FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — It’s not a rivalry with the pizzazz of Brady vs. Manning, but the New England Patriots hosting the Baltimore Ravens this Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium brings its own hate-filled history to the AFC divisional round matchup.

The Patriots have faced the Ravens three times in the postseason since 2009, including consecutive AFC title contests following the 2011 and 2012 campaigns.

And unlike New England’s typical dominance in the era of quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick, things haven’t always gone well against head coach John Harbaugh, quarterback Joe Flacco and the Ravens. Baltimore has actually won two of the three postseason battles, including a wild-card blowout upset in January 2010 and an AFC championship game upset in January 2013 on the way to Super Bowl glory.

Even New England’s lone victory in the playoff battles with Baltimore was a fight, needing a dropped Lee Evans touchdown and a Billy Cundiff missed field goal to escape with the 23-20 win in January 2012.

But beyond just history — including a quarterback and coach unlikely to wilt in the face of a Foxborough meeting with Brady and Belichick — the Ravens also appear to bring the toughest matchup for a Patriots team that’s shown one major weakness over the last month of the season.

Baltimore fields a defensive front led by linebacker Terrell Suggs — a guy with a long history of hate for Brady — defensive lineman Haloti Ngata and linebacker Elvis Dumervil that can dominate the line of scrimmage. New England’s offensive line had its issues throughout various points of 2014, including the final month of the season.

That physicality and toughness, both in the trenches and throughout the team, is what stands out for Belichick as he gets into preparation for his frequent playoff foe from Baltimore.

“As usual, the Ravens are a solid football team in all three phases of the game. They’re well coached, they’re physical, they do a good job on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” Belichick said in a Monday conference call with the New England media. “They have explosive skill players on offense, in the return game and on defense. I think coach Harbaugh has, as always, put those type of teams out there with (general manager) Ozzie (Newsome) and their respective staffs. I think that’s what they have again. That’s what they are. They’re tough. They’re physically and mentally tough.”

The Ravens defense, which notched 49 sacks during the regular season and finished No. 8 in total defense, is led by coordinator Dean Pees. Pees held the same role in New England from 2006-09, before landing with the Ravens. He will match wits with Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, the duo with a history of both working together and against each other.

“I don’t know how much of an advantage it is from one year to the next because Dean is obviously a very good coach,” McDaniels said of that history. “This unit we’re playing is very talented. But they don’t really stay the same in terms of the things that they use or do in each game that we’ve played them. There are always some levels of adjustments that are going to be required during the course of the game because Dean is going to put pressure on you in different ways. He’s going to really force you to handle some new problems that he’ll create. He’s obviously got a tremendous defense that plays well and forces you to go the long, hard route without giving up many big plays.”

So just because the Patriots have struggled at times in three previous playoff meetings, that doesn’t mean anything in this battle, for better or worse.

“There’s experience against this team,” McDaniels said. “Yeah, we know a lot of their players and some of their schemes, but I think each time we’ve played them our team has been different, their team has been different, and ultimately the game on Saturday night I would assume would take on its own form.”

These teams have met before. They’ve battled with trips to the Super Bowl on the line. And they’ll do that once again on Saturday in Foxborough, with the Patriots looking to get to a fourth straight AFC title game against a Ravens wild-card squad looking to get hot at the right time yet again to give itself another Super Bowl shot.

It’s the fourth installment of what has turned into a nice AFC playoff rivalry.

“They can play in tough situations and they’re talented,” concluded Belichick of the Ravens. “They keep coming at you.”

Which is true within games, and in this series, from one January to another with the season on the line yet again.