New England Patriots move into the AFC top seeding after Ravens win

The much-anticipated matchup between the Patriots and Ravens lived up to its hype with the Patriots taking a hard-fought physical battle 30-23 at Gillette Stadium.

The Ravens drove 61 yards to the New England 20-yard line on the ensuing possession, but again settled for a successful field goal by Tucker.

The New England linebacker timed the Baltimore snap perfectly and exploded towards Tucker, leaping over long-snapper Morgan Cox and anyone else who was in his way.

From that point, though, the Patriots defense regrouped and held Baltimore to just two field goals.

“It was great to finish the game with the ball in our hands”, said Brady.

“We just weren’t consistent enough offensively”, he said. Obviously, the game at Pittsburgh will be the Ravens last stand and a win there would give them the tiebreaker advantage. “It’s going to be another important game in December up there on a Monday night, and it’s going to be a lot of fun”.

“Tom made a great throw and I think it was the time and the point in the game where we needed someone to step up and make a big play”, he said after the game.

Of course, that kind of consistency is common practice for New England’s 39-year-old quarterback.

Brady completed 25 of his 38 passes with one interception to help the Patriots improve to an AFC-best 11-2. “We had a bust”, Ravens linebacker Zach Orr said. “It was a big win for us”.

The playoffs are less than a month away, and after all of the tumult this season has brought, it still looks as if the road through the AFC cuts through Foxborough and the biggest factor in deciding the biggest games is still the guy wearing No. 12 and screaming at his teammates to try to get them as fired up as he is. But the Steelers could still drop the game against the Bengals and wrap up the division with victories over the final two weeks of the season.

The Pittsburgh Steelers now sit with an 8-5 record and are one game ahead of the Ravens.

“It doesn’t really matter what our record is”, Joe Flacco said after the comeback attempt came up short. “W$3 e turned the ball over three times tonight”, Belichick said.

“We know where we stand and the situation we are in”. Basically, if not for the Patriots blocked field goal, the Ravens earned four field goals (making three). The 79-yard pass play to Chris Hogan was special, and the play-calling to end the game, including a surprising pass to Julian Edelman, set the tone for LeGarrette Blount’s first down run to end the game.

The Patriots ran for 1,404 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2015, averaging 3.7 yards per carry. He’s the first 1,000-yard rusher for the team since Stevan Ridley had 1,263 in 2012.

One came from a wholly unreliable rookie in Cyrus Jones, the other from the bedrock captain of the unit in five-time Pro Bowler Matthew Slater. Patriots victory on Monday Night Football was anything but plain sailing as a sloppy second-half allowed the Ravens back into a game that should have been more comfortable for New England Patriots. The Ravens will probably now have to win the rest of their games during the regular season if they want to have a chance to make it to the postseason. “I think early on we moved the ball”. “We’ll work on it with everybody. It’s everybody’s job to protect the ball who handles it”.

On first down from New England’s 21, out of the shotgun formation, he found Chris Hogan running free down the center of the field.

And the Patriots’ defense played well.