Patriots vs. Ravens: Full Report Card Grades for New England

The New England Patriots pulled off a narrow 30-23 win over the Baltimore Ravens in a game that felt far more like a blowout than one decided by seven points. 

The game had a lot of hype, as the rivalry is one of the most viciously competitive series in the NFL, and the Patriots and Ravens delivered the game of the week in prime time. 

The Patriots outplayed the Ravens in nearly every aspect of the game, but they shot themselves in the foot with some horrible mental lapses at the start of the second half. However, Tom Brady and the Patriots eventually prevailed by dicing up the NFL's top-ranked defense through the air. 

Thanks to some coaching hiccups by John Harbaugh, the Patriots could breathe easy by the end of the game. Ultimately, they would leave with another solid win on their resume and remain in good standing to lock up the AFC's top seed for the playoffs.

Read on for the full grades from the Patriots' 30-23 win over the Ravens. 

Quarterback

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We should start with the bad before the mystique of Tom Brady takes over.

What in the world was that interception? It looked like a total panic move that a rookie quarterback like Jared Goff would make. Take the sack. Maybe there was an attempt to throw the ball away, but the Patriots squandered a chance at points and could have entered blowout territory in the second quarter if Brady didn't throw such a costly pick. 

Aside from throwing one of the worst interceptions of his career from a decision-making standpoint, Brady was lights out. He slashed apart the Ravens defense for 406 yards and three touchdowns while threading the needle on a touchdown pass to Malcolm Mitchell, dropping a dime to Martellus Bennett for six and heaving the deep ball to a wide-open Chris Hogan. 

Brady's best play came when he called an audible at the line of scrimmage in the first quarter, leading to a James White screen that erupted into a 61-yard gain. 

Brady was unbelievable and added to his MVP campaign, just so long as we all forget the interception happened. 

Grade: A-

Running Back

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LeGarrette Blount is having one heckuva season. He tied Curtis Martin's record for the most rushing touchdowns in a single season in franchise history (14). Blount also surpassed 1,000 rushing yards for the first time since his rookie season. 

Teams are not supposed to be able to run on the Ravens, but Blount found running room thanks to his offensive line and ran like a man on a mission. Blount finished with 18 carries for 72 yards and a touchdown. 

In the passing game, the Patriots exploited a spread formation that got James White on man-to-man coverage with C.J. Mosley. Typically, linebackers cannot cover running backs and White's 61-yard slant route was no exception to the rule. White played a great game and finished with 81 receiving yards. 

Grade: A

Wide Receiver

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Julian Edelman had a whopping 11 targets in the first half, but he only caught three passes. Meanwhile, the rest of the receiving bunch was on fire. Edelman finally joined the party in the second half. I'll let the numbers speak for themselves this time.  

Julian Edelman: 7 catches, 73 yards

Chris Hogan: 5 catches, 129 yards, 1 touchdown (79 yards)

Malcolm Mitchell: 4 catches, 41 yards, 1 touchdown

Edelman had a costly drop early on that led to a Tom Brady screaming fit, but he settled in and worked out the issue with his buddy. They went on to connect for a beautiful toe-touch reception in the second half.

Chris Hogan absolutely torched the defense and froze the safety on his game-clinching 79-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter. 

Grade: A

Tight End

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He's still not 100 percent, but Martellus Bennett is doing everything he can to help out the Patriots on offense. 

Bennett's blocking was subpar again, largely because it appears he's not planting well with an injured ankle. After all, who would? 

Bennett's touchdown grab was exceptional and made us all believe that when he is healthy, the Patriots can rely on him to fill the void left by Rob Gronkowski. 

Bennett had four catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. He wrestled the ball away from the defender and used his strength and grace to complete the score.

Grade: A

Offensive Line

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The Patriots have officially assembled one of their best offensive lines in the last five years. Let's give a lot of credit to the return of offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, who has revived the career of Marcus Cannon.

Cannon went from an inconsistent reserve player to a solid right tackle. He had a pretty good game aside from getting by Elvis Dumervil on a speed rush that resulted in Dumervil landing a hit on Tom Brady. 

Shaq Mason deserves all the praise out there for his exceptional blocking ability on screen passes and runs. He has emerged as an excellent young star of the offensive line. 

The only player who seemed to have a tough time was Joe Thuney, who was flagged for a hold and destroyed by Timmy Jernigan on multiple occasions. But that happens to most linemen. 

Nate Solder held his own against Terrell Suggs, too. 

The Ravens have one of the best defensive fronts in the league, but the Patriots found a way to establish the line of scrimmage and run the football while limiting the hits to Brady when throwing. All told, he only went down for one sack. 

Grade: A+

Defensive Line

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The Patriots may have a versatile stud for years to come on the defensive line.

Trey Flowers, who Jon Gruden called the Patriots' best defensive player (he probably forgot about Dont'a Hightower, Malcolm Butler and Devin McCourty), can line up inside and outside and find a way to get to the quarterback.

On one play, Flowers lined up inside and got to Joe Flacco for the sack and what should have been a forced fumble and recovery, but the referees botched the call by ruling forward progress for Flacco. 

Second-year interior lineman Malcom Brown made a huge defensive play by exploding into the backfield and blowing up fullback Kyle Juszczyk before tackling Kenneth Dixon for a safety. It was an incredible play. 

The defensive line came to play, and Rob Ninkovich may have had the biggest defensive play of the game with a late sack. 

Grade: A

Linebacker

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After giving out a lot of A's, it's time to come back down to earth—but only a little. 

The Patriots were not tackling well, and most of those missed tackles came at the second level of the defense. Yes, I'm looking at you, Kyle Van Noy. 

Coming off a huge week, Van Noy struggled in coverage and missed multiple tackles. It wasn't his best performance, but maybe too much was asked of him this week in trying to cover Kenneth Dixon, Terrance West and Kyle Juszczyk. 

Grade: B

Secondary

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Devin McCourty deserves a ton of praise nearly every week.

McCourty staked his claim as one of the NFL's premier safeties, as he had a huge pass defensed and intercepted a deep pass thrown by Joe Flacco. McCourty returned the pick for big yardage, but the officials ruled him down after reviewing the play.

McCourty was key in limiting Flacco's deep ball, and he played excellent in two-deep defensive sets by locking down the deepest level of the defense. 

Malcolm Butler had a solid pass breakup on Mike Wallace and played a pretty good game, especially by stepping up to make tackles. 

The problem was rookie Cyrus Jones. He looked silly trying to cover speedster Breshad Perriman, who beat him down the sideline for a 47-yard catch late in the fourth quarter. 

Grade: B+

Special Teams

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It looked so good. Then it looked so bad. Then it was just good enough.

The Patriots were dominant on special teams in the first half. Their special teamers were game-changers and altered the outcome of the game in a positive manner. 

Jonathan Jones downed a punt inside the 1-yard line with a heads-up play. This led to Malcom Brown recording a safety and got the gears turning for the Patriots defense. 

Sure, Shea McClellin slid into a football and knocked it into the end zone for a touchdown. But then, he did his best Jamie Collins impression by timing the snap and leaping over the line for a huge field-goal block on the NFL's best kicker, Justin Tucker. It was an unbelievable feat of athleticism.

Then the wheels fell off. 

Cyrus Jones not only fumbled a punt return, but essentially kicked the football down to the Patriots own 3-yard line which set up a Ravens touchdown. 

Then Matthew Slater fumbled the ensuing kickoff to hand over some more points to the Ravens, and we had ourselves a ballgame. 

Thankfully, Ryan Allen and Jones cemented themselves as special teams stars of the game by downing another punt at the 1-yard line.

The good was frankly amazing on special teams, but the bad nearly blew the game for New England. 

Grade: C+

Coaching

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John Harbaugh is honestly a decent coach, but he was all over the place in this one. His clock management and decision to try an onside kick just didn't make sense. 

Meanwhile, Bill Belichick showed why he is the ultimate game-planner. 

Belichick utilized the extra offensive lineman sets with Cameron Fleming; ran a two-deep coverage defense with his safeties to take away Joe Flacco's ability to throw the deep ball; and set up a beautiful formation with Fleming, Martellus Bennett and Matt Lengel that deceived the Ravens and set up a 17-yard catch for Bennett. 

The off-tackle flea-flicker by Josh McDaniels was a great play call in that it was so strange it worked. 

Plain and simple, Belichick coached a great game. 

Grade: A