Sports

Vereen stepping up for Pats

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Patriots reserve running back Shane Vereen was on the inactive list in last season’s AFC title game. Today, Vereen is coming off a three-TD performance in last week’s playoff win over the Texans, and has become a valuable role player on the New England offense.

“Last year it was kind of devastating and heartbreaking to not be out there with the team in a big game,’’ Vereen said. “This year I am able to contribute and I hope to help the team in the best way that I can.”

Tom Brady said Vereen was the reason the Patriots won last week, which Vereen called “humbling,’’ adding, “It is also motivation’’ to “have a better performance” today.

* This is all new for Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib, acquired in mid-season from the Buccaneers. Until last week’s AFC Divisional playoff game against the Texans, Talib never had played in an NFL postseason game.

“When you’re little and you are thinking about being in the NFL, you think about being in this situation,” Talib said. “It’s ideal for me. This is real football — you come here and you know you are going to play real football.’’

* Ravens center Matt Birk, in his 15th NFL season, on what his plans were coming out of Harvard before being drafted in the sixth round: “I was thinking [my NFL career] would probably be pretty quick. Not really a career, more of just an experience. I’ve been real lucky. I’ve been very blessed to be in great situations all along the way in my career.”

Asked if he plans to play a few more years, Birk said, “Perhaps, or perhaps not. I’m a live-in-the-moment kind of guy. I never thought I’d be here in 2013 still playing football. I don’t worry about the future. I don’t make any decisions until I have to. That’s kind of my motto. It serves me well.”

If he does leave, Birk said he will go quietly.

“A guy like Ray Lewis, you send him off properly with press conferences and all that stuff,’’ he said. “Guys like me, I just disappear, and you are sitting around one day like, ‘Whatever happened to that one guy that his locker used to be over here?’”

* The Patriots will be without big-play tight end Rob Gronkowski (51 catches, 11 TDs), injured last week for the second time this season, with a fractured forearm. New England was 4-1 in five games without him this season.

* The Patriots have not played a postseason road game in nearly six years. That spans nine playoff games at home — seven wins and two losses. The last road playoff game the Patriots played was on Jan. 21, 2007, at Indianapolis, where they lost, 38-34.