FOXBORO — Do business as business is being done. It’s a longstanding maxim within the hallways at Gillette Stadium.

But in last year’s playoff defeat to Baltimore, the Patriots did not do business as business was being done, and paid the price. New England was mauled by a brutal Ravens team that, quite frankly, left its business all over the Foxboro turf.

On Sunday, the Patriots responded, playing some of their most physical football in years. In a game that Vince Wilfork referred to as one of the “most physical games I ever played in,” New England was the last team standing in a bruising 23-20 overtime victory.

“It [was] two physical teams, both teams playing hard, there was a lot at stake,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick told WEEI Monday. “The game came right down to the wire. It went 13 extra minutes. There were a lot of hard-hitting, tough plays by a lot of tough, hard-hitting football players.

“I think it was a physical game. I know we’ve got a lot of sore guys in our locker room. I’m sure they do today, too. I’m glad we were able to come out with three more points than they had.”

Being physical is a point of emphasis each week for the Patriots, but when it comes to the Ravens, it’s another matter altogether. About a decade ago, Baltimore built a reputation as one of the toughest, most physical teams in the league, and nothing has changed — teams continue to regard the Ravens as one of the most physical teams in the league.

So on Sunday, the Patriots decided to match strength with strength. They went bigger up front, moving Vince Wilfork to defensive end, Gerard Warren to nose tackle, and moving 6-foot-4, 305-pound rookie Brandon Deaderick into the lineup at defensive end. According to New England’s defensive backs, they also looked to deliver a more intimidating tone in the secondary.

“The Ravens are hands down one of the most, if not the most physical team, with guys like Ray Lewis and [Terrell] Suggs and what they bring on defense,” said Patriots cornerback Kyle Arrington. “Offensively, they’re pretty physical too, a big physical line. Our goal was just to match their physicality, if not try and be even more physical.

“Normally — I don’t say all the time — but you know when you have the tougher team, you’re in pretty good position to win the game. You won’t always win the game, but if you go out there and play tough and have the more physical, tough team, it puts you in good position.”

Things got a little too physical on occasion, especially in the secondary. Safety Brandon Meriweather delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit on Baltimore tight end Todd Heap in the first half that left Heap on the turf. (That was on the heels of Meriweather just missing a shot to Heap’s head earlier in the game.)

On a week where there were several helmet-to-helmet hits, Meriweather’s shot on Heap drew plenty of attention. Meriweather — who actually shares an agent with Heap and considers him a friend — didn’t want to talk about it with reporters in the locker room on Monday, but explained to WEEI that it was a “split-second decision” to be aggressive.

“I just attacked,” Meriweather said. “I wasn’t trying to hit head-to-head contact or injure anybody or play dirty in any kind of way. It just happened. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. I was playing aggressive and something happened. I’m trying not to look at it and make it a big deal, like everybody else is doing.

“It’s football. You’ve got a lot of good players, where you think one thing, and another thing can happen in a split-second. So, you’ve always got to make a split-second decision, and my split-second decision was to be aggressive and not wait for it.”

While players were careful about openly endorsing a hit like that one, several defensive players — including Wilfork — said it was that hit that provided a spark for the New England defense.

“It was something that … we just wanted to go into the game and do, regardless of who was coming across the middle, to try and enforce our will and try and intimidate them,” Arrington said. “I think that was just the goal to begin with. A lot players might say that was the turning point, but I think that was something we just wanted to go into the game and do regardless.”

Meriweather may end up paying a price for the hit, both literally and figuratively. He will almost certainly face a fine, and Ray Anderson, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, told the Associated Press Monday that the league may soon start suspending players for helmet-to-helmet hits.

“There’s strong testimonial for looking readily at evaluating discipline, especially in the areas of egregious and elevated dangerous hits,” Anderson told the AP in a phone interview, noting that changes could come immediately. “Going forward there are certain hits that occurred that will be more susceptible to suspension. There are some that could bring suspensions for what are flagrant and egregious situations.”

While Belichick said the Patriots always teach the right way to hit, he added that changing the rules on things like that in the middle of the season might not be a good idea.

“I just think in general, rules changes, in my opinion, should be made at the end of the season, with a lot of thought and consideration given to everything, all aspects of it,” Belichick told WEEI.

“Now, if the hit’s flagrant enough, certainly a player can be disciplined. That’s within the rights of the commissioner, and that’s been done before, whether it be fines or whatever it happens to be. So, I don’t really see where that’s changed,” Belichick added. “But just to have a carte blanche rule that’s different than what it is now, I don’t know, generally speaking I don’t think that’s the way to do it, to change things in midstream.”