The Patriots' season ended almost two weeks ago (by this point, it seems like it was months) with a loss to the Ravens in the AFC title game, and by now, most New England football fans have had more than their fair share of storylines and hype involving Sunday’s game between San Francisco and Baltimore. (Did you know that the two coaches are brothers? And that this is Ray Lewis’ last game?) However, there still are plenty of reasons for Patriots fans to watch on Sunday. Here are five reasons why they should care about Super Bowl XLVII.

Performance of potential Patriots: The game will be an excellent opportunity for New England football fans to check out some free agent possibilities, most notably Ravens safety Ed Reed. We wrote about this earlier in the week, but the veteran has long been the subject of a man crush from Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and he will be a free agent this offseason. The 34-year-old veteran already has said he could see himself playing for Belichick, even professing that he cut the sleeves off his sweatshirt in an homage to the New England coach. Meanwhile, the Patriots secondary could use some veteran leadership. It wouldn’t be a long-term relationship, but if the Patriots could get him for short money, they should make the move.

Randy Moss: Moss always commanded attention in his three-plus seasons with the Patriots, and while he faded from the radar screen (at least locally) after being dealt to the Vikings midway through the 2010 season (making a brief stop in Tennessee with the Titans before ultimately taking 2011 off), he’s remained a compelling figure. But for all the achievements he’s managed to rack up over the course of his Hall of Fame career, the self-proclaimed “greatest wide receiver of all time” has never won a title, coming close with Minnesota in 1998 and New England in 2007. If he’s able to win one this time around, he gets another line on his resume, as well as some validation for the post-Patriots statistical swoon he’s endured since leaving New England in 2010.

Can Dean Pees win a Super Bowl? Pees was a unique hire when he came to New England in that he wasn’t a young assistant who was directly promoted through the chain to the role of defensive coordinator, as usually the case around Foxboro. (Instead, he initially made his bones as a college coach, working for 24 seasons before becoming linebackers coach with the Patriots in 2004 and moving up the chain to serve as DC from 2006 through 2009.) His impact may have been minimized -- as is the case with any defensive coordinator who works under Belichick, it’s the head coach who often gets too much of the credit and not enough of the blame when the defense fails. For what it’s worth, he immediately found another job before he left New England under curious circumstances following the 2009 season, spending two seasons with the Ravens as their linebackers coach before taking over as Baltimore’s DC in 2012. No one in Baltimore has a bad word to say about Pees for several reasons, not the least of which he’s unlike just about every other Ravens defensive coordinator in recent history because he (apparently) has zero interest in a head coaching job. This isn’t Marvin Lewis, Rex Ryan, Mike Nolan or Chuck Pagano. Pees is happy where he is.

Can one of these teams provide a blueprint for stopping the other that the Patriots can pick up on down the road? Unless they meet in next year’s Super Bowl, the Patriots aren’t scheduled to face the Niners anytime soon. But New England will play the Ravens again during the 2013 regular season (and if history is any indication, chances are good they’ll also meet in the playoffs). Can San Francisco provide some sort of template to beating Baltimore -- specifically, keeping the Ravens defense at bay? Baltimore has bedeviled Tom Brady over the years (as we wrote here before the AFC title game), and while the quarterback has won more than he’s lost against the Ravens, some of the worst statistical splits of his career have come against Baltimore defenses. (His touchdown-to-interception ratio, QB rating and completion percentage against the Ravens are all the worst against any other team in the league.) We’re not indicating that Brady has anything resembling Colin Kaepernick’s skill set, but there’s always something to take from every game, and if the Ravens can be exposed in one area Sunday, you can be sure the Patriots will pick up on it for next season.

Morbid fascination: While the Patriots don’t necessarily have much bad blood when it comes to the Niners, they have one of the best rivalries in the league with the Ravens. And while there’s a healthy side to things when the two teams get together, there’s some ill will there as well, particularly in the wake of the AFC title game. The coaches and players wouldn’t necessarily admit to this, but the idea of Bernard Pollard possibly getting embarrassed on the NFL’s biggest stage by someone like Kaepernick would bring some smiles to those folks around Patriot Place.