Baltimore Ravens

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10 Facts, Stats & Records from Super Bowl XLVIII that you might not be aware of…

Posted by fantasyfurnace on February 4, 2013
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 17 Comments
Photo: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES -

Photo: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES –

For those of you that watched the ‘big’ game last night, and even for the ones who didn’t, here are some of the more interesting facts,  stats, and records broken that you might not have heard about during the telecast. For example, did you know that…

1. The 4 hour, 14 minute game was the longest Super Bowl in history.

2. The Super Bowl was only the second league championship game in NFL history (including the Pre-Super Bowl era) in which each team scored 30 or more points. The first was when the Steelers defeated the Cowboys 35-31 in SB XIII.

3. The Ravens are the 12th team to win multiple Super Bowls.

4. Colin Kaepernick ran for a 15 yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, the longest TD run by a quarterback in Super Bowl history.

5. Jacoby Jones became the first player to ever score a touchdown on a kickoff return and on a reception in a Super Bowl.

#12 Jacoby Jones runs in for the TD at the opening of the 3rd quarter on a 108 yard kickoff return. Photo: REUTERS/Gary Hershorn (UNITED STATES

#12 Jacoby Jones runs in for the TD at the opening of the 3rd quarter on a 108 yard kickoff return. Photo: REUTERS/Gary Hershorn (UNITED STATES

6. It took the Niners 4:10 in the third quarter to score 17 points which cut the Ravens lead from 28-6 to 28-23.

7. Colin Kaepernick’s interception in the second quarter when he overthrew the self-proclaimed “Greatest wide receiver who ever played the game”, Randy Moss, was the first thrown by a Niners quarterback in a Super Bowl covering 169 passes. Joe Montana and Steve Young had thrown 17 TD passes and no interceptions in the previous five games.

Niners QB Colin Kaepernick made the record books in Super Bowl XLVIII. Photo: (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)

Niners QB #7 Colin Kaepernick made the record books in Super Bowl XLVIII. Photo: (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)

8. The Ravens fake field goal in the second quarter was the first one to be attempted in Super Bowl history.

9. Ed Reed made the 9th interception of his post-season career, tying an NFL record with Charlie Waters, Bill Simpson, and Ronnie Lott.

10. With the victory in Super Bowl XLVIII, Joe Flacco now has nine postseason victories as a starting quarterback. That ties Tom Brady for the most by any quarterback in his first five seasons and ties him for ninth among all quarterbacks.

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AFC Championship Game

Posted by fantasyfurnace on January 18, 2013
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

Our pick is the PATRIOTS over the Ravens. It just might, however, be a lot closer than most, including the pundits think, given these two teams recent history against each other.images ravens

The Ravens beat the Patriots 33-14 in the 2009 wild-card round. The Patriots then won two games (2010 regular season and last year’s AFC title game) by the identical score of 23-20, and in September the Ravens won 31-30 in Baltimore. Don’t see any evidence in those recent matchups the Patriots will put a double-digit hurting on the Ravens.

Tom Brady hasn’t had his best performances against the Ravens in his career. His QB rating is some 20 points LOWER vs Baltimore than his career average. The Ravens are still riding the “Ray Lewis is retiring train” and that won’t hurt them here. We just think that if Bill Belichick has the time, he’ll find a way to beat you in the end and that is especially true in Foxborough where the Pats have one of the leagues best home records.

#52 MLB Ray Lewis should be playing the last game of his career if the Furnace is right. Photo: sportsgrid.com

#52 MLB Ray Lewis should be playing the last game of his career if the Furnace is right. Photo: sportsgrid.com

AFC Championship Prediction

Posted by fantasyfurnace on January 20, 2012
Posted in: MLB. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

We were ‘money’ once again last week as we went 3-1 for the second week of playoffs. Here are our picks for this Sunday’s AFC  conference championship game…  PATRIOTS over Ravens- Let’s cut right to the chase… Joe Flacco is not going to beat Tom Brady! Granted, the Ravens have an excellent defense as we all know, however Ed Reed and Ray Lewis are not going to score any points on Sunday and that’s what the Ravens will need in order to have a chance at overcoming the offensive powerhouse that is the Patriots.

Future Hall of Famer #52 Ray Lewis contemplates his opponents on Sunday. Photo: massholesports.com

In addition to Deion Branch and Wes Welker, who combined for 140 yards receiving and two touchdowns in the win over the Broncos last week, there is the two-headed monster in TE’s Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski who have between them, 169 catches, 2237 yards, and 24 touchdowns this year.

#87 TE Rob Gronkowski high-fives #85 Aaron Hernandez after TD reception. Photo: sportsofboston.com

Tom Brady and these two prolific weapons have been on the same page all season. And what makes them even more versatile is how cleverly Hernandez was used to compliment an ineffctive BenJarvus Green-Ellis (13 rushes for 28 yards) in that game. The 6′ 1″ tight end finished the game as New England’s leading rusher (5-61).

The lone intangible for the Ravens in this Sunday’s game is the in-house negative comments made by Ed Reed towards QB Joe Flacco where it has been reported that he said …”Flacco got rattled against Houston last week and didn’t have a strong grasp of the offense.” Not exactly the most ‘encouraging’ words one could choose when referring to the ‘offensive leader’ of the team. We don’t think that these kinds of remarks will endear Flacco to the rest of his team this late in the season. If he hasn’t earned the respect of his players by now, after 17 games, then when? These types of distractions might just add to Flacco’s nerves and stress level already at its peak given the magnitude of the game. In the end, Joe Flacco is what he is-just an average quarterback- (think Mark Sanchez).

Comparing the two starting quarterbacks. Photo: masholesports.com

Baltimore’s stud RB Ray Rice has been the focal point of the Ravens offense to be sure. However, Lee Evans and Anquan Boldin are no Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski. And once the Ravens fall behind, the running game will be less of a factor, forcing an average quarterback to pass to average receivers against a potent, well oiled and well coached Patriots team who, as it just so happens, has started playing their best defense of the season. Our pick, and Michael Corleone’s pick is New England by double-digits…