part in solidifying what had been a porous Patriots offensive line, and while New England had a pair of guards with experience playing center in Dan Connolly and Ryan Wendell, the new line didn’t take. The Patriots lost center Bryan Stork during the first half to a knee injury that could keep him out for next week’s conference championship game. That throw completed a drive in which the Patriots busted out, depending on how you look at it, either one of the niftier in-game coaching adjustments you’ll ever see or a quasi-illegal substitution pattern that the referees failed to properly control. One was a touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski on an impossible-to-cover slant versus Will Hill. Some of those throws to the left weren’t on Melvin. The Patriots were 9-of-16 for 97 yards and a 65.9 QBR on their throws to the rest of the field. If you prefer to split it by side, the combination of Brady and Edelman went 25-of-35 for 321 yards, four touchdowns, and one pick to the left side, where Melvin stayed virtually all game, producing a 92.6 QBR. Those 18 throws produced 14 completions, 213 yards, seven first downs, and two touchdowns. I’m always hesitant to assign individual defensive backs targets, especially without seeing the All-22 film, but my best guess has the Patriots targeting Melvin a whopping 18 times on Saturday night. The Ravens then pressed Melvin to the line, only for Brandon LaFell to beat him there and Brady to drop a dime over Melvin’s head for the game-winning score. Brady then completed a stick route to Michael Hoomanawanui in front of Melvin for nine yards and followed that with an out to Edelman, again in front of Melvin, for six more and a first down. First, on a third-and-6, Melvin missed a tackle on Amendola that allowed the suddenly shifty receiver to pick up a first down. ![]() On the game-winning drive, Melvin went through a brutal sequence on the final four plays that may very well have knocked the Ravens out of the Lombardi hunt. It was Melvin who was staring, unmoving, into the backfield, possibly expecting safety help, as Julian Edelman wound up and threw a touchdown pass to a streaking Amendola on a play pundits really should have described as “a Wes Welker type throwing to a Wes Welker type.” Watch Saturday’s game tape and you’ll see that Brady’s first read is to the left on just about every single pass play. After he suited up for his first NFL game in Week 15, the desperate Ravens pushed Melvin into the starting lineup, where he managed to keep his head above water during his first three starts across from Lardarius Webb. With an unimaginable five cornerbacks on injured reserve, the Ravens were forced to sign Melvin off of the Miami practice squad in November. While the Ravens took Elam off the field after that gaffe and limited him to 14 defensive snaps, they could make no such switch with Melvin, and the Patriots torched him. Bolden made Elam miss on New England’s first play from scrimmage to create a first down before Amendola shook an Elam tackle attempt on his 15-yard touchdown catch. Elam missed 16 tackles this season, and that continued on Saturday. Elam, a former first-round pick who lost his starting job to Will Hill, moved into the slot early as part of Baltimore’s three-safety sets, only for the Patriots to target him with throws to the likes of Brandon Bolden and Danny Amendola. Saturday was all about attacking weak links in the opposing team’s secondary, and the Patriots did that by going after Rashaan Melvin and Matt Elam. How did the Patriots do it? Well, some shenanigans were involved, but more on that in a second. His second big playoff comeback might not be quite as memorable as the first, but given his advancing years, Brady might cherish this one even more. With no running game to speak of, he and the Patriots clawed their way back from a 14-0 start and a 28-14 third-quarter deficit that left them with a win expectancy of 8 percent to win 35-31. ![]() On Saturday afternoon, nine days shy of 13 years later, Tom Brady delivered a reprise. New England started the Brady-Belichick era with a double-digit second-half comeback, beating the Oakland Raiders in the Tuck Rule Game after trailing 13-3 in the third quarter. Just when they needed it, the Patriots brought an old playoff favorite out of the mothballs: the big comeback. While there’s plenty to talk about, let’s start with the game of the week, where the Ravens were dispatched in an instant classic: Ravens-Patriots: You’re Thinking Right Somewhere between a league icon possibly retiring, a wildly controversial call deciding a game, and a quasi-illegal formation run rampant, the divisional round delivered an engrossing set of games this weekend. ![]()
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