New England Patriots: Power ranking the franchise’s top 5 rivalries
3. Baltimore Ravens
Of the five rivalries on this list, the Ravens/Patriots competition certainly qualifies as the most recent — in part because the Baltimore Ravens didn’t even exist until 1996.
Don’t let that newness fool you though … these two teams absolutely hate each other.
Ex-Raven Terrell Suggs and ex-Patriot Tom Brady probably best encapsulated the spirit of this rivalry in their mutual distaste for one another.
Suggs famously refused to refer to Brady by name for many years, calling him “pretty boy” or “12” or “New England’s quarterback” instead. A year ago, he dismissed Brady’s remarkable longevity as “not shocking” considering the way QBs are more heavily protected by rules today.
Suggs even went so far once as to call Brady’s Super Bowl championships “questionable.”
Of course, the enmity goes both ways … especially if you’re a Ravens fan.
Many Patriots haters over the years have accused Brady of unfairly drawing more roughing-the-passer penalties than he’s probably due, and it usually has something to do with Brady getting hit or sacked and gesticulating wildly at the refs around him to throw a flag. This certainly has happened more than once with Brady and Suggs in the past.
Moreover, Brady did once say this of the Ravens, too: “They talk a lot for beating us once in nine years.”
While that type of ‘scoreboard’ comment certainly didn’t go over well with Maryland residents at the time, the Patriots could back it up then. New England was 5-0 against Baltimore all-time until the Ravens’ road victory in the Wild Card game after the 2009 season in Foxborough.
Since that time, the series has become much more balanced, with New England holding a narrow 5-3 edge against Baltimore.
Also consider the fact that the Patriots are just 2-2 overall against the Ravens in the postseason — including a 15-point loss at home in the 2012/2013 AFC Championship Game — and it’s easy to grasp why there’s such a juicy history here.
Throw in the whole Julian Edelman/Danny Amendola double pass playoff game during the 2014 season — when Ravens head coach John Harbaugh nearly lost his mind over Bill Belichick’s clever exploitation of the eligible/ineligible receivers gimmick — and you’ve got a slam-dunk selection at No. 3 on this rivalries ranking.