Curran's Quick Slant: Fear of Ravens not so rational

When making evaluations, its natural to put the most weighton what happened most recently. This, I believe, is the main reason there is a surprising amountof trepidation about the Baltimore Ravens as the Patriots prepare to face themin the AFC Championship. But Saturdays Lazarus act in Denver where a 70-yardcloud-scraper from Joe Flacco to Jacoby Jones allowed Baltimore to keep playinginto overtime trumps not only the somewhat underwhelming way in which theygained the win, it also overshadows the dirty details the Ravens are dealingwith.
A slow and aging defense. An end-of-season swoon that sawthem lose four out of five. And an offense stolen from the 2006 Bears in whichJoe Flacco plays the part of Rex Grossman and javelins passes into the sky,hoping for a flag or a completion (which one doesnt matter). In two games, Flaccos completed 30 passes for 613 yards. Hethrew three touchdowns against Denverof 70, 59 and 32 yards. He had bomb completions of 50 and 46 yards against theColts. His completion percentage is 52.6.The Ravens dont sustain drives. In two playoff games, theyverun 130 offensive plays; their opponents have run 174. They were not real goodon third down during the season (36.9 percent) and their average time ofpossession was 28:09. Theyre at 40 percent third-down conversions in theplayoffs and are holding the ball for just 25 minutes per game. Flacco is not a quarterback thats matriculating the balldown the field. Hes hitting driver off every tee andso farhe hasnt sentany OB into the lumberyard. But you cant livelike that. Especially against an offense like the Patriots which ran more playsthan any team in NFL history save for the 1994 Patriots. That 1,191 plays wasnine short of setting the record. And it was 149 more plays than the Ravenstotal of 1,025. Since October 21, Baltimoresscored more than 25 points three times (55 in a win over the Raiders, 28 in aloss to the Redskins, 33 in a win over the Giants and 38 in overtime against Denver on Saturday). ThePatriots, by contrast, have been held under 25 just twice in the same period(23-16 wins over the Dolphins and Jags).Against Denver,they had eight punts, a fumble, four touchdowns and a field goal. Baltimore ran just 55offensive plays despite the fact they were given back-to-back offensive possessionson two different occasions because of special teams touchdowns by the Broncos. Playing New England a week after a grinder at altitude in Denver, Im not seeinghow the lumbering Ravens linebackers are going to keep up with the Patriotsunderneath. And if Baltimore clogs the second level and brings safeties intothe area (Bernard Pollard doesnt have notable speed either) New England has aquarterback who can throw it more than 30 yards downfield, which is somethingDenver didnt have. So it looks to me like more plays for the Ravens defense todeal with, fewer plays for the Ravens offense to run (if the Patriots finishtheir drives), and a lot more of Flacco swinging from his heels and trying to hithome runs to keep Baltimore in it against a defense thats been outstanding onthird down (28 for 94 since Thanksgiving, 30 percent).