AFC Championship 2013 Open Thread

The Ravens and Patriots meet today in the AFC Championship Game, a rematch of last year's classic conference title game.

I fully expect the outcome to be the same. The Ravens have an oldish defense that had to play a long time in a grueling road contest last week. So many times you see that have a negative impact the next week. The Patriots are a bad team to have to deal with that against.

That leaves the game on the shoulders of Baltimore's offense, namely Joe Flacco. I didn't think Flacco had what he did last week in him. To say he hasn't been a good Playoff performer would be accurate. To beat the Patriots, though, he is going to need to play better than just well. He left a lot of throws on the field last week. In fact, he always seems to leave throws on the field in the Playoffs. Some might say his touchdown to interception rate is good, which is true, but his completion percentage leaves something to be desired. To beat the Patriots, Baltimore will need to consistently score touchdowns. I'm taking the Pats.