Belichick, Patriots Ready For Another Tough Matchup With Ravens
BOSTON (CBS) -- A familiar foe is coming to Gillette Stadium for Saturday afternoon's AFC Divisional Round.
The Patriots will host the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday, a team that has won two of their three postseason visits to New England over the last six years. The Ravens may have gone just 10-6 against a weak schedule during the regular season, but they put up an impressive 30-17 Wild Card win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Saturday to advance.
Given Baltimore's history against the Patriots in the postseason, head coach Bill Belichick is expecting another tough matchup on Saturday.
"As usual, the Ravens are a solid football team in all three phases of the game," Belichick said on a conference call Monday morning. "They're well coached, they're physical, they do a good job on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They have explosive skill players on offense, in the return game and on defense. I think Coach [John] Harbaugh has, as always, put those type of teams out there with Ozzie [Newsome] and their respective staffs. I think that's what they have again. That's what they are.
"They're tough; they're physically and mentally tough," added Belichick. "They can play in tough situations and they're talented. They keep coming at you."
Belichick had a lot of praise for Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, whom he called "one of the best deep-ball passers in the game." Flacco threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday's win over the Steelers and owns a 10-4 playoff record in his career, tossing 21 touchdowns to eight interceptions.
Though postseason hero Anquan Boldin is out of the picture for Baltimore, Flacco has the benefit of another solid veteran receiver in Steve Smith. The 35-year-old had five receptions for 101 yards against the Steelers on Saturday, was Flacco's favorite target in the regular season, and does all the dirty work that will make life difficult for the New England defense this weekend.
"I think the guy is just a tremendously tough competitor, very energetic, brings a lot of life to the offense," Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said of Smith on Monday. "He'll do the tough duty: blocking and the route running and coming through the middle and catch-and-run type plays. I think he's just added a whole other element to their offense in the passing game and the run game."
While Flacco has been clutch during his postseason career, Belichick knows that the Ravens will rely heavily on their running backs to set the tone. Despite the suspension and controversy surrounding Ray Rice to begin the season, the Ravens still tout a solid rush attack with Justin Forsett (1,266 yards and eight touchdowns during the regular season) and Bernard Pierce, setting up the rest of their offense for success.
"At the core, they still are a very good running team, a very good play-action team," said Belichick. "They hit a lot of big plays and they're a very good vertical passing team. They make a lot of big plays in the running game, too. It's not just long passes and a lot of their passes that are big plays come off play-action, which of course draws the defense's attention to the running game and then that opens up other areas."
On the other side of the field, the Patriots will have to worry about former defensive coordinator Dean Pees, who now calls the shots for the Baltimore defense. The Ravens may not be the same team who beat the Patriots in the 2012 AFC Championship game at Gillette, but they're a squad that still throws a lot of looks at opposing offenses and a lot of pass rushers at their quarterback. That will make for a busy week of preparation for New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
"This unit we're playing is very talented. But they don't really stay the same in terms of the things that they use or do in each game that we've played them. There are always some levels of adjustments that are going to be required during the course of the game because Dean is going to put pressure on you in different ways," McDaniels said Monday. "He's going to really force you to handle some new problems that he'll create. He's obviously got a tremendous defense that plays well and forces you to go the long, hard route without giving up many big plays. It's a challenge at every level."
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The Patriots and Ravens have met three previous times in the playoffs the last six years, but McDaniels doesn't think that familiarity will help too much come Saturday afternoon.
"Yeah, we know a lot of their players and some of their schemes, but I think each time we've played them our team has been different, their team has been different, and ultimately the game on Saturday night I would assume would take on its own form," he said.
Tune in to Saturday's Patriots-Ravens AFC Divisional Round playoff game on 98.5 The Sports Hub — the flagship station of the New England Patriots. Pregame coverage begins at 1:30pm with Patriots Preview, and stay tuned for three full hours of postgame coverage following the game. Tune in to a special edition of Patriots GameDay on WBZ-TV at 11:30am on Saturday, with Patriots 5th Quarter on myTV38 immediately following the game.
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