It had to be one of the most disheartening losses Tom Brady has ever had. Yes, the one four years ago in the Arizona desert. Brady’s high-powered offense that had been so spectacular for 18 games – all wins – crashed and burned under the weight of an immense New York Giants pass rush.

As spectacular as his career has been, with three Super Bowl titles and two Super Bowl MVP awards, we forget that his legacy would be even more spectacular with a win in that game, not to mention a couple others. He would have been the quarterback of the best team in the history of the NFL. So the postseason hasn’t always been fun for the quarterback of the New England Patriots.

But a win in Super Bowl XLVI and that loss may be forgotten. The older you get in the NFL, the bigger the big games get, because you never know how many more of them you have left. “There’s certainly a finality to this game,” Brady said Thursday, “where you’re putting absolutely everything into it preparation-wise and you’re expected to go out there and play at your very best. And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”

Brady talked about the 110 practices, the fact this will be the team’s 23rd game of the year (16 regular-season, four exhibition and three playoff games), and that by now the grind should be second nature.
“We have experience,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot.”He certainly has. Brady said Thursday that he thinks this team is extremely mentally tough with the leadership in the locker room.

“We’re finding ways to win these games,” he said. And now they’ll be looking to find a way to win one more. There’s less of a weight on his and other Patriots’ shoulders. They don’t bring that unbeaten record into this one. But 15-3 isn’t anything to sneeze at, either. Sometimes those numbers are all forgotten in a Super Bowl. Brady was asked Thursday whether he felt that he needed to play the best game of his career to beat the Giants. C’mon, isn’t that what he wants to do every week? “I sure hope so,” he said. “I go out there, and you try to be at your very best in the biggest game. My teammates really count on that. Certainly I count on that.”But it doesn’t come easy.

“There’s a lot of preparation that goes into that,” he said. “Playing with confidence and anticipation, understanding the game plan, and going out and executing it when it matters the most. That’s what it’s going to take. It’s a great team that we’re playing.”It’s funny, not too many looked at the Giants as a great team four years ago, yet they had a better record (10-6), were a little more consistent through the regular season and had to win all their playoff games on the road.

This Giant team was 7-7 and almost left for dead after a listless loss to the Redskins at home. Then they beat the Jets and Cowboys in must-win games and basically have been in five straight do-or-die games.
And, of course, they beat Brady and the Patriots earlier in the season. But does that really matter? The Patriots and Brady looked in a hurry on Thursday in their post-practice interviews. They had meetings. Film to watch. You know that long after the media left Gillette Stadium, No. 12 was still there. He knows what it’s like to lose a Super Bowl and doesn’t want to feel that sting again.

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The biggest question left from the Patriots’ AFC Championship game victory over the Ravens has to do with the play of Tom Brady. He was 22 of 36 for 239 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Brady’s passer rating - whatever that means - was an anemic 57.5.

Brady wasn’t happy with his performance. Of course, he would still find fault if he played terrific. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco had the same attempts and completions, but 306 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception for a rating of 95.4. Flacco outplayed Brady? Perhaps, but they were certainly not going against the same defenses. We know this.

According to footballoutsider.com’s computations, the Ravens had the best pass defense in the league, and the Patriots were 28th. So how did Brady really play?

While he wasn’t perfect, he played well. Certainly well enough to win the game. What critics seem to disregard is that playoff football is completely different than the regular season. You need to forget about what happened in the regular season and against overmatched postseason foes such as the Broncos. There are no Eagles, Redskins, or Colts left in the final four of the NFL playoffs.

Any talk about the Patriots being unstoppable, about how teams can’t match up with their twin-tight-end personnel, is just false once you get deep in the playoffs. What you saw on Sunday was playoff football. Fantasy points don’t count. Winning does. And Brady easily had a winning performance against a tough Ravens defense.

Brady was efficient, he made smart decisions for the most part, he adjusted plays well and put the ball - even on his two interceptions - where either his teammate was going to catch it or the defender was going to make an outstanding play.

He averaged 6.64 yards per attempt - the stat that usually is the truest indicator of how well a quarterback plays (or how poorly a defense does). In the regular season, that would have been Brady’s third-lowest YPA, behind the loss to the Steelers (5.54) and the late-season win over the Dolphins (6.61). Brady’s YPA for the season was 8.60.

The fact is, Brady has now played in 21 playoff games. His average YPA in those games is 6.81. In the Patriots’ 16 victories, it’s 6.94. In the five losses, it’s 6.43. The difference is negligible. What you saw on Sunday is how playoff football is played, especially against the type of scheme that always has given Brady and the Patriots trouble.

It’s not flashy like the regular season. Don’t be fooled by what we witnessed against the Broncos. The playoffs are a grind. And Brady and his teammates ground it out for a victory. And they’re going to have to do it again in the Super Bowl against the Giants. If you’re expecting fireworks, you’ll be disappointed. Here are the positional ratings against the Ravens:

Quarterback Rating: 3 out of 5
The Patriots came out with a game plan to throw quick and to target standout cornerback Lardarius Webb early, perhaps to shake his confidence. Brady released 59 percent of his 39 dropbacks (including penalties) in under 2.4 seconds. That’s almost unsackable. Three of Brady’s poorest decisions came when he appeared to target Webb. The interception that was called back because Webb held Wes Welker was actually supposed to be a tight end screen to the other side to Rob Gronkowski with Aaron Hernandez blocking. On Brady’s first interception, throwing to Julian Edelman, Webb made a tremendous leaping play. Not sure why Brady wanted to go there outside of wanting to test Webb. He could have gone to Deion Branch running a hitch, or Hernandez on the other side running an out. The natural route for Edelman, who ran straight up the field, would be for a smash concept - Branch’s hitch outside and Edelman breaking to the corner from the slot - but because of Webb’s hand checking, Edelman couldn’t get there. Brady forced it again to Welker against Webb with 12:11 left in the second quarter when he had a better option to the other side of the field with Hernandez. Two plays earlier, when Brady just missed Hernandez in the seam, he should have been better. The big missed throw to an open Gronkowski, perhaps for a touchdown, is a play Brady usually makes, but it was a tough one. Brady turned away on a play-fake, had to spin, and when he threw, Terrell Suggs had beaten Matt Light and hurried Brady. On the interception in the fourth quarter following Brandon Spikes’s interception, it was obviously a called deep shot. Brady didn’t have to take it - and probably wouldn’t have had Ed Reed been the deep safety - but against Bernard Pollard, rookie Jimmy Smith, and the struggling Cary Williams, Brady thought it was worth a shot. Pollard just made an extraordinary play. It was a poor throw, not a poor decision. On the final third down of the game for the Patriots - third and 4 with two minutes remaining - when a first down would have ended the game, Ed Reed just made an Ed Reed play. However, Brady missed a chance at a huge play, perhaps a touchdown, when Welker beat Webb off the ball down the left sideline and put his hand up. There was no safety over the top.

Running backs Rating: 4 out of 5
There were no issues with ball security from this group, and pass protection was flawless. The Patriots used their wham concept more than in previous games. Usually it’s Gronkowski coming back across the middle to take out an unsuspecting and unblocked defensive lineman. Against the Ravens, the Patriots used their guards 11 times to pull - eight by left guard Logan Mankins - including the exquisitely executed 7-yard touchdown run by BenJarvus Green-Ellis. The big third-and-2 run with 9:47 left in the third quarter at the Baltimore 6 was just a bad play. If the Patriots had to do it all over it again, they might have called time out or Brady would have killed the play. The Ravens had the box stacked with eight players. Gronkowski didn’t get a good seal on linebacker Jarret Johnson, Welker hesitated making his block on Reed - who really blew up the play - and Green-Ellis wasn’t left with much. Want to look at a typically subtle but effective Green-Ellis run? On the first play of the fourth quarter, both Light and Dan Connolly lost their blocks, but Green-Ellis still fought for 3 yards.

Receivers Rating: 4.5 out of 5
The only negative was the one run stuff allowed each by Welker, Gronkowski, and Hernandez. Welker, however, was put in the impossible position of trying to block Johnson straight up on Hernandez’s no-gain run with 10:36 left in the third quarter. Other than that, the play was superb once again, with zero drops. The Ravens did what good and capable teams do - mix and vary their coverages on all the receivers. Brady never knows what he’s going to get after the snap because the pre-snap look is almost always different. The Ravens did a great job of sticking with it even against the no-huddle, which has become a major component of the offense, not just a change of pace. The Ravens also chipped Gronkowski coming off the line on almost every play. The 23-yard pass on which Gronkowski was injured was one of the few times the Ravens didn’t jam. They paid the price. Terrific diving catch by Edelman to convert the Patriots’ first third down of the game. Edelman (27 snaps on offense) and Branch laid terrific blocks on Hernandez’s 9-yard run early in the fourth quarter. Edelman’s was more impressive because he took out Suggs.

Offensive line Rating: 4 out of 5
It wasn’t a perfect performance, but considering the opponent and stakes, it was close. For the game, the Patriots allowed 10 quarterback pressures: one sack (Nate Solder caught reaching vs. Paul Kruger), six hurries, and three knockdowns. That’s about the seasonal average, and double the five pressures by the inept Broncos. Amazingly, the Ravens rushed three players as many times as they blitzed: eight (20.5 percent of dropbacks). The Ravens never came with a heavy blitz of six rushers or more. They obviously wanted to concentrate on mixing coverages. The other part of the offensive game plan was to shut down Haloti Ngata and not to run at Suggs (did it once and he tossed Gronkowski and took down Hernandez for no gain). Ngata played only 58 of 70 snaps compared with Vince Wilfork’s 67, and held his own in the run game, but was limited to three impact plays: a tipped pass, half knockdown, and a stuffed run. The Patriots doubled Ngata on 16 of 29 pass plays, and four of 17 against the run. Brian Waters and Connolly took turns stoning Ngata one-on-one. Great job by Connolly handling Ngata on third and 10 with 3:08 left in the first half. That’s exactly the type of play on which Ngata victimized Dan Koppen (two sacks allowed) last year. Suggs was doubled or chipped only five times in 33 snaps. Light allowed just one hurry in 18 one-on-one opportunities.

Defensive line Rating: 5 out of 5
For the second week in a row, a flawless performance from the three down linemen. Vince Wilfork and Kyle Love (2.5 hurries, half knockdown) led the way. Brandon Deaderick (two run stuffs, two plus run tackles) owned left guard Ben Grubbs in the early going. Gerard Warren (half stuff, plus run tackle) was strong in his snaps, and even Ron Brace penetrated against the run when given an opportunity.

Linebackers Rating: 4.5 out of 5
This group was able to bring pressure despite blitzing just 20 percent of the time. Rob Ninkovich (half sack, 1.5 hurries, two half knockdowns) corners extremely well rushing to the passer. Mark Anderson had two containment problems but otherwise was stellar (half sack, two hurries, three half knockdowns). Spikes (four plus run tackles) was too eager on one gap but that was it. He and Jerod Mayo (two knockdowns, pass defense, two plus run tackles) were terrific. Great play by Spikes to trip up Ricky Williams after 9 yards with 10:53 left in the fourth quarter. There was room for a lot more. Spikes’s standout interception ended the drive when he played the curl underneath Ed Dickson.

Secondary Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Sterling Moore’s pass breakup on third down against Dennis Pitta was a better individual play than his pass breakup against Lee Evans on second down - call it the immaculate deflection or whatever, the ball came out - but overall this group had issues. On Torrey Smith’s 42-yard catch, Moore, playing safety, bit on the play-action. Huge tackle by Kyle Arrington on the much larger Anquan Boldin on third down, 1 yard short of the marker, early in the second quarter. The Patriots dodged a huge bullet when Patrick Chung was beaten deep by Smith but a combined knockdown from Anderson and Love made the throw erratic. On Smith’s 29-yard touchdown, the Patriots were in a rare Cover 0 all-out blitz, and the defenders have to make the tackle if the ball gets away. Moore did not. Edelman playing 27 snaps both ways must be noted.

Special teams Rating: 3 out of 5
Obviously, Danny Woodhead’s fumble was huge but he was bailed out when the defense held the Ravens to just a field goal. Great tackle by Sergio Brown on the final punt return of the game. Made the Ravens drive that much farther. Lousaka Polite made a terrific block on Woodhead’s 41-yard return. Stephen Gostkowski outkicked Billy Cundiff on kickoffs, which was a surprise.

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Tom Brady may want to stay away from his television in the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLVI against the Giants.

The Patriots quarterback said Monday that losing to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII still gnaws at him, and seeing highlights of David Tyree’s miracle catch and Plaxico Burress’ game-winning touchdown make him sick to his stomach.

“Belive me If you lose this game there’s an awful feeling in your stomach for a lot of years,” he told Boston sports-talk radio station WEEI. “I still can’t watch highlights from that game. I just think that’s the way it is. You get to the end and we had a great opportunity and really squandered it because we didn’t play our very best.”

They certainly didn’t. The Giants battered Brady with a ferocious pass rush in the previous Super Bowl meeting between the two teams, pulling off a 17-14 upset and denying New England of a 19-0 season. Brady was sacked five times and either knocked down or hit on many of his drop-backs.

Brady knows that the Giants boast a stout defense led by the front four once again this year — he lost a fumble and threw two interceptions in a 24-20 home loss on Nov. 6 — and hopes that New England will learn from the mistakes they made earlier this season against the Giants.

“We’ll certainly look at that game, several times,” Brady told WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan Show. “Hopefully we can learn some lessons from the game. We really lost the turnover battle in that game, which really hurt us.”

The Giants turned two early miscues by Brady — an intercpetion and a lost fumble — into a 10-0 lead in the second quarter of that game in Foxborough. “You’re not going to beat the Giants turning the ball over four times,” he said.

Brady went on to praise Big Blue’s defense, calling them “very good,” and singling out the pass rush as one of the best in the NFL. He also was complimentary of the secondary and linebackers. Brady may be trying to kill the opposition with kindness, but he knows the real work will come on the field, not over the radio airwaves.

“I’m going to work as hard as I can the next two weeks to go out there and be prepared and hopefully to go out there and play my best game. Hopefully the best game I’ve ever played,” he said. That’s what I’m expecting. That’s what I expect to do and I know that’s what my teammates expect of me.”

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No, we're not editorializing (though few would argue the notion). It was the first thing the New England Patriots quarterback said after Sunday's 23-20 triumph over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium.

Invited to the on-field podium to receive the Lamar Hunt trophy with owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and his teammates, Brady was told he had just tied boyhood idol Joe Montana with 16 career postseason wins and will soon join John Elway as the only quarterbacks to start five Super Bowls.

Asked how he got it done Sunday, Brady announced on national television "Well, I sucked pretty bad today, but our defense saved us. And I'm going to try to go out and do a better job in a couple weeks."

Brady shouldn't be so hard on himself. The AFC Championship Game has long been his statistical bugaboo, but the Patriots are still 5-1 in them over the past 11 years, so clearly he's doing something right.

Brady completed 22 of 36 passes for 239 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. He was rather handily outplayed by Baltimore counterpart Joe Flacco, who also completed 22 of 36 passes, but for 306 yards with two touchdowns and just one interception.

But as Brady's teammates would attest in support of their signal-caller, style points are overrated. The only thing that matters is the win, especially at this point of the season.

Brady did leap into the highlight reel with his hurdling-the-center, 1-yard touchdown plunge on fourth down with 11:29 to play -- the only score in the fourth quarter (thanks in part to the late-game shanking by Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff). Brady nearly sneaked his way into the end zone two plays earlier, but that play was overturned on video review. Facing fourth-and-goal at the 1, the Patriots kept their offense on the field and Brady hurdled in for the 23-20 lead that punched his team's ticket to Indianapolis and Super Bowl XLVI.

A half-hour after his postgame remarks on live television, Brady had slipped into a sharp brown-on-brown ensemble with matching pocket square before stepping to the interview podium, where he was asked if he still agreed with his knee-jerk assessment.

"As a quarterback, you never want to turn the ball over," said Brady, still seething from the two interceptions. Both picks were on the Ravens' side of the field, one being a potential home run ball to Matthew Slater midway through the fourth quarter that would have sealed the win. Instead, it gave Baltimore a chance to win the game.

Brady was intercepted two other times -- including once by old friend Bernard Pollard, the guy who tore Brady's ACL during the 2008 season opener at Gillette Stadium -- but both were erased by penalties.

"You want to hit the open guys. You want to capitalize when you have open receivers," Brady said. "I wish I had done a better job of that today. In some ways, you always beat yourself up. I've been doing this for quite a while. I'm glad we won, I'm glad we're moving on. Hopefully, I can go out there and do better in a few weeks. I think, offensively, we can do better and that's what it's going to take."

Asked after the game if he agreed with Brady's assessment of his performance, Belichick didn't exactly rush to disagree. "I think there were a lot of things in the game that could have been better. That's obvious," Belichick said. But informed later that he and Brady were the first QB-coach combo in league history to go to five Super Bowls together, Belichick softened a bit.

"Anything that's associated with winning, I'm proud of," he said. "I mean, I'm proud -- there's no quarterback I'd rather have than Tom Brady. He's the best. He does so much for us in so many ways on so many different levels. I'm really fortunate that he's our quarterback and for what he's able to do for this team. It's good to win with him and all the rest of our players."

Brady, who grew up rooting for Montana and the 49ers during their run of Super Bowl success, admitted he still marvels at getting back to the big game. "It's incredible," he said. "You watch this game … I was a 49ers fan [growing up], so I got to watch a lot of Super Bowls. You pinch yourself to get this opportunity. I'm privileged to be part of an incredible organization [and] to play with a great group of teammates. It's really a privilege to play quarterback on this team."

Brady might have told the world he sucked, but he had a special message for owner Robert Kraft as the two chatted on the field after Sunday's win. "He said to me, 'I promise you, I'm going to play a lot better in two weeks,'" Kraft relayed. "He's still pretty good in my book. I'll take him over any quarterback. I've been watching the NFL for a long time and there's no quarterback I'd rather have.

"He might say he sucked, but we won the game."And, truth be told, if he sucks again on Feb. 5, the Patriots will be just fine with that if they win that game, too.

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Tom Brady and Ray Lewis. The quarterback and the middle linebacker. Finesse and force. They are former Super Bowl MVPs, masters of their crafts, and the faces of their franchises - the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens. Today they clash at Gillette Stadium, with the winner earning a trip to Super Bowl XLVI Feb. 5 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Lewis is the man in the middle of the Baltimore Ravens, the team he’s been with since its inception in 1996. He has led the Ravens onto the field for 16 seasons, including 2000, when the Ravens beat the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. He is 250 pounds of power, muscle, and emotion, and has made a living separating running backs and receivers from the football. He could make you fumble just by yelling at you.

Brady has been the Patriots quarterback since September 2001 and has won three Super Bowls. He has thrown 50 touchdown passes in a single season and today commands the most explosive, quick-strike offense in the National Football League. He scares no one but beats everybody. He is polite, soft-spoken, and makes his living carving up opponents with surgical precision. GQ named him one of the 25 coolest athletes of all time.

The contrasts could not be more clear: This is smashmouth vs. the perfect smile. Noise vs. calm. Brutal defense vs. electric offense. A guy who once ran with thugs vs. a guy who sells Uggs. Ray Lewis talks trash. Tom Brady takes out the trash, careful to separate his recycling articles.

There’s harsh history between these two franchise players. Everybody’s been on their best behavior this week, but after the Patriots beat the Ravens in a regular season game in 2009, Lewis complained about Brady begging for a roughing the passer call. “That’s not football,’’ Lewis said. “It’s embarrassing to the game.’’

Baltimore’s Mount Rushmore of Sports would feature Johnny Unitas, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr., and Lewis. Here in New England, Brady goes up alongside Ted Williams, Bill Russell, and Bobby Orr.

In the 21st century, Brady is the golden child of New England sports. His shoulder pads have been sprinkled with stardust since he burst on the scene as everybody’s All-America QB a decade ago. He is the latter day Joe Montana, playing at his best under pressure, beating teams without bravado. Patriots teammates have acknowledged being in awe of their quarterback, and Bob Kraft thinks of Brady as a fifth son. The ever-gushing Bill Belichick goes so far as to say, “when Tom says something, we all listen.’’

Lewis makes everybody listen. You can hear him from the parking lot. Face-painted, neck veins bulging, the Ravens middle linebacker whips teammates into a lather before the start of every game.

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The New England Patriots enter Sunday’s AFC championship game against Baltimore fresh off a thrashing of Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos in which Tom Brady threw six touchdown passes to tie a playoff record.

The Patriots have won nine straight games, eclipsing 30 points in all but one, and their defense is finally starting to step things up with one win standing between them and the team’s fifth Super Bowl appearance in 11 years.

The Ravens haven’t scored 30 points since Week 11, had to hold on to beat a young Texans team that committed four turnovers last week and feature a defense who’s biggest name players are 36 and 33-years-old and a quarterback with a ridiculous mustache. But the underdog tag doesn’t bother the Ravens. “This team as a whole, we’ve never been kind of like anybody’s favorite,” Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs told the Washington Post’s Mark Maske this week.

Las Vegas would agree — the Patriots are favored by a full touchdown on their home field. The Ravens know they won’t win a shootout with Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker and company. They need to control the clock as much as possible by sustaining drives with Pro Bowl running back Ray Rice to limit New England’s possessions. Their defense needs to make Brady uncomfortable in the pocket, get his jersey dirty a few times and avoid giving up big plays.

“When you speak about Tom, you’re talking about arguably one of the best quarterbacks of all time,’’ Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. “You’ve got your hands full from Day One, before you even step on the field with him, because it’s a film study game with him.

“He wants to [identify] everything that’s coming out and know what you’re in. Your job is to disguise and not show him all of that. It’s a chess match almost.”Baltimore also needs quarterback Joe Flacco to answer the bell — and critics like teammate Ed Reed — and prove he can lead his team to its first Super Bowl since 2001. Can the Ravens pull the upset or will Tom Brady move one step closer to a fourth Super Bowl title?

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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Tom Brady is back practicing. Everyone associated with the New England Patriots is acting like he never missed a snap. Brady returned to the field Thursday after being out the previous day resting his left, non-throwing shoulder. If it's a big deal to the football world that the Patriots' star quarterback briefly was sidelined four days before the AFC championship, his teammates and coach treated it as an inconsequential blip.

So did the two-time league MVP. "It's not the first practice I have missed over the years," Brady said with a shrug of his shoulders — including the sore left one. "When coach feels its best that you do other things to get yourself ready, that's what you do, and you still use all that time very wisely. When your coach feels it is best to do other things to get yourself ready, that is what you do."

Coach Bill Belichick revealed little about Brady's absence on Wednesday, lumping it in with every other player in the NFL who gets nicked. Then again, Belichick doesn't give out much information or insight on anything injury-related. Ever. New England hosts the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC championship on Sunday.

Brady missed one practice and was limited for two others during the final week of the regular season, but he played all but the final offensive series in a 49-21 win over Buffalo. Last Saturday, he played every New England offensive series in a 45-10 divisional playoff win over Denver after being on the injury list but practicing in full all week. The quarterback stretched and ran a few drills Thursday during the 15 minutes the media were allowed access to the session. He ran with the ball in his left arm as backup quarterback Brian Hoyer half-heartedly attempted to knock it out. Brady showed no signs of being in pain.

The day before, Brady had to find ways to keep himself occupied during the missed session. "You don't go lounging around taking naps or anything like that," he said with a chuckle. "You just try to do other things to get yourself ready to go. So catch up on your film work and get some extra treatments and so forth. It's just a matter of ultimately we're trying to be as prepared as we can for Sunday. I'm certainly going to be as prepared as I possibly can be.

"It's not the first practice that I've missed over the years. You come off a game Saturday or Sunday and you're just doing everything you can to be prepared. You're just putting in extra work and making sure you're getting prepared."Then Brady promised to be out on the field, and a while later he was.

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Tom Brady stood at the podium on Wednesday like a politician on the stump before a big debate. He wasn’t about to give any ammunition to his opponent.

“They’re great players,” Brady said Wednesday of Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. “I’ve played against both those guys quite a few times. You always enjoy going up against the best because you can really measure where you’re at. You can’t take plays off against those guys. You can’t take things for granted when you’re out there against them. You have to see where they’re at on every play because they’re guys who change the game. Not only the games that we play them, but every single game that they’re in they’re making plays.”

It was Lewis and Suggs who didn’t blast Brady per se but how the NFL protects Brady and “babies” the New England quarterback, especially after his season-ending knee injury of Sept. 2008. The next season, there were a couple of crucial roughing the quarterback calls in New England’s 27-21 win over the Ravens at Gillette Stadium on Oct. 4. The Ravens were called for nine penalties for 85 yards, including a pair of crucial 15-yarders.

Lewis ripped the refs after the game, saying they were overcompensating to protect Brady. “Without totally going off the wall, it is embarrassing to the game,” Lewis said. “Brady is good enough to make his own plays, let him make the play. When you have two great teams that are going at it, let them go at it. Did [penalties] win or lose the game? No, but it got them 14 points.”

Suggs added he thought the NFL was especially interested in protecting “some quarterbacks more than others.” The Ravens were called for a pair of penalties when the Suggs grazed Brady, who fell to the turf.

“They don’t want the quarterbacks getting hurt,” Suggs said after that game. “Maybe next year it’ll be two-hand touch for the sack because we can’t tackle.”Fast forward to Wednesday. While Suggs was offering to take Brady up on his offer of Uggs in exchange for “Ball So Hard University” shirts, the linebacker made it clear it’s not personal with Brady.

“There’s no beef,” Suggs said. “You grow and mature. I’m not the same guy I was in ’09. I’m 20 pounds lighter. There’s no beef. It’s pretty much over. I respect him.”Our own Kirk Minihane is in enemy territory this week with the Ravens and had this unique take on The World According to Terrell Suggs.

And remember when the Patriots beat the Ravens, 23-20, in overtime last year? Suggs said Brady “made some plays . . . But like I said, he just better hope he don’t see us again.”Brady replied on Dennis and Callahan the next day, “they talk a lot for only beating us once in nine years.”Brady was asked point-blank Wednesday if he thought the Ravens have a lot of bad blood built up for him.

“I have a lot of respect for them and their ability to play and perform under pressure,” Brady said artfully. “They’ve been in the playoffs the last four years and they’ve won playoff games in the last four years. They’re a tough team. What goes on off the field and the comments that guys make really has no bearing or impact on this game nor will it. A lot of my focus and attention is on what I need to do to be at my best this week for my teammates. Hopefully we go out there and play our best game.”

Brady isn’t going to be worried about sticks and stones on Sunday but rather where Ed Reed is on the field, bad left ankle or not.

“You don’t fool Ed too often,” said Brady when asked if you could fool Reed. “Every once in a while you see him out of place but it’s very, very rare. When you break the huddle, you find where he’s at and you make sure you’re not lobbing the ball up in his zones, because as you saw in the Houston game, he’s going to go up there and make the plays. He’s just an exceptional player. I don’t think there is a weakness that he has. Coach Belichick has a meeting with the all the quarterbacks and you talk about strengths and weak points of a player, and a guy like Ed and Ray Lewis, there’s no real weak points. You just have to be careful with the ball around them and understand that this is a team that really can get turnovers and they’ve gotten turnovers against us when they’ve played us. I’m sure that will be a huge difference in the game.”

Brady is expected to take to the podium again on Thursday, an unusual occurrence brought on by AFC championship media demands. Don’t worry, though. He’ll be watching his words just as closely then, too.

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While the fans were still shuffling to their seats on a cold January day in 2010, Ray Rice sprinted 83 yards for a touchdown on the very first play from scrimmage. The New England Patriots didn’t know what hit them, and went on to lose 33-14.

The Baltimore Ravens running back is stocky and powerful, but he is also dangerously quick. In that game three years ago, he made the Patriots look lifeless and flustered. “We want to start games fast," Rice said after that encounter. "I wanted to be the guy to start fast, whether it was a 5-yard run or an 83-yard run. I wanted to be the guy to say this will be a fast-tempo game. We want the other team to play catch-up to us."

The Patriots were shown up on their own field in Gillette Stadium, where they were dominant for so many years. A year later they were trumped by the New York Jets, again at home. This time, with the Super Bowl on the line, they will be hoping to avoid the post-season struggles that have plagued them for so many years. But can they?

For weeks now the Patriots’ defence has been criticised as being the worst in the league. But against the Denver Broncos on Saturday, they stepped up to crush Tim Tebow and his unorthodox option offence.

Before last week, the Patriots had been relying on Tom Brady to save the day – and that’s what he has been doing this season for the most part. Brady threw six touchdowns passes against the Broncos – five of which came in the first half, as the Patriots romped to their ninth consecutive win. Some of his throws were spectacular, arcing down the sideline for 40 yards and dropping perfectly in his receivers’ hands.

He threw for 5,235 yards and 39 touchdowns this season, and he may as well have been wearing his pants on the outside of his leggings and an S on his chest en route to racking up his 13 wins. But last week his defence stepped up, and it will need to again if the Patriots are going to beat the Ravens and advance to their fifth Super Bowl appearance under Bill Belichick.

The memory of Ray Rice ripping them open two short years ago will still be fresh in their minds. They will be determined to stop the young runner, but focussing on one of Baltimore’s weapons too heavily will just free up quarterback Joe Flacco’s other targets.

Still, the Ravens have had their fair share of troubles too. They beat the Houston Texans last week in less than convincing fashion, and their season has pockmarks in the form of losses to the San Diego Chargers, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Joe Flacco, seemingly on the cusp of elite status last season, has not had a very good year, throwing for only 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Mark Sanchez of the Jets threw for more points than that.

Flacco has a comfortable situation in that he has a defence that can keep games close and a running back who can carry the team on his shoulders. Flacco will have to hope his defence can keep this one close too, or risk entering a shootout with Brady and his high-tempo, precision offence.

Sunday will mark a crucial test for Flacco, who has proven he can win in the playoffs, but still has question marks hovering over his head. And it could be the last chance for Ray Lewis to win another Super Bowl ring.

How Lewis and ageless safety Ed Reed fare against Tom Brady’s passing attack will determine the outcome of the game. If the Ravens can’t contain the Patriots tight ends, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, the floodgates will open.

But if they can disrupt Brady’s rhythm – and they have the players to do it – it could well turn into one of those gritty affairs where every single inch counts, and every bit of your will is tested. And that plays right into Baltimore’s hands.

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As they streamed down the ramps at Gillette Stadium late Saturday night, frigid but festive after a blowout victory propelled their New England Patriots to another AFC title game, dozens of fans sang in unison. “Te-bow! Te-bow! Te-bow!”

They were having a last laugh on Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback who not only exceeded expectations in guiding his team to the second round of the playoffs but also shattered the hype meter along the way.

Remember Tom Brady?
It seemed odd that in the days leading up to the AFC divisional playoffs, when Tebow was crowned America’s most popular athlete by an ESPN poll, that Brady — the GQ quarterback and owner of three Super Bowl rings — was a bit overshadowed.

But not in his house. And certainly not now, during this postscript to The Year of the Quarterback in the NFL, with the Patriots needing their high-powered offense to continue to take the pressure off of a shaky defense and with a chance for Brady to advance to his sixth AFC title game.

“I think that everyone focused on one player, and I think all week we were focused on the entire Denver Bronco team,” Brady said after his postseason-record-tying six touchdown passes fueled a 45-10 victory and allowed the top-seeded Patriots to host Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Baltimore Ravens. “We knew the threats. We understood the danger of not playing our best game. I thought we came out and really responded well.”

Tebow train derailed
Brady didn’t have to say it as much as his record-setting performance demonstrated. Kid, this is how it’s done.

With the Broncos passing game so inept (Tebow completed nine of 26 passes for 136 yards, with a 52.7 efficiency rating) that they were calling option runs in the second half despite trailing by four touchdowns at the intermission, Brady put on a clinic.

The first touchdown came on a well-timed, 7-yard toss to Wes Welker, running a crossing pattern. Then it was the first of three TD throws to gigantic tight end Rob Gronkowski, who stretched out for a diving catch in the corner of the end zone. There was one to Deion Branch, running a sideline pattern, for a 61-yarder. And three TD tosses over the middle to tight ends — two more to Gronkowski and one to Aaron Hernandez— that showed how New England has burned defenses all season with the huge targets being such difficult matchups. Especially with Brady picking through soft spots in the coverage.

On the night, Brady was 26-of-34 with a franchise postseason-record 363 yards and all of those TDs. “He was on fire, man,” said Gronkowski, who caught 10 passes for 145 yards. “That’s just how he is this time, throwing the ball in the playoffs just like any other game.”

Gronkowski chuckled when asked if playing with Brady has provided a sense of what it might have been like in the 1920s for teammates playing with Babe Ruth. “That’s what it’s kind of feeling like,” said Gronkowski, who set single-season tight end marks with 1,327 yards and 17 TDs on 90 catches. “Playing as a kid, I looked up to him. It’s just an honor to be here playing with him.”

In his 12th pro season, Brady passed for 5,235 yards, surpassing Dan Marino’s 1984 single-season record of 5,084 yards. But Brady’s mark ranked second as New Orleans Saints star Drew Brees set the single-season passing mark with 5,476 yards.

No matter. Brady carried his team to a 13-3 record that earned a No. 1 seed and often covered up the deficiencies of a 31st-ranked defense that allowed the second-most passing yards (4,703) ever by a team, just ahead of the Green Bay Packers (4,796).

The prowess of high-powered offenses, positioned against the traditional thinking that defense wins championships, offered a compelling subplot for these playoffs. The Patriots advanced by putting up a franchise postseason-record 45 points.

Coach Bill Belichick could not have told you that as the Patriots lined up on third-and-goal from the Broncos’ 5-yard line in the fourth quarter that Brady was one throw from owning outright the NFL’s postseason record for TD passes in a game.

Rather than throwing, the Patriots ran the ball and settled for a field goal. “I don’t even know what those records are,” Belichick said. “We were just trying to win the game, that’s all. That’s all we’re here for.”

Satisfying end to drought
As easy as it looked this time — the Patriots took five plays to strike for the game’s first TD after the Broncos opted to kick off after winning the coin toss — it was hardly taken for granted by New England.

Despite the presence of Belichick and Brady, the Patriots hadn’t won a postseason game in four years, since defeating the San Diego Chargers in the AFC title game following the 2007 season — which preceded the Super Bowl XLII loss to the New York Giants that ruined their chance for a perfect season.

It was a span of 1,454 days since that last playoff win, a window that included last year’s 28-21 loss here to the New York Jets in an AFC divisional playoff, after the Patriots had earned the No. 1 seed, and a 33-14 loss to the Ravens in a wild-card game here two seasons ago.

“It’s all about winning,” Brady said. “You lose a few playoff games and it’s a very bitter way to end the season, and it sits on your mind for quite a long time. For us to come out and play the way we did, have a very solid performance in the most important game of the year is very gratifying. “We have eight days until the biggest game of the year. From this point on, everyone will be focused on what we need to do to be better next week.”

The urgency in the Patriots’ approach seemed to blow in like a jet stream through the chilly night air Saturday. For much of the game, Brady operated in an up-tempo, no-huddle scheme that limited Denver’s substitutions and undoubtedly helped wear down the defense. But a key facet of the victory was the preparation of the defense that struggled early during a 41-23 victory against the Broncos in mid-December.

In the Week 15 contest at Denver, the Broncos rushed for 133 yards on their first two possessions, ripping off a number of big runs against a unit that was unfamiliar in playing against a rushing attack built on college-like option runs.

They were ready for it in the rematch, particularly in their ability to cut down on the options for Tebow to run outside the tackles to extend plays. Of the Broncos’ 64 offensive plays, 14 went for negative yards — including the five sacks that tied the Patriots’ season high.

“It helped to get a feel for what they do the first time we played them,” said Rob Ninkovich, who had five tackles, 1½ sacks, two quarterback hits and a forced fumble that led to the second touchdown. “Watching the tape, anything they did well, you knew they were probably going to try it again.”

In the locker room, there was a matter-of-factness about the win. Kevin Faulk, the 13th-year utility back who is among a handful of veterans who have been around throughout the team’s spate of Super Bowl runs, seemed unimpressed by all of the playoff-opening records.

Asked about Brady’s records, Faulk shrugged. “All of that is good,” Faulk said. “But you know how he’s going to be ultimately judged. It all comes down to whether or not we can win it all. That’s the standard.”

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