If you’re a fan of pure football then this year’s AFC Championship is just the game for you. The Patriots and Ravens don’t have much ill will off of the field. The superficial dramatics that the Pats share with teams like the Colts, Steelers and Jets are absent with the Ravens.
Instead, the battle between New England and Baltimore will be all about football. Both teams respect each other, and both teams feature Hall of Fame players who might be seeing one of their last chances to get a ring.
Neither team is a “cinderella”. This is the one seed vs. the two seed for the right to go to the Super Bowl. It’s far less about schematic surprises and twists than it is about pure and simple physical football. Both teams will line up and it will be a fist fight until the final whistle.
Even though I am an obsessive Patriots blogger, I’m still a football purist at heart, and a match-up like this is one I savor. Two well-constructed football teams, not without their weaknesses, but each with respectable strengths, competing at the highest level.
The Patriots have had their share of playoff games like this is the past, and have come out on top the majority of the time. The moment was never too big for the early-2000’s dynasty Pats, but will it be for this, the second generation of Belichick Patriots? We’ll find out in 48 hours.
