2011 felt like we got it by the skin of our teeth. And there was little question the Ravens defense was better than the Patriots. Losing Andre Carter, their best defensive player to that point, devastated the defense. And losing Gronk against the Ravens crippled the offense for the Giants Super Bowl rematch. That team limped to the finish line and just couldn’t close it out.
2014 was surprisingly ugly. Never would I have thought that team would get themselves into TWO 14-point holes. They pulled it out with some trickeration and smart deception. I was really impressed with how well Flacco played until the final interception. Still, I had little doubt the Patriots were probably the better team on both sides of the ball this time around. They also avoided a catastrophic injury.