The New England Patriots looked nothing like a team that had gone undefeated at home all season, let alone one of the dominant teams of the past few years. The Baltimore Ravens took advantage of a weak New England rushing defense and some untimely mistakes by QB Tom Brady to lead 14-0 just five minutes. They would end the first quarter up 24-0 and would never be seriously threatened as they coasted to a 33-14 victory in Sunday\’s NFL Wildcard game.

NFL football betting enthusiasts who took Baltimore as +3\’ road underdogs were mentally counting their winnings before the end of the first quarter. The Patriots had dominated the head to head matchups with a 5-0 mark (4-1 ATS) and were undefeated at 8-0 (5-3 ATS) on their home field heading into this matchup.

The Ravens took advantage of three first quarter turnovers by Tom Brady to build their insurmountable lead. Ricky Rice ran for an 83 yard touchdown on the Ravens\’ first place from scrimmage, but afterward refused to proclaim the New England era of dominance over for good:

\”Their era is not over, they know how to win but for the Ravens, to beat theNew England Patriotsset a precedent. We\’ll always remember this win. One thing we said as an offense is we want to start games fast. I wanted to be the guy today to start fast, whether it was a 5-yard run or an 83-yard run. I wanted to be the guy to say this will be a fast-tempo game. We want the other team to play catch-up to us.\”

Baltimore certainly did that, forcing New England to play catch up from their first possession. From the beginning, things didn\’t go well as Tom Brady fumbled on the Patriots\’ first possession setting up another easy Ravens\’ TD. By the end of the first quarter, Brady and his teammates were hearing boos from the Gillette Stadium fans. For his part, Brady didn\’t blame them for their displeasure:

\”I\’d have been booing us, too, the way we played. Playing the way we played today, we weren\’t going to beat anybody.\”

New England is done for the year, while Baltimore will head to Indianapolis to take on Peyton Manning and the Colts on Saturday night. Indy has won and covered three straight against the Ravens, though Baltimore gave them a tough fight at home this season before losing 17-15 as a +1 home underdog. The NFL pointspread for this game has the Colts installed as -6\’ point home favorites with the total set at 45.