Knockout is relished by Ravens

BALTIMORE -- Just before he left the Baltimore Ravens locker room, Terrell Suggs turned and peered a few lockers to his right, toward fellow linebacker Bart Scott. Suggs reminded Scott, aside from clinching their own berth in the playoffs, what their 27-7 demolition of the Jacksonville Jaguars had accomplished.

"We got the Patriots out," Suggs said.

"I'm just glad to see New England out," Scott said. "Because [expletive] them from last year."

Baltimore's season continued spiraling downward last year after the unbeaten Patriots defeated the Ravens, 27-24, in Week 13, a game the Ravens believed they had won multiple times. Even yesterday, in the wake of returning to the postseason with a rookie quarterback and a first-year coach in front of 71,366 at M&T Bank Stadium, they remembered the sting from that game. While the Ravens savored their inclusion in the playoffs most, Scott emphatically admitted knocking out the Patriots provided extra satisfaction.

"Yeah," Scott said. "Nobody ever feels sorry for us. Yeah, they lost their quarterback. Last year, we lost ours. That happens to a lot of people. They didn't feel sorry for us.

"We went into this year like, 'Payback for everybody who tried to kick us while we were down.' We got to kick them while they're down. It's always good to put a good opponent home. Nobody wants to go up there and play in a rainstorm, a snowstorm, whatever that thing is. So, yeah, it's a little cherry on top."

The Ravens and Patriots finished with 11-5 records, but the Ravens earned the final wild-card spot because they went 8-4 against the AFC and the Patriots went 7-5. The Ravens will play the Miami Dolphins, who beat the Jets yesterday and won the AFC East because they also finished 8-4 in conference games.

The 11-5 Patriots now will sit home while the 8-8 Chargers and the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals -- whom the Patriots beat, 47-7, last weekend -- advance to the playoffs by virtue of winning the AFC and NFC West divisions.

The inequity has raised questions about the NFL's playoff structure; even Scott said, "It's a shame that a team can go 11-5 and not make the playoffs." Commissioner Roger Goodell, who attended the Ravens-Jaguars game, struck down the notion of altering the playoff system.

"We talked an awful lot about that in the Competition Committee with the membership last year," Goodell said. "Frankly, they all felt that winning the division was the No. 1 objective when you come into a season, and that should be the highest priority. I think we'll continue on with that system at least for the foreseeable future."

The system left the Patriots in need of help, and the Ravens squelched any hope in Baltimore rapidly. The competitive phase of the game concluded at the end of the second quarter, when the Ravens turned safety Ed Reed's first of two interceptions of David Garrard into a 13-yard touchdown draw by Willis McGahee. Baltimore turned a 7-3 deficit into a 24-7 lead with three straight touchdowns. The Ravens, playing in front of their frenzied crowd, had finished off the Jaguars, playing for nothing under a gun-metal gray sky.

The Jaguars, overwhelmed by the Ravens' aggressive, blitzing defense, gained only 118 yards in the second half and 245 total. After halftime, the Jaguars never advanced past the Ravens' 20-yard line and crossed midfield twice. Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio, whose team was a chic Super Bowl choice in the preseason, defended his players' effort.

"Good effort. Good effort," Del Rio said. "Saw that for four quarters. We were fighting and working."

Only one year ago, the Ravens found themselves in the same, sour spot as the Jaguars do now. They endured a nine-game losing streak, which included an overtime loss to the 0-13 Dolphins, and finished 5-11. They fired coach Brian Billick, but were in such disarray that Jason Garrett turned them down to remain the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator.

"Nobody expected [us] to do anything in our conference," Scott said. "We were an afterthought. We were a bunch of old football players on defense -- injured, lost a step, can't do this, can't do that. Undisciplined. Last year, when Jason Garrett turned us down, we took that as a slap in our face. We weren't good enough for him to be our coach -- he'd rather be the coordinator somewhere else than be our head coach."

That decision, though, launched the Ravens to where they are now in two steps: First, they hired John Harbaugh. "We love him, man," Scott said. And then they drafted Joe Flacco, the Bazooka-armed rookie quarterback from Delaware who started each game this season. He won 11 of them while showing poise and leaving vapor trails behind footballs. In the first half yesterday, he completed 14 of 17 passes for 246 yards.

"He's exceeded a lot of people's expectations, but he hasn't exceeded ours," wide receiver Derrick Mason said. "We knew what we had. He don't play like a young guy."

The Ravens came to M&T Bank Stadium knowing a Patriots loss would deliver them their playoff berth no matter what, but they never worried about what scenarios could unfold or what the Patriots did.

Shortly before kickoff, they learned the score in Buffalo. It was not an obstacle, but an opportunity.

"It was actually motivation," Suggs said. "What better win than to send the Patriots packing?"

Adam Kilgore can be reached at akilgore@globe.com