New England and Baltimore will meet Sunday at Gillette Stadium in the AFC Championship game with a chance to play in Super Bowl XLVI on the line. Never before has so much been at stake when these two rivals square off.
As rivalries go, Patriots-Ravens does not have the history of Packers-Bears or Harvard-Yale. Sunday will be the eighth all-time meeting since the Ravens entered the league in 1996. It’s the seventh of the Bill Belichick era and the sixth since Tom Brady became New England’s starting quarterback.
The Patriots have won all but one of the previous meetings, though their margin of victory has shrunk in recent years and the intensity has ramped up.
A brief history of the bad blood:
■Dec. 3, 2007: The 12-0 Patriots traveled to M&T Bank Stadium for a Monday night game against a Ravens squad with just four wins. The Patriots trailed, 24-20, when they got the ball with 3:30 to play. Brady drove the Patriots into the red zone, but the Ravens stopped them on fourth down – or so they thought. Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan called timeout, negating the stop. Adding to the drama: assistants aren’t supposed to call timeouts, only the head coach, but the official simply heard the request and granted it.
When the teams lined up again for fourth down, New England got new life when Baltimore was called for holding, giving it a fresh set of downs. Brady found Jabar Gaffney in the end zone, the receiver held on, and the touchdown held up.
After the game, the Ravens accused the officials of showing favoritism to the Patriots.
■Oct. 4, 2009: The Patriots took a 21-7 lead at halftime and held on for a 27-21 win at Gillette Stadium. The Ravens twice were flagged for roughing the passer, the second on Terrell Suggs under the so-called “Brady rule’’ when he lunged at the quarterback’s knee.
“Without totally going off the wall here, it is embarrassing to the game,’’ Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said, basically going off the wall. “Brady is good enough to make his own plays, let him make the play. Both of their [first-half] touchdown drives had personal fouls that kept the drives alive.’’
