FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Home sweet home. Sure works for the New England Patriots in the AFC title game.
New England gets a chance to extend its mastery in the final step to the Super Bowl today against Baltimore, the team the Patriots beat a year ago for the conference crown. That victory made them 4-0 in home conference title games.
Although they were more vulnerable at home than usual during the 2012 regular season, losing to Arizona and San Francisco and having tight games with Buffalo and the New York Jets, the Patriots (13-4) are happy not to be heading to Baltimore (12-6) this weekend. Or anywhere else.
“Everything is on deck,” Patriots Pro Bowl defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said. “You have to put everything you have into this game. If you lose you go home, plain and simple.”
The Patriots have been beaten in early-round playoff games at home, including against the Ravens 33-14 three years ago. At this stage, though, no way.
Wilford, however, said New England’s success at home in the AFC Championship Game doesn’t is no reason to be complacent.
“This team always plays us tough,” Wilfork said. “This team has been in the playoffs on the road and won a lot of games. They won here in the playoffs. We have to be able to prepare well and execute very well at a high level. I don’t think we can [leave] no stone unturned in this game, because if we do, it could cost us.”
The Patriots are 73-15 at Gillette Stadium since it opened in 2002, including 10-2 in the postseason. Many of those games have been routs.
But the Ravens are 8-5 in road playoffs, including their upset of the Broncos in double overtime last Saturday at Denver, another tough venue.
No team has fared better in the playoffs in Foxborough than Baltimore.
The Patriots were an incompletion in the end zone in the final minute — Sterling Moore stripped the ball from Lee Evans after the Ravens receiver had both hands on it — from winning. And then they botched a 32-yard field goal that would have forced overtime.
“These are two of the top teams for a long time now and we know each other very well,” Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis said. “It’s that chess match; they are going to make plays and we are going to. It’s always one play here or there and who makes the last play will win. It will always be a 60-minute game. ... Both sides understand the game of football. There have been some great, great rivalries, and we have one of those going on with New England now.”
Baltimore won at home 31-30 in Week 3, and the Ravens were contending for the AFC’s top seed until losing four of their final five games.
That dropped them out of a bye position, too, which New England grabbed. But the Ravens beat Indianapolis at home in the wild-card round, then stunned Denver.
Overall, including playoffs, the Ravens are 2-7 vs. New England, including 1-5 at Foxborough. Their defeats in five of the past six meetings were by a combined 16 points.
Wilfork said he doesn’t care about history, recent or otherwise.
“For us, we just have to be ready to go for 60 minutes,” Wilfork said. “Sometimes even more than that, as we saw last week. They went against a football team in Denver and they went out there and played more than 60 minutes. They came out on top, so that says a lot about how tough this football team is.”
The oddsmakers believe the home-field advantage is substantial for the Patriots, who are 8-point favorites. They’ll gladly accept those points before kickoff.
“Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you’re going to be more prepared than the team that’s on the road,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. “I don’t care where you play; it’s not going to change how one team comes out.
“I think the team we’re playing now shows that. They’ve won a lot of road playoff games over the last couple years, so I don’t think the home-field advantage will really be that much of a difference as far as ‘since we’re at home, we’re going to win.’
Sports, Pages 25 on 01/20/2013