FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The temperature drops, friendly fans roar and the Patriots pile up victories.
New England has the best home record in the NFL in Bill Belichick’s 15 seasons as coach, playoffs included.
Watch out, though. Here come the road-tested Baltimore Ravens for a divisional game Saturday.
“There’s nothing that the crowd can do to help you make the plays that you’re supposed to make,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said.
The Ravens aren’t likely to get rattled even against the AFC’s top-seeded team. Not with cool Joe Flacco at quarterback and a 2-1 playoff record at Gillette Stadium in the past five seasons.
Baltimore has 10 postseason road wins, all since 2008 and tied with Green Bay for most in NFL history.
Why so many?
“Well, shoot, we can’t get ourselves any home [games], I guess,” Flacco said. “We’ve obviously had a lot of chances at [road games], a lot of experience with it, and reacted well in it.”
The Ravens won three road playoff games and the Super Bowl in the 2012 season. Last Saturday they won a wild-card game 30-17 in Pittsburgh while the Patriots had a bye.
“We could be going to play on Mars and I’d still be very confident,” Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith said.
Since Belichick became coach in 2000, the Patriots are 1-2 in the playoffs against the Ravens and 11-1 against all other teams.
New England lost AFC championship games to Baltimore in the 2009 and 2012 seasons and beat them in the 2011 season before losing the Super Bowl to the New York Giants.
Both the Patriots (12-4) and sixth-seeded Ravens (11-6) insist that’s irrelevant now with players and assistant coaches who weren’t in those earlier games.
“That’s all overblown,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. “It’s how well you play the game in that three-hour block against the opponent.”
Despite the personnel changes, the teams know each other very well.
“It seems like the Baltimore Ravens are a division opponent, we play them so much,” Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said.
The last time they met, the Patriots won 41-7 late last season. But that was in Baltimore.
On Saturday, the Ravens will be in a stadium where their only playoff loss was by three points.
“We’ve had a good football team around here,” Flacco said, “and guys that are strong and not intimidated.”
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