AFC Championship Game Preview
Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
Last year the Baltimore Ravens came oh so close to going into Gillette Stadium and coming out with a trip to the Super Bowl. The ball was in Lee Evans‘ hands while he was in the end zone about to score the game winning touchdown with just seconds to play. But a backup cornerback named Sterling Moore stripped the ball out with no time to spare. Two plays later Baltimore had a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime on the last play of regulation with a 32 yard field goal. But Billy Cundiff choked and the kick was no good. You know there were a bunch of Ravens in that locker room who would have given anything for another chance.
Be careful what you wish for Baltimore, because you just got it.
The New England Patriots remain the AFC’s juggernaut in this century. This is their seventh AFC Championship Game this century already. They have five wins so far. This season, the Patriots were in every single game. Their four losses were by a total of 11 points. If there is something to worry about for New England fans it would be the the Ravens were one of those losses. Also, should they get past Baltimore this week, they might meet up with the San Francisco 49ers who pinned another one of the four losses on them. The 49ers will visit the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game.
Now, one would think that since these two teams have played in a three-point game and a one-point game in the last calendar year that the point spread in this one would be close. Well. it is not.
Intertops has the Ravens +8.51.91 or 4.00. The Patriots are -8.5 1.91 or 1.26. They have many prop bets you can make as well. Some of these include on what will be the first scoring play. A New England touchdown is 2.00, a Baltimore touchdown is 4.00.
It is very strange that a point spread would be so high in a game of this magnitude. It is especially weird that it is this high with these two teams having played two close games in the last year. But, a lot has to do with the fact that the Ravens played more than an extra quarter last week against the Denver Broncos. Baltimore’s defense has been on the field an awful lot the past two weekends. Odds makers obviously feel that they should be getting worn down and that Tom Brady will pick them apart. But Peyton Manning was unable to do so last week. Last time we heard, he is pretty good. So we’ll take the Ravens +8.5.
