FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Observed and heard in the locker room and in postgame news conferences after the New England Patriots' 35-31 victory over the Baltimore Ravens:
Belichick gets 20th playoff win to tie Landry. With the victory, Bill Belichick tied Tom Landry for the most playoff wins with 20. Was it the craziest he's ever been a part of? "Yeah, probably," he answered, before reversing course. "Well, I don’t know. We’ve had some ... but look, that means I’ve been doing this a long, long time. There’s nothing like a playoff game. There’s nothing like a playoff win. The regular season is great, but when you play these games it’s single-elimination and the urgency and what’s at stake for you and your team and what you’ve worked five-plus months for to get to this point all comes down to one game or in some cases, one play or one series or whatever it is. That just heightens everything. After this weekend we’ll be one of four teams still playing. It will be an honor to be in the AFC Championship Game this year, but yeah, it was a wild game."
Brady's resolve makes an impression. Receiver Brandon LaFell shared a conversation he had with quarterback Tom Brady after the game. “I just told him that, I was like, ‘Man, I’ve seen guys throw interceptions right before the half, and they just go in the tank. You didn’t do that, man. You came back and led us. We were down 14 in the second half. You kept preaching. You kept going out there and leading by example and we appreciate that.'” LaFell also had a light moment with Brady's son, Benjamin, who was in the locker room afterwards.
Brady's eye. Brady got poked in the right eye during the game. Asked about it, he said simply, "It will be fine."
No disappointment from Belichick. When asked about linebacker Jamie Collins, Belichick took a big-picture outlook on the defense, saying, "I don't think this was one of our all-time best games." When a reporter then told him it sounded as if he was disappointed, Belichick replied, "No, I'm not disappointed. Are you kidding me?" Then Belichick remarked that the Patriots will have to play better because, "I'm sure there's a lot more playoff games that have been lost by teams down by 14 points in the middle of the first quarter or middle of the third quarter than won them." Belichick is right, of course. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the first time in playoff history that a team had come back from two different 14-point deficits. It has only happened three times in the regular season, according to Elias, with the last time coming when the Chiefs beat the Packers, 40-34, at Lambeau Field in 2003.
