All the streaks will be on the line Sunday when the Patriots play host to the Baltimore Ravens on Wild-Card Weekend. The Patriots have won 11 straight home playoff games and went 8-0 at Gillette this year. They are 5-0 lifetime against the Ravens (the forefathers of the Ravens - the Bill Belichick-coached Cleveland Browns - beat Bill Parcells’s Patriots on New Year’s Day in 1995).
Brady is 14-3 as a playoff quarterback. The rare losses, like the Super Bowl wins, are easy to remember. There was the “Champ Bailey Game,’’ a second-round loss at Denver in 2006. There was the excruciating 38-34 AFC Championship loss at Indianapolis in 2007. Oh yes, and then there was the Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., two years ago.
Sunday’s game represents New England’s first appearance in the playoffs since the shocker in the desert. The losses stay with Brady, especially Super Bowl XLII.
“I think that one always sticks with us,’’ he said. “I think the thing you take from it in a positive way is that [the Giants] were a team that didn’t look like it had as good a chance as other teams to advance that far. They were a 6 seed, I think.
“It really means any team is alive, whether it’s the 6 seed Ravens or the 3 seed Patriots, right on down the list.
“It’s pretty cool to be in this position to have the opportunity to play. A lot of teams’ seasons have ended. Guys are home. We still have the good fortune to be a team playing.’’
Brady looked and sounded pretty chipper for a guy who’s supposed to have three broken ribs, a broken finger, and a touch of the bubonic plague. He shot down the injury reports earlier in the week, but we know by now we’re never going to get the real scoop on his health.
He said he spoke to fallen teammate Wes Welker, who last Sunday suffered the same injury that felled Brady in the first game of the 2008 season.
