Ravens cry (too many) fouls in loss to 12-0 Pats
BALTIMORE -- Well, I guess they're right. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, and make no mistake, the New England Patriots got lucky Monday night.
Oh, they won another one, all right, and they're still undefeated. But their 27-24 come-from-behind defeat of Baltimore was so ... well, extraordinary ... that more than a few of the losers had trouble coping with the defeat.
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| Linebacker Bart Scott and the Ravens feel jobbed. (AP) |
"They get a lot of calls, I'll say that," defensive back Jamaine Winborne said.
"Close only counts in horse shoes," linebacker Bart Scott said. "Bunch of B.S."
"It's hard to go out there and play the Patriots and the refs at the same time," cornerback Chris McAlister said. "They put the crown on top, and they want them to win."
"We had some bogus calls," said running back Willis McGahee, "but it is what it is."
And what it is is another Ravens loss and another Patriots victory. But give the winners this: They did what was necessary to win their 12th in a row, and that's what characterizes good clubs.
But they did have a little help from their friends, and let us count the ways.
On the Patriots' game-winning drive, they were stopped three times in the last two minutes on fourth downs -- only to have something unusual happen to gain a mulligan. One time it was a timeout from the Baltimore sideline that preceded the snap; another it was a false start by a Patriots offensive lineman; a third time it was a questionable holding call against Winborne.
In the end, of course, the Patriots did what they had to, which was win. Tom Brady's touchdown pass to Jabar Gaffney with 44 seconds left was the difference, though the Ravens barely fell short at the end when Kyle Boller's Hail Mary was hauled down by Mark Clayton at the New England 3.
Typical.
"I don't want to take anything away from New England," said Rolle, "but everybody in this locker room feels like the game was taken from us. In a game of this magnitude you don't make those types of calls on fourth down. Let the players decide the outcome.
