New England Patriots to Take on Baltimore Ravens

The playoffs have not been kind to offense-based teams this year.

The regular season was dominated by three teams that play offense well, but defense poorly: the Green Bay Packers, the New Orleans Saints and the New England Patriots. All three entered the playoffs with high seeds.

Only the Patriots remain.

That's the primary reason for the Pats to be nervous about their game against the Ravens — that lingering sense that, even in this year of record-setting offense, defense will still win the day.

There are some positive signs for the Pats, though. They're coming off their utter domination of the Denver Broncos, while the Ravens struggled mightily against the Houston Texans.

The Ravens had trouble with both the Texans offensive and defensive lines — had Houston not been playing a third-string, rookie quarterback (T.J. Yates), it's quite possible they would have won. Were the Ravens' problems entirely due to the high talent level of the Texans, or are there structural issues with the team? We'll see on Sunday.

The Ravens defense will have to pick their poison. Who gets single-covered: Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski or Aaron Hernandez? It's likely at least one of them will get open; if Tom Brady has time to find them, he should have a good game. Look for the Pats to spread things out and try to get the Ravens linebackers in coverage.

The key to the Ravens offense is Ray Rice. The uber-talented running back is not only their top rusher, but top receiver as well (in terms of receptions, at least). If he runs as freely as he did in the 2009 playoff game, it's game over.

Joe Flacco is a good quarterback, but offensive coordinator Cam Cameron seems to have a problem drawing up a scheme that gets his receivers open. The Patriots pass D must build on a strong performance last week. They cannot give up big plays to these good pass-catchers (like Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith).

This will be a tightly contested game, and should be a fun one to watch.

The New England Patriots-Baltimore Ravens AFC Championship Game will air at 3pm on CBS (WBZ, Channel 4).