Malcolm Mitchell celebrates his second-quarter touchdown against the Ravens during the first half Monday night at Gillette Stadium. (Stew Milne/USA Today Sports)
FOXBORO — Tom Brady outgunned Joe Flacco Monday night.
In their first meeting since New England’s epic 35-31 win in the 2014 AFC divisional playoffs, Brady recorded his ninth career 400-yard passing game and LeGarrette Blount tied Curtis Martin’s single-season franchise mark with his 14th touchdown as the Patriots held on for a 30-23 win at Gillette Stadium Monday night.
The Patriots improved to 11-2 and now stand a full game ahead of the Raiders and Chiefs for the top spot in the AFC with three weeks remaining. The Ravens fell to 7-6 and one game behind the Steelers in the AFC North.
The Patriots built a 23-3 lead only to see special teams miscues from rookie Cyrus Jones and Matthew Slater allow the Ravens back in the game.
But on the first play after field goal cut New England’s lead to three, Brady connected with Chris Hogan for 79 yards to put the game on ice. Brady finished 25-of-38 for 406 yards and three touchdowns. Blount finished with 18 carries and 72 yards, giving him 1,029 yards, a new career high.
Flacco set a new franchise record with 37 completions. He finished 37-of-52 for 324 yards and two touchdowns and an interception.
While Tom Brady and the offense struggled to find their rhythm early it was the defense and the special teams that provided the early spark. After the Patriots went 3-and-out for the second straight series to start the game, Brady went over to the sideline screaming and yelling. He had just missed Julian Edelman on a seam route at the Ravens 5, forcing another punt.
Ryan Allen then boomed a 56-yard punt down to Devin Hester. The veteran returner let it bounce and Jonathan Jones raced past him, caught the ball in the air, flipped it back to Matthew Slater, who downed it at the Baltimore 1.
That play might have been the key play of the game. On their first snap, Joe Flacco handed off to Kenneth Dixon, who ran off right guard. He never made it to the line as Malcom Brown blew past fullback Kyle Juszczyk and tackled Dixon in the end zone for New England’s third safety of the year and a 2-0 lead with 10:47 left in the first quarter.
Special teams did it again after the Ravens forced a punt after the safety. The Ravens, thanks to a 40-yard pass play to Juszczyk and a 15-yard personal foul on Malcolm Butler, had the ball at Patriots 16. But on a 34-yard-field goal attempt by Justin Tucker, Shea McClellin pulled a page out of Jamie Collins’ playbook and jumped the center on a perfectly-timed leap and blocked the field goal. The Patriots took the ensuing possession and marched 74 yards in 10 plays, capped by a one-yard plunge by LeGarrette Blount. The touchdown not only put the Patriots up, 9-0, it gave Blount 14 touchdowns on the season, matching the single-season record held by Curtis Martin in 1995 and ’96.
The Patriots went up, 16-0 on the next drive when Brady marched the Patriots 89 yards in eight plays. That drive featured the explosiveness of James White. The Patriots running back took a short pass over the middle and raced 61 yards down to the Ravens 22. Five plays later, Brady hit Malcolm Mitchell over the middle for six yards and a touchdown.
Bill Belichick passed Don Shula for most seasons of at least 11 wins (14).
[For a full box score and stats, click here.]
The dominance continued as Flacco, just two plays into the next series, threw a bomb intended for Mike Wallace. Devin McCourty made the interception as he was falling backwards. The Patriots were well on their way to capitalizing and taking a 23-0 lead when Brady picked a bad time for his second interception of the season. Facing third-and-goal at the 2, Eric Weddle stepped in front of a pass intended for Chris Hogan in the end zone.
Cyrus Jones nearly committed another catastrophic mistake on special teams. After a false start on 4th-and-2 when the Ravens were at their 39 and lined up to attempt going for it, they punted away. The punt was short but took an awkward bounce and Jones desperately waved everyone off. One problem, he nearly ran over the ball and made contact at the Patriots 19.
The Ravens got one more chance to score before the half and finally succeed when Justin Tucker connected from 50 yards out with 11 seconds left. The Patriots led, 16-3, and were dominant in the box score, outgaining the No. 1 ranked NFL defense, 289 yards to 142.
The Patriots opened the second half in textbook fashion. They held the Ravens to a 3-and-out deep in Baltimore territory. Then, taking over at their 35, the Patriots used some trickery against the Ravens on their opening drive to open a three-touchdown bulge. On first-and-10 at their 48, LeGarrette Blount took the handoff and ran to his right. He then turned around and flipped back to Brady, who found a streaking Chris Hogan for 28 yards down to the Ravens 24. On the very next play, Blount kept the ball and ran for six yards, putting him over 1,000 yards for the second time in his career while becoming the fourth back in the Bill Belichick era to reach the plateau.
Then the game took a dramatic and downward turn for the Patriots. And it was the snake-bitten Cyrus Jones in the eye of the storm.
With Baltimore totally stuck in neutral and punting for second time, the ball took an awkward bounce and touched Jones’ foot as he was running with the ball. The ball was recovered by Chris Moore at the New England 3. Two plays later, Flacco found tight end Darren Waller over the middle for a touchdown.
On the ensuing kickoff, instead of benching Jones, he was back deep with Matthew Slater fielding the kick. The kick went to Slater at the 1. He returned it 15 yards before getting tackled and fumbling. The Ravens recovered, Slater’s second fumble on three returns this season. Four plays later, an uncovered Kenneth Dixon caught a swing pass off to the right and walked in as the Ravens cut it to 23-17.
The Ravens were on the verge of taking the lead when Breshad Perriman beat Cyrus Jones on an up and out move up the left sideline for 47 yards to the Patriots 27. But the Rob Ninkovich got home on a huge sack on third down to force a 38-yard Justin Tucker field goal with 6:35 left, cutting the Patriots lead to three, 23-20.
On the next play after the field goal, Brady hit Hogan on a seam route for 79 yards and a touchdown to put the Patriots up, 30-20. Tucker hit another 37-yard field goal with just over two minutes left to make it 30-23 but Patrick Chung recovered the onside kick when the Patriots needed it, as the Patriots killed the rest of the clock.
The Patriots were playing on a long week Monday night. They will have to recover on a short week this week, as they get ready to play the 8-5 Broncos in Denver Sunday afternoon.