Titans set for battle with Ravens

January 6, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

The teams have had some physical matchups over the years.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The time for rest is over in Tennessee. Next up? A bitter rival in the Baltimore Ravens with the added bonus of all that ugly history about No. 1 seeds who don’t make it to the Super Bowl.

So the Titans are keeping it simple.

It’s one game at a time, or the exact same approach that got them the NFL’s best record at 13-3 and the AFC’s No. 1 seed.

“If you don’t win, you’re done and we want to win,” running back LenDale White said. “That’s all that’s on our minds.”

Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher echoed that theme.

“We need to do the same things we did that got us here, and that’s prepare, respect your opponent and prepare hard with the exception of trying to do things just a little bit better,” Fisher said.

Not nearly as exciting as the physically punishing games these teams have played over the years since their AFC Central days, a series so tight it’s tied at 9 overall with each team winning on each other’s home field in the playoffs. Baltimore (12-5) earned a rematch and a chance for the edge in this rivalry by beating Miami 27-9 on Sunday.

But it’s Baltimore’s 24-10 win in the divisional playoffs after the 2000 season that hurt most. That came in an eerily similar situation with the Titans also 13-3 and seeded first in the AFC. Fisher tried to defuse and downplay the intense history between these teams Monday.

“There’s been some great matchups,” he said. “It’s a great rivalry, but those things that took place in the past are really not going to have any impact on what’s going to happen.”

That divisional loss put Tennessee among the 18 No. 1 seeds since 1990 who wasted home-field advantage in the postseason. Not since 2003 has a top-seeded team won the Super Bowl, and that was New England. Four of the last eight reached the Super Bowl only to lose, including the Patriots last season.

White said the Titans have been waiting for this moment.

“We do all this work, all the offseason work,” he said. “You go out and bust your tail ... Some blood shed sometimes, even tears shed. You do all that to get to this point. You’ve go to turn this into something great. I want to be remembered as somebody great. Nobody remembers second place.

“So there’s only one thing to go, and that’s to win the Super Bowl.”