FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Stevan Ridley’s father switched his allegiance from the Oakland Raiders once his son was drafted by the New England Patriots.
The running back’s dad sure picked a winner.
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Home Opener
WHO: Oakland Raiders (0-2) at New England Patriots (1-1)
WHEN: 1 p.m. Sunday
TELEVISION: CBS
The Patriots are 25-4, including playoff games, at Gillette Stadium starting in 2011, when Ridley was drafted. They are two-touchdown favorites to make that 26-4 when they open their home season Sunday against the Raiders.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Ridley said. “My dad’s old favorite team was the Raiders, until, of course, I became a Patriot. So we’ve got about 14 people coming up this week and my mom’s really excited about it. The family’s going to be here, so it’s going to be an exciting atmosphere to come back here to Foxborough and get in the home stadium.”
The Pats are 11-1 in home openers since they moved into Gillette in 2002. The loss came when Stephen Gostkowski missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt on the next-to-last play – after making three longer ones – as the Arizona Cardinals won 20-18 in 2012.
That was one of the three home losses for quarterback Tom Brady that season. But dating to 2006, he’s 56-5 in his past 61 home games, 49-3 in the regular season.
His other two losses at Gillette in 2012 were to teams that went to the Super Bowl, Baltimore and San Francisco.
The 2011 home loss was to the New York Giants, who beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl that season.
And Brady’s only home loss in the 2010 season was in the playoffs to the New York Jets, who made it to the AFC championship game.
The Raiders figure to be Brady’s next conquest.
“We always love playing at home with our fans,” special teams captain Matthew Slater said. “They give us so much support. They give us an extra boost of energy and we feel like we’ve been all over the country and haven’t played a game at home.”
The Patriots opened the season in hot Miami weather with a 33-20 loss to the Dolphins. Then they went to Minnesota, where they beat the Vikings, 30-7.
The schedule gets tougher after Sunday with the next four home games against Cincinnati, the Jets, Chicago and Denver.
For now the Patriots are concentrating on Oakland.
“Home games are so important because you only get so many of them,” Slater said, “but each and every week is a season within itself. So our total focus is on playing the Raiders, whether it was home, away or out in the backyard.”
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