***MNF IN THE SWAMP - BAL @ NE***

***BALTIMORE RAVENS @ NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS***

Another great Prime Time game takes center stage tonight as the playoff hungry Baltimore Ravens head into Foxborough to take on the mighty New England Patriots on MNF. Historically, the Ravens are one of the few teams who fare well in Pats country. Baltimore has gotten healthier as the season progressed and the results speak to that fact. The Ravens currently sit with an 8-5 record and have rattled off 4 out of 5 wins since coming off their bye in week 8, losing only to their AFC North rival the Pittsburgh Steelers. Before yesterday, the Ravens and Steelers were tied for first in the division but the Steelers were able to go into Buffalo and pull out a win in a snow storm. That being said, the Ravens are currently a game back of Pittsburgh so with a loss against the Pats tonight, they will concede the division lead over to the Steelers and will stay a game behind them and be forced to battle their way back to the top with the remaining three games with one of those being in Pittsburgh. The lead in this division is extremely important since nobody wants to leave it up to the extremely tight Wild Card race that will most likely have a cut-throat result and leave a deserving team without an invitation to the party. When looking at it like that, one could argue that the motivation factor is severely tilted toward the Ravens for this particular game since the Pats are sitting pretty at the top of the AFC East. Unless of course Miami rallies with a backup QB and wins out along with a complete collapse by the Pats to where they lose the rest of their remaining games including their last one against said Miami, New England pretty much already won this division. However, tonight's game provides us with a MAJOR factor that completely counters that motivation factor here and that is the fact that roughly two years ago, it was indeed the Ravens that squealed on the Patriots to the Colts about the deflated balls and thus "Deflategate" AKA Patriot's QB Tom Brady's worst nightmare, was born. As we all know, Deflategate was a HUGE scandal for the NFL for the entire two years it existed, and frankly hasn't gone away. This season began with Brady serving a four game suspension after all which may I remind you that the Patriot's revenge tour is still ongoing currently and I can guarantee that they have not forgotten about it and the adversity they were forced to encounter early on this year. I'm sure that in the Patriot's minds, the only way to get sweet revenge on the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell and everybody else involved or against them, is by winning the Super Bowl this year, which as we all are well aware, is very likely to happen. Tonight's game however, provides them with some immediate satisfaction if they can mop the floor with the Black Birds on MNF, the ones who caused it all to happen. The ones who basically tarnished Tom Brady's career and the Patriots Super Bowl and certified their already speculated reputation as cheaters to begin with. Man oh man, if this isn't a revenge game for the Patriots and more importantly, a personal mission for arguably the best QB of all time to get some payback, then I don't know what would be.

Now let's look at the matchup in personnel for tonight. The Pats have lost their monster TE Rob Gronkowski for the season which absolutely hurts their offense, but I will argue that it does not cripple them by any stretch of the imagination. After all, they are no strangers to being without the big guy with his unfortunate injuries over the past couple of seasons, and they did pick up another pass catching beast of a TE in Martellus Bennett. I know Bennett is no Gronk, but he still possesses the capabilities of a premier pass catching TE in this league and Brady knows how to utilize him just fine. WR Danny Amendola will also be out but I am not so much concerned about this because as far as I'm concerned the Patriots cloned WR Wes Welker a long time ago and it will be the next man up and clone #4 Chris Hogan will join clone #2 Julian Edelman and they won't skip a beat. Also, the emergence of rookie WR Malcolm Mitchell has come on strong as of late and seems to be Brady's new favorite toy. That being said, the Ravens secondary is very talented and I like what they have going there with that defense as a whole but this is the Patriots at home on MNF, in other words- they will score. Especially with an extremely motivated and pissed off Tom Brady which is the best Tom Brady, I like them to go for the jugular tonight.

Although the Ravens offense has struggled most of this season with the lack of a running game, QB Joe Flacco seems to be gaining some chemistry with his WR core and finding a rhythm in the passing game that has been pretty much a ghost since their Super Bowl run a few years back. Flacco's decline could be attributed to the lingering effects of coming back from a major injury last year that has caused him to be uncomfortable in the pocket or it could be the lack of time with his new guys WRs Mike Wallace and Breshad Perriman who is basically in his Rookie season after sitting out his first year with an injury, or it could be both. It is also no secret that the veteran WR Steve Smith Sr. is a gamer and lives for the spotlight, so I am sure he will get his tonight as well. Needless to say, it seems like he is figuring it out and I do like the Ravens to go toe to toe with the Pats tonight and put up some points through the air as well. The problem with the Pats is that since they have the best FG Kicker in the game in Justin Tucker, once they get around the 30 yard line it seems like they get complacent and settle for the sure 3 points. However as I mentioned before I think Brady will dominate and force Flacco to answer the bell, which I think he does but only for so long. To wrap things up, I fully expect an epic shootout between Brady and Flacco tonight but Bill Belichick and the Pats eventually being too much for the Birds, overwhelming them and winning by over a TD. Brady's life has been a living hell (well, a living hell for him) because of deflate gate for two years and counting now, court dates and public shaming to the max. Sweet, sweet revenge for the Pats as Bill and Tommy will have their boys locked in from kickoff. PATRIOTS-6.5