Eventually, the New England Patriots most likely will lose a game.
So will this be the week?
The Patriots on Sunday will face maybe their biggest test of the year, as they’ll travel to Baltimore to take on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. It will be the most narrow point spread out of any of the undefeated Patriots’ games so far, and there’s major upset potential in this game with Jackson under center.
In his weekly predictions column, CBS Sports’ John Breech has the Ravens beating the Pats 23-20, and it’s due largely to Baltimore’s ability to run.
Here’s some of the reasoning.
“Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that if you can run on the Patriots, you can beat the Patriots. In their past four road games where they’ve given up at least 150 yards rushing, the Patriots have gone 0-4, and all four of those games came last season. You can bet John Harbaugh knows this and you can bet Harbaugh plans to run the ball 90 times on Sunday.Â
“The X-factor in this game is definitely going to be Lamar Jackson. Although Bill Belichick and the Patriots have 24 straight wins over quarterbacks under the age of 24 — they basically dominate young quarterbacks — their last loss came in 2012 against another running quarterback (Colin Kaepernick). You can bet John Harbaugh also knows this. The Ravens will also be coming into this game off a bye, which means Harbaugh has had two weeks to devise a game plan to beat the Patriots. For most coaches, two years probably wouldn’t even be enough, because Belichick is that much better than everyone, but Harbaugh has actually had some success against the Patriots coach.”
That’s by no means the most far-fetched prediction, as the Patriots going undefeated in the regular season and beyond is no sure thing. And of the teams on New England’s schedule that have the ability to pull off a stunner, Baltimore is toward the top.
