If there’s bad blood with Patriots, no one’s saying
Suggs won’t name Brady, but praises his record 201st win
There was no mention of Spygate, Deflategate or any other “gate.” Nobody challenged the other side’s formations or advised them to “study the rule book and figure it out.” There was no disdain expressed for another player’s hair or attitude.
The closest thing to trash talk ahead of Monday night’s renewal of the Ravens’ rivalry with the New England Patriots was probably what Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs didn’t say. Continuing a longstanding tradition, Suggs avoided referring to his nemesis, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, by name. But Suggs did applaud the accomplishments of Brady, who broke an NFL record by winning his 201st game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.
“That’s pretty good,” Suggs said Wednesday as the Ravens (7-5) returned to work and began preparations for Monday’s primetime game against New England (10-2) at Gillette Stadium. “Wins are wins. Numbers are numbers, and numbers don’t lie.”
It’s been 23 months since the Ravens and Monday, 8:30 p.m. TV: ESPN Radio: 97.9 FM, 1090 AM Line: Patriots by 7
Patriots last met and added a chapter to one of the NFL’s most competitive rivalries. In the 2014 divisional round, the host Patriots erased two 14-point deficits in beating the Ravens, 35-31, en route to their fourth Super Bowl title.
The game featured wide receiver Julian Edelman’s gametying touchdown pass and the Ravens griping about the formations the Patriots were using, with Brady later advising them to learn the rules, which were ultimately changed. Depending on whom you ask, it also might have given birth to the Deflategate footballtampering scandal that carried on for months and threatened to mar the legacies of Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
The Ravens acknowledged only that kicking consultant Randy Brown contacted Chuck Pagano, the coach of the Indianapolis Colts — the Patriots’ opponent the following week in the AFC championship game — and warned him about the condition of the kicking balls. But there have been plenty of reports and speculation that the Ravens had a more significant role in Deflategate, which ultimately resulted in Brady’s serving a controversial four-game suspension this season.
“I don’t even really remember,” Edelman said in a conference call Wednesday when asked about the circumstances after the last Ravens-Patriots matchup. “If there’s something that went down, that’s just football. It’s a competitive environment and they’re a competitive team; we’re a competitive team. There’s no afterthought of anything that has happened, that will happen. I don’t know. That’s two years ago.”
As is typically the case when the two teams play, there will be much on the line Monday night. The Patriots can secure yet another AFC East crown with a victory and a loss by the Miami Dolphins, who play Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. New England is also looking to keep pace with the Oakland Raiders for the top seed in the conference.
The Ravens are in a first-place tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North. The two teams will play each other Christmas afternoon at Heinz Field, but the Ravens need to keep winning to make sure that game has significant playoff implications. Ravens coach John Harbaugh has acknowledged several times this week that there’s no bigger challenge than going to Foxborough, Mass., to play the Patriots.
“We’re glad to be in this game,” Harbaugh said. “We’re glad that we earned the right to play a meaningful game in December, most especially against the team we’re about to play, because they’re always in that position.”
Harbaugh is 3-5 all time against Belichick and the Patriots and 2-2 in playoffs at Gillette Stadium. The Ravens beat the Patriots, 33-14, in a wild-card game in the 2010 postseason, and 28-13 in the AFC championship game in 2013. New England prevailed, 23-20, in the AFC title game in 2012, and 35-31 in the divisional round in 2015. Five of the past eight meetings have been decided by six points or fewer.
Almost all of them have come with some form of drama.
“We play in a lot of tough games every year and we’ve had to go up there a good amount late in the season, in the playoffs. I think that gives you a sense of confidence to go up there and to get the job done,” Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said. “When you haven’t experienced it much, I think they’re a team that can intimidate some people, but I don’t think that’s us. We’ve done it enough where we feel good about doing it, and we’ve had good teams.”
Flacco, though, dismissed talk of any lingering bitterness between the organizations, answering a question about it with a comment on the Ravens’ rivalry with the Steelers.
Belichick is friends with Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Ozzie Newsome — Newsome and Belichick used to work together in Cleveland — and it was Belichick’s recommendation that helped Harbaugh land the Ravens’ coaching job in 2008. If his relationship with Harbaugh is now strained, he wasn’t saying.
“They have a good team, we have a good team, we’re playing a big game on Monday night. Both teams are going to do everything they can to compete as hard as they can on Monday night,” Beli- chick said in a conference call Wednesday with Baltimore-area reporters. “That’s what it is. That’s what we all signed up for. We know that’s a part of it. We compete against each other in the offseason, we compete against each other to build our team and so forth. It just puts things in a little bit different situation.”
Harbaugh has frequently praised Belichick over the years, and he did so again Wednesday, calling him the “greatest coach of his generation.”
“I feel like we have a good relationship,” Harbaugh said. “We’re not probably socializing that much, but I don’t know how many coaches really do. We’re all so busy. If I’ll see him or any coach at the combine or at the owners meetings and we have a chance to talk, it’s always good. I have a ton of respect for him. I really like him as a person. I think he’s a great coach. I’ve always studied Coach Belichick from when I first met him when I was an assistant at Cincinnati and he came in, and he was just great to be around.”