Patriots以11-0的战绩进入本周比赛，渴望match 1972年Dolphins的全年不败战绩。相对的，Ravens是4-7。然后在这场对Ravens来说是本赛季最后一场有价值的比赛中，Ravens在大多数时候都占了上风，无论是进攻还是防守。无论是解说还是电视机前的我，都忍不住开始想，maybe this is the day。在第四节刚开始不到一分钟，Ravens TD，以24比14领先。Pats得球进攻，然后Brady被sack了两次，乌鸦再次得球。这个时候，拍子的road to redemption正式拉开帷幕。
一直被对方的跑位折腾得没有办法的拍子防守终于找到办法遏制对方，乌鸦的前两个down只前进了1 yard，还有一个5 yards false start penalty。3-14，本场超水平发挥的乌鸦QB突发神经，一个长传直接送到拍子Sanders的怀里——Sanders周围方圆五米都没有一个乌鸦球员。INTERCEPTION！忍不住让人想起上周对阵拍子的老鹰QB，也是几乎全场发挥超级好，最后两个play给了两个interception，就好像到了第四节，仙蒂蕾拉的水晶马车突然变成一只大南瓜。
拍子进攻，得了一个FG，搬回三分，仍然以17比24落后。乌鸦的进攻再次被抑制，没能得到1st down，也没能进FG区域。Punt。拍子进攻。No huddle，Brady传球给Moss，19 yards。1st down。但是下面三个plays没能得到第二个1st down。Punt。乌鸦进攻。开始挽救了一个intercept的Harrison把乌鸦球员压在离1st down只有1 yard的地方。Punt。拍子持球。
此时距离比赛结束只有3分30秒钟。
拍子在自己的27 yard line开始进攻。Brady在2nd down传给Watson，23 yards。No huddle，3 plays，进入乌鸦的39 yard line。其中还有Brady自己跑的2-yard 3rd down。
Now first down，two-minute warning。神奇的时候到来了。
1st down, pass incomplete;
2nd down, pass incomplete;
3rd down, Faulk run for 9 yards. 1 yard left for another 1st down;
4th down, the last chance. Brady自己持球前扑，但是被乌鸦防守按在原地。在大家都以为拍子进攻再次失败的时候，才发现裁判早就吹了哨——原来乌鸦的denfense coordinator在场边提前叫了暂停！乌鸦的防守队员悲愤交加。于是重来；
4th down, Faulk被对方按在-1 yard处。在大家都以为拍子进攻再次失败的时候，才发现裁判也已经吹了哨——居然是我们自己OL false start，被罚5 yards，但是仍然是4th down!!!我当时都已经惊异地不知道该说什么了。就好像自己球员miss了penalty，但是裁判判重新罚，因为本方球员提前进入box！
又是4th down, 可是我们的WR被全部看牢。在这种情况下，居然Brady前面空门大开，于是他自己持球跑了12 yards，1st down!!!更美妙的是，对方illegal contact，又被罚了5 yards。
And then 1st down at BAL 18, 1:38 left.
1st down, Faulk run for 5 yards;
2nd down, pass incomplete;
3rd down, pass incomplete;
4th down, pass incomplete，但是，但是！！！对方defensive holding，罚5 yards。拍子不多不少，正好1st down again!
此时只剩下55秒钟。
Brady没有再浪费时间，1st down at BAL 8，他传给end zone中的Gaffney，TOUCHDOWN！乌鸦的防守队员气疯了，两个unsportsmanlike conducts（包括把裁判扔下来的旗子扔到看台上），一共罚30 yards, enforced between downs。
Extra point was good, 拍子27比24领先。对方defensive offside，再罚5 yards。
此时乌鸦持球，比赛还剩44秒钟。
Gostkowski从BAL 35 yard直接踢出end zone, 免得对方return TD。touch back。
对方两次1st down，仍然还在BAL 45 yard，比赛还剩14秒钟。
两队都用掉最后一个timeout。
1st down, pass incomplete, 8 sec left;
2nd down, 对方长传52 yards，在NE 3 yard地方接住，马上被拍子的防守队员压倒。我心想完了完了，下一个play八成要TD。可是裁判哨声响了，0 sec left, END GAME。
我大约在半分钟之后才真真切切地意识到比赛结束，拍子胜利。就连现在回想起来，还不敢相信上面写的就是的确发生的。虽然看起来很乱，但是我知道我一定得记下来这场one hell of a 4th quarter！
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Even when they lose, they win. This is what it takes to be perfect.
When the history of this Patriots season is recited by future generations, the bards will speak of a night in Baltimore when snow swirled, passes were dropped, and the Patriots were left for dead three or four times – only to be rescued. Again. And again. And again.
Remember Walt Coleman and the tuck rule in the big snowstorm in Foxborough? The phantom play that delivered the first Super Bowl? This was kind of like that. The Patriots flat-lined a couple of times. Perhaps televisions were snapped off by angry New England fans. Maybe some of those folks went to bed thinking the Patriots actually lost. Maybe champagne bottles were uncorked by members of the 1972 Dolphins.
No. The Patriots never lose.
The Patriots defeated the Baltimore Ravens, 27-24, when Jabar Gaffney caught a disputed touchdown pass with 44 seconds left. New England improved to a perfect 12-0. But Ravens gaffes had a lot more to do with this than Gaffney’s grab.
It looked like the Patriots were going to lose when they trailed, 24-17, and the Ravens took over at the New England 26 early in the fourth. Then it looked like they were going to lose when Tom Brady was stopped on a fourth-and-1 quarterback keeper with less than two minutes to play. Then it looked like the Patriots were going to lose when Heath Evans was stopped on fourth and 1.
No. No. And no.
The Patriots never lose. Most of the time they dominate. Some of the time they are clutch. And sometimes they are just plain lucky.
Last night they were clutch. And lucky.
They won because the Ravens sideline called a timeout just before a play when they stopped Brady and appeared to take possession of the ball and the game.
“I heard the whistle,” Brady said. “I’d have gotten the first down if I didn’t hear it blow.”
I think he was kidding. He had the same look on his face that he had the night he told us that his snow-bowl playoff fumble against the Raiders was actually a forward pass.
“We called the timeout,” snapped Baltimore coach Brian Billick. “If he’d gotten the first, it would have been you screaming, ‘Why didn’t you call timeout?’ Let’s make sure we don’t have a revisionist history.”
It wasn’t just the timeout. The Patriots won because of a penalty on their own offensive line. After the dumb timeout by the Ravens gave New England a second chance on fourth down, Evans was stopped, but this time the Patriots were saved because of a false start by Russ Hochstein.
They won because Brady scrambled for 12 yards on a fourth-and-6. Then they won because of a defensive holding call on another fourth-down play, this one with less than a minute to go.
Finally, they won because Baltimore’s last-second Hail Mary pass put the Ravens near the Patriots goal line as time expired.
“We just kept clawing back,” Brady said. “We knew it was gonna be tough. We executed when we needed to. Those calls definitely helped out, but we didn’t get those calls in the first three quarters, so it evens out.”
This must be what it takes to go 19-0. You win in big-time blowouts against assorted Redskins and Bills. Then you win at home in a close one against the Eagles. Then you win thanks to nine lives in the bone-chilling winds of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The Patriots were 19-point favorites, which according to the Baltimore Sun made the Ravens the biggest home-field underdogs in modern NFL history.
Much to the surprise of another national television audience, the Ravens stayed with the Patriots in the first half and it was 10-10 at intermission. The Ravens ran through the Patriots for most of the second half and led throughout the fourth quarter. Until the final minute.
And even then it was controversial. Gaffney’s catch was reviewed and upheld.
“I told him it was the best catch of his career,” Brady said.
The Patriots don’t have a lot of history of games in Baltimore against the Ravens. Last night was New England’s first game at breathtaking M&T Bank Stadium, an edifice that makes neighboring Camden Yards look like a guard shack. The only other time the Patriots played the Ravens in Baltimore (1996), the game was at Memorial Stadium, once home of the great Orioles and Colts teams.
“Memorial Stadium will always hold a special place for me because that’s where I started,” said Bill Belichick, who is not the sentimental type. “Going up there to 33rd Street to watch the Orioles and Colts play, when you grow up, you kind of get weaned on to those two sports. That sticks with you for a lifetime, and it always will with me.”
The coach knows his history and he knows how hard 19-0 is. Twelve and zero was last accomplished by the 2005 Colts. It was also achieved by the 1998 Broncos, the 1985 Bears, the 1934 Bears, and, of course, the vaunted ’72 Dolphins.
Don Shula’s ’72 Dolphins are the ghosts the Patriots are chasing, and Shula was in the house, talking in the ESPN booth throughout the third quarter. He said the Patriots are a great team. He said, “If they run the table, they should be given credit for running the table.”
If the Patriots run the table, the windy night in Baltimore is the one they’ll remember as the one that almost got away.
But they did not lose.
This must be what perfection feels like.
(Dan Shaughnessy – Boston Globe)