FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots’ win over the Texans was not even completed when the first salvo was fired by the Ravens.
Baltimore linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo took to Twitter during the Patriots’ 41-28 Divisional playoff victory and started taking shots at New England for running its ultra-quick, hurry-up offense. The Ravens and Patriots will meet Sunday in the AFC Championship Game.
“In a sport that is predicated on mano y mano, ‘let’s hurry-up n snap it’ = bitchassness,” Ayanbadejo tweeted.
That should go over well with Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the rest of the Patriots.
The Patriots have used their hurry-up all season to keep defenses off balance. It is much quicker than other teams’ no-huddle attacks. The Jets thought it could be illegal when they faced it.
“New England does some suspect stuff on offense,” Ayanbadejo said on Twitter. “Can’t really respect it. Comparable to a cheap shot [before] a fight.”
The Patriots rolled up 457 yards of offense on the Texans yesterday.
“It’s a gimmick … Their offense is good enough to be successful without that,” Ayanbadejo continued on Twitter.
He even went to the biggest insult of all to the Patriots — bringing up the videotaping scandal of 2007. He questioned the organization’s class because of Spygate and the release of wide receiver Tiquan Underwood the day before the Super Bowl last year.
“You know the same organization that did Spygate and cut a guy the day [before] the Super Bowl,”Ayanbadejo said.
The Patriots surely won’t respond. Belichick won’t let them. But you can bet they will be aware of what Ayanbadejo said and eager to give him an up-close look at their hurry-up next week. The Ravens defeated the Patriots 31-30 in September in Baltimore.