Aqib Talib, Patrick Chung, Kyle Love sustain injuries

The New England Patriots lost four starters over the course of the game against the Baltimore Ravens in running back Stevan Ridley, cornerback Aqib Talib, safety Patrick Chung (I don’t know if he counts as a starter, but he gets significant snaps), and defensive tackle Kyle Love were all injured in the 28-13 loss against the Baltimore Ravens.

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Love suffered a knee injury early in the game and was questionable to return, and that was a significant loss since Chandler Jones was limited with an ankle injury that he likely aggravated last week against the Houston Texans. The Pats pass rush and run defense was severely cut by the loss of Love and the nagging injury Jones suffered.

Patrick Chung’s injury hurt a secondary that was already missing Aqib Talib to a reported right thigh issue that looked to be a thigh/hamstring injury.

Talib sustained the ailment after defending a pass intended for Anquan Boldin, and he was shutting down Boldin to a high degree. That marked a third straight excellent game in coverage, and Boldin went off after Talib left the game. With Talib out, Kyle Arrington moved outside and proceeded to get beat on a few plays (he actually faired out OK, just not nearly as good as Talib) and didn’t have the height or ball skills to effectively beat Boldin in coverage.

Talib was questionable to return but never made it back into the game, and that was one of the reasons why the Patriots were not able to win. They just broke down in coverage as the game wore on, and I believe that was mostly due to the loss of the solid corner.

Stevan Ridley was knocked out of the game by a jarring hit from, gulp, Bernard Pollard that caused him to fumble the ball and lie motionless on the turf. I still can’t believe some Ravens players ignore the fact that a player was concussed (or almost concussed) on the field after the play was dead. I know they were excited about the fumble and had every right to be happy, but I just feel like some of the Ravens players could have shown more class.

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