This is going to get blown way out of proportion, but you could say that the trash-talking has begun in advance of this weekend’s AFC Championship Game between the Patriots and Ravens.
Baltimore wide receiver Anquan Boldin has gotten the party started, proclaiming that the Ravens will win this year’s grudge match between the AFC powers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Boldin met with reporters Wednesday and was asked how this year would be different than last year, when the Patriots escaped with a win and a trip to the Super Bowl.
“Because we’ll make it different,” he said, according to Ravens.com.
Naturally, that response elicited the follow-up question of “How?” from a reporter.
“We’ll win,” he stated.
Again, this will probably be overplayed in the media and maybe within the Patriots’ locker room. That’s the world we live in now. But on the other hand, it’s tough to blame a veteran player like Boldin for feeling like his team will win a playoff game. Unless, of course, Boldin thinks he’ll be guarded by Julian Edelman again this year, in which we’ll take this as a guarantee.
Either way, there’s no doubting that Boldin and the Ravens are being fueled by last year’s setback in the conference championship.
“Really looking forward to it,”, he said, according to the team’s website. “I think everybody in this locker room, especially the guys who were on the team last year, has been looking forward to it.”
