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Photo courtesy of Baltimore Ravens via Instagram
There's no time to rest on your laurels once the NFL playoffs begin. As soon as Sunday’s 24-9 win over the Indianapolis Colts’ ended, Ray Lewis and his teammates directed their attention to Denver.
The fact that the Broncos rode into town a few weeks ago and dismantled the Ravens in a 34-17 victory seemed to focus the Ravens on their next opponent that much more quickly. The Ravens — who might not be healthy, but at least have most of their key players on the field — want payback. Of course, Lewis and the Ravens also don’t want Ray’s “last ride” to end this weekend. However, the Ravens also have two streaks they’d like to end: Denver's current 11-game winning streak and Peyton Manning's personal nine-game streak over Baltimore.
"I've already turned in my iPad to get Denver film now," Lewis told ESPN.com shortly after yesterday’s game. "It’s onto the next one. That’s one thing about being in this business so long. I told them, ‘We don’t have the 24-hour rule now. We have a less-than-12-hour rule,’ because we are back to work. We knew who we have next week. Denver is going to be well rested. We saw them earlier in the year, but now we get them again with all of our guys back. We are really looking forward to it.”
"I wanted Denver because they beat us. We'll make it different,” said Anquan Boldin in an Associated Press story.
"We know what we got. (The Broncos) know what we got,” said Ed Reed. "We're going down there with all our weapons and all our tools. And we're coming to bang."
"If you've ever been in a fight with somebody and they beat you, you want to fight again," Baltimore offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie told the Denver Post.
Terrell Suggs admitted to Yahoo!Sports after the Colts game that his Achilles tendon was bothering him, but that it won’t keep him from playing: "My Achilles started acting up, and it felt pretty bad, but I was like, '(Expletive) that,' " Suggs said. "I wasn't going to let a repaired tendon steal our glory. We had work to do. We're trying to win a championship. And we had to make sure we did this for him."
Similarly, linebacker Dannell Ellerbe said his sprained ankle isn’t that bad and fully expects to play against Denver.
Meanwhile, the Broncos seem to know that Saturday’s game will likely be tougher than the Week 15 matchup at M&T Bank Stadium.
"I think it's going to be a lot harder than when we faced them the first time," Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley told The Denver Post on Sunday night. "They had a lot of injuries, especially defensively. I think a lot of those guys are back now. When they've got all their guys, they've got a great defense, especially in the red zone. And that's what hurt (the Indianapolis Colts in a 24-9 loss on Sunday)."
