“He leads the way for us on defense,’’ coach Bill Belichick said. “Vince is obviously our most experienced player and he’s been a great leader, great captain all year. His leadership has been tremendous.’’
It might have been the finest performance in Wilfork’s sterling eight-year career.
Considering the stage and stakes, it likely very well was.
The Ravens ran 70 plays. Wilfork played 67. That’s 95.7 percent. A player who is 6 feet 2 inches and 325 pounds is not supposed to do that.
The Patriots’ rock did, just like he did in the regular season when he played more than 85 percent of the snaps, a career high. The only player to log more snaps on defense in the regular season was Kyle Arrington. And he’s 196 pounds.
Officially against the Ravens, Wilfork had six total tackles, a sack, and three tackles for a loss.
Throw in a half stuffed run (carries for 1 yard or less outside of short yardage), and four quarterback hurries (one on which he caused Mark Anderson’s sack) for a season-high five total quarterback pressures.
And Wilfork saved his best for when the team really needed him.
With the Patriots clinging to a 23-20 lead with 3:36 remaining, the Ravens had third and 3 at the New England 30-yard line.
Fellow defensive lineman Kyle Love talked about the game plan for their group to foreshadow the play.
“We knew their offensive line likes to run, and teams run with them,’’ Love said. “That’s where you get hurt. Our main thing was not to run with them and create our own seams and slow [Ray Rice’s] momentum down.’’
The Ravens were in a shotgun formation with three receivers. The Patriots had three down linemen and Wilfork, who lined up most of the day at left end on right tackle Michael Oher on running downs, kicked inside and was over center Matt Birk.
The Ravens pulled right guard Marshal Yanda, and hoped left guard Ben Grubbs could execute a reach block on Wilfork to spring the play around left end.
It didn’t happen. Wilfork stayed on his mark, didn’t run with the play, beat Grubbs straight up the field, and took down Rice for a 3-yard loss that knocked the Ravens out of field goal range for a game-tying attempt.
