The Baltimore Ravens came into Gillette Stadium and upset the heavily favored New England Patriots 28-13 to advance to their first Super Bowl in well over a decade. After beating the Patriots in almost every category in the second half, the Ravens had some choice words for the team they knocked off on their way to Super Bowl XLVII.
Especially, Baltimore linebacker, Terrell Suggs.
“These are the most arrogant pricks in the world, starting with [head coach Bill] Belichick on down,” Suggs said with emphasis, according to Yahoo! Sports. “Tell them to have fun at the Pro Bowl. Arrogant [expletive].”
In typical Suggs fashion, he was not through. And, while many Patriots fans will have a problem with what he said next, he does have a point.
“That’s funny, ever since Spygate, they can’t seem to get it done,” Suggs said with a grin. “I don’t know what it is.”
Obviously, Suggs is referring to what happened when the Patriots were found to be cheating when they spied on what their opponents were doing prior to kick-off.
Again, many in New England will not take kindly to what Suggs said, but it is difficult to argue against any of his comments. Under Belichick, Tom Brady began his playoff career with an unblemished 10-0 record on his way to three Super Bowl. Since that point, Brady and the Patriots are just 7-7 in the postseason. They have lost many postseason contests in which they were fairly significant favorites, including last night’s AFC Championship Game at home. It also marked the first time under Belichick with Brady as his starting quarterback that New England lost a game after leading at halftime.
But it goes beyond just the final score in many of these games. Suggs has a point.
The Patriots and their fans do come across as arrogant to the rest of the league. They have been spoiled in New England for more than a decade, after suffering for so many decades before that. This is no longer an elite team, especially in the playoffs. On Sunday, the Ravens not only outscored the Patriots, but they outplayed them. They outhustled them. They outsmarted them. And they definitely outcoached and outmanaged them.
I do not even feel the need to address how poorly the Patriots handled the end of the second quarter with mismanaging their final timeout.
New England is a good team with many outstanding players. But the window is closing. It will not be much longer that this is still a perennial playoff team, but one who will rarely make it out of Wild Card weekend, never mind playing for the Super Bowl.
