On paper, tonight’s matchup between the 4-7 Baltimore Ravens and the 11-0 New England Patriots looked to be a disaster waiting to happen. The Pats were favored by an incredible 20.5 points, and there was no reason to think that they wouldn’t be able to extend their record to 12-0. But the Ravens, led by a stifling defense, actually made a contest out of it before all was said and done.

Pats QB Tom Brady was hurried, harassed, and hit all night long, and was limited to just two touchdown passes, something that hasn’t happened much at all this year. But one of those TD strikes came with the game on the line, which is why Brady is the most clutch quarterback of this era.

The Ravens were also hampered by a bunch of penalties and mental mistakes, including numerous penalties on the Pats’ final drive in the fourth quarter. It seemed like they did everything in their power to give this game away, and that’s precisely what happened with New England winning 27-24.

On the offensive side of the ball, Kyle Boller and Willis McGahee performed well for three quarters, but fell off the radar in crunch time.

It was an exciting game that came right down to the wire. Even though I had nothing at stake in the outcome, my heart was pounding when the Pats were driving in the red zone with under a minute left, and then again on Boller’s final Hail Mary that was actually caught — 2 yards shy of the end zone. Wow!! That’s what football is all about!

I ventured out to a furniture store today, hoping to avoid the holiday crowds by not going anywhere near the mall. It turns out this place was busy too, but definitely not as bad as it could have been.

Anyway, I was looking for a new dresser set for my son’s room since he’s still just using the plastic storage containers we’ve had since he was a baby. I found a couple of decent standalone ones, plus some really nice ones that were part of a whole set that included things like platform beds, bunks, desks, chairs, nightstands, etc.

Now I’m not sure if we should save up for a whole set (which we’re going to need eventually anyway) or just buy everything piece by piece. It’s not imperative that the furniture match, so that’s not the issue here. The issue is money. We’d end up spending more in the long run if we go the piece-by-piece route, but we wouldn’t need to save as much up front. And of course the opposite is true if we buy a full set: we’d need a bunch more money right away, but would save over buying everything one at a time.

Decisions, decisions!

I was in too much of a bad mood after yesterday afternoon’s Bears game to post about it right there and then, so I saved it for this morning. The Bears gave up 14 fourth quarter points and ended up losing to the Giants by a score of 21-16. This drops the team’s record to 5-7, and dims their already fading hopes of a wild card berth even more. How depressing.

The game started off with such a bang, that I had a hard time believing I was watching the Bears. On the team’s first offensive possession, Rex Grossman, marched the squad 79 yards down the field on a very impressive touchdown drive. The drive took nine plays, and Grossman was 5-5 for 65 yards, including a 1-yard TD toss to Desmond Clark to cap things off. What’s more, the Bears needed only 3 minutes to get this done, and looked very sharp in the process.

But that was pretty much all we would see from the offense all day. They settled for three Robbie Gould field goals after that initial TD drive, and obviously that just wasn’t enough to hold off the Giants.

The defense didn’t look too bad through the first three quarters, but then seemed to break down in the final period when things mattered the most. Even with Derrick Ward out and a shaky Manning under center, the Bears couldn’t stop the big plays near the end there.

Well, I don’t see how the Bears can make the playoffs now. They would definitely have to win the rest of their games from here on out, and even then they would need some help in the form of other teams losing along the line. Probably not gonna happen though.

Short week this week: the next game is Thursday night vs. the Redskins. Ya know, I’m kinda pulling for the ‘Skins because of what they’re going through with Sean Taylor and all….

(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)