Patriots/Ravens: Odds, weather, TV/radio, matchups, and other info

The New England Patriots face the Baltimore Ravens in primetime this week. Here’s all the information you need before the game!

Surprisingly, it’s been almost three years since the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens last tangoed. These two perennial AFC powerhouses seemed to be regular fixtures on each other’s schedules from about 2009-2016, whether they met in the regular season or in the playoffs, but it’s been a while now since their last clash.

Don’t let that time off lull you into thinking this rivalry has cooled in the interim at all, though. Absence certainly did not make the heart grow fonder for either one of these teams when considering the other.

“I think there’s (sic) multiple types of rivals,” Pats receiver Julian Edelman said Friday on “The Greg Hill Show,” via WEEI’s Ryan Hannable. “We’ve played this team, the Baltimore Ravens, a whole bunch earlier in my career. It seemed like we played them twice a year, every year — once in the regular season and then in the playoffs. If there was a rivalry or if this is a rivalry, that is more for the media to make.”

While Edelman wasn’t about ready to label the Ravens as a bonafide “rival,” we members of the media will definitely take his suggestion and make that claim for him.

Especially since the Patriots play in a division that they have utterly dominated since the arrival of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady at the turn of the millennium, New England has often had to look outside the AFC East to find competition fierce enough to warrant “rival” status. The Dolphins, Bills, and particularly the Jets will always be naturally loathed by Pats fans as long as they all share a common division, but none of those teams have been much of a problem for the Patriots over the past two decades.

Instead, teams like the Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baltimore Ravens have presented more entertaining storylines and higher stakes in their matchups with New England. A lot of that has to do with Brady’s one-time rival, Peyton Manning, playing for both the Colts and the Broncos for extended periods of time.

And in the case of the Steelers and the Ravens, both teams have often competed with the Patriots for playoff seeding within the AFC, making their head-to-head clashes all the more important and ultimately memorably for fans.

New England has historically dominated both Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the Brady/Belichick era, but the Ravens have traditionally had more success than the Steelers in making their games with the Patriots uber-competitive at least… and they’ve even managed to knock off the Pats at Gillette Stadium a couple times in the postseason, which speaks volumes in itself.

“This team (the Ravens) has to be up there because every time you play them it is a hard-fought match,” Edelman continued. “These guys always bring it. They aren’t afraid to play anywhere. They have beaten us on our home field. We’ve gone down there and lost to them in my career. This team is just a hard-nosed, old school football team. If you’re excited for football and you love football, this is the game to play in for sure.”

Edelman is 100% accurate in his assessment of Sunday night’s game. Even if it’s been a while since the Ravens and the Patriots last locked horns, there probably will be some fireworks at M&T Bank Stadium this weekend.

Baltimore, usually known for their dominant defense, is leaning more on their offense than ever before in 2019. The Ravens have the No. 1 rushing attack in the NFL, largely thanks to former Saints running back Mark Ingram and second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Jackson, in particular, represents a significant challenge for this New England defense that has been so dominant through the first half of the season. As many analysts and fans have pointed out, the Patriots D hasn’t played a quarterback of Jackson’s caliber and potency up to this point. Conversely, Jackson hasn’t squared off against a defense as good as New England, either.

Here’s all the info you need to take in this weekend’s big game:

Date: Sunday, November 3, 2019
Kickoff time: 8:20 pm EST
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Stadium: M&T Bank Stadium
TV channel: NBC
Radio: TuneIn
Live stream: fuboTV (try for free)
Betting odds: New England -3.0 (Over/Under: 44.5), courtesy of The Action Network
Weather updates: 41 degrees F; clear; 0% chance of precipitation

New England’s game against Baltimore represents the start of a difficult five-game stretch for the Patriots this season. After the Ravens and their bye, the team will tangle with the Eagles, Cowboys, Texans, and Chiefs, before finishing out their season with a softer slate against the Bengals, Bills, and Dolphins. If ever there was a time for the Patriots’ hopes of going 16-0 to get tested, that time starts this week with the Ravens.