Doug Kapustin MCT Baltimore's Anquan Boldin beats New England's Devin McCourty for a fourth-quarter scoring pass.

0 comments | Print

Ravens savor revenge after big second half

Published: Monday, Jan. 21, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 7C

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – They wanted the New England Patriots, told the world they would beat them and went into their stadium and dominated the second half like no visiting team has ever done.

It didn't seem possible when they limped into the postseason losers of four of five, or when they trailed the Denver Broncos last week by a touchdown with under a minute to go, or during the first half Sunday night when they were having trouble getting Tom Brady off the field.

But it's reality now: The Baltimore Ravens are going to the Super Bowl.

Avenging last year's loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, the Ravens took apart New England in the second half, punching their ticket to New Orleans with a 28-13 victory.

"We know what it felt like walking off that field losers (last year)," Ravens safety Bernard Pollard said. "They beat us, and we said we weren't going to walk off again like that."

Instead, the Ravens bounced off, one by one, celebrating with their fans who had come down to the first couple of rows at Gillette Stadium.

Safety Ed Reed, who will play in his first Super Bowl and do it in his home state, sang, "We got two tickets to paradise."

Linebacker Terrell Suggs yelled, "We came, we saw, and we conquered."

"I don't know if we had a dream this big," said Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, who will face his brother, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, on Feb. 3.

"We had a few dreams, we had a few fights, we had a few arguments. We'll try to stay out of that business. We'll let the two teams duke it out."

Trailing 13-7 at halftime, the Ravens steamrolled the Patriots in the second half. New England coach Bill Belichick was 72-1 when leading at halftime at Gillette Stadium, and the Patriots were undefeated in four previous conference championship games on their home field.

But they had no answers for Joe Flacco or a Ravens defense that forced three turnovers in the second half.

A week after outshining Denver's Peyton Manning and two weeks after getting the better of Indianapolis rookie Andrew Luck, Flacco outplayed Brady, completing 15 of 24 passes in the second half for 159 yards and three touchdowns.

The Baltimore coaching staff decided to put the game on Flacco's shoulders in the second half.

"We realized we needed to put some pressure on them," Flacco said. "We didn't come all the way here to play it safe."

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Read more articles by Jeff Zrebiec



About Comments

Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.

• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.

hide comments
Sacramento Bee Job listing powered by Careerbuilder.com
Quick Job Search
Buy
Used Cars
Dealer and private-party ads
Make:

Model:

Price Range:
to
Search within:
miles of ZIP

Advanced Search | 1982 & Older



Find 'n' Save Daily DealGet the Deal!

Local Deals