Ravens' so-so offense will probably need to score more points than usual to stay in the game at New England. While Patriots' tight ends have been in the spotlight, first-team all-pro Welker remains Mr. Reliable.
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Associated PressRunning back Ray Rice keys the Baltimore Ravens' offense with his rushing and receiving.OWINGS MILLS, Maryland -- For the Baltimore Ravens, the term "balanced attack" usually means an equal distribution of tackles among everyone on the defense not named Ray Lewis.
The Ravens' strength has long been its ability to stop the opposition from scoring. The offense, for the most part, is usually responsible for protecting the ball and cashing in turnovers.
This unsymmetrical arrangement will almost certainly have to change Sunday against the high-powered New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.
Baltimore beat the Houston Texans 20-13 last Sunday by virtue of another solid performance from its defense. Or, judging by the numbers, in spite of its offense.
The Ravens totaled 227 yards — 109 after halftime. They went three-and-out eight times, averaged 2.8 yards per rush and scored only three points over the final 46 minutes.
That kind of production won't be enough in the Ravens' bid to get to the Super Bowl.
"I think it would be safe to say we are going to have to score points to win this game," said Ravens rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith, who had one catch for 9 yards against the Texans.
"We have one of the top defenses in the league, and we stand by our defense and believe in our defense. They are pretty much the rock of our team," Smith said. "We know we are going to have to help them out a lot. We have to try and take care of the ball. We can't have any three-and-outs. We have to keep their offense off the field, keep our defense rested and score points."
The Ravens' two touchdowns against Houston came on drives of 2 and 34 yards following turnovers. Running back Ray Rice, who totaled 2,068 yards and 15 touchdowns during the regular season, rushed for 60 yards on 21 carries and had four receptions for 20 yards. He did not score.
Yes, the Texans own the second-ranked defense in the NFL and played that way. Not only did they bottle up Rice, but they sacked Joe Flacco five times. That can't happen if Baltimore intends to make its fourth straight playoff run end with an appearance in the Super Bowl.
"You always want to play a little better, and the film is not going to lie," Rice said. "We know we have some things to work on. They had a great pass rush and they got inside of us a little bit, but you have to take what's there and there wasn't a lot there. We'll get it corrected."
Baltimore converted only four of 16 third-down plays against Houston. In one telling series in the third quarter, Rice gained one yard on a third-and-goal from the 2 and was stuffed on a fourth-down run.
"Third down is going to be really important for both sides — getting off the field and extending drives," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "Time of possession for us is going to be important in this game."
Of the four remaining teams vying for the NFL championship, the Ravens own the lone sputtering offense. Tom Brady threw six touchdown passes for the Patriots in a 45-10 rout of Denver; Eli Manning chewed up Green Bay's defense for the New York Giants in a 37-20 victory and Alex Smith showed his playoff mettle by rallying the San Francisco 49ers over New Orleans 36-32.
The Ravens, on the other hand, managed only 11 first downs. But New England coach Bill Belichick sees the potential in Baltimore's attack.
"They have a great complement of receivers and tight ends and backs. They get the ball to everybody," Belichick said. "The receivers are productive, their tight ends are very productive and of course, Rice is their leading receiver. You take one guy away and they can beat you with ... a lot of different guys."
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APRavens quarterback Joe FlaccoFlacco threw two touchdown passes against Houston and had a solid 97.1 quarterback rating. He's also 44-20 during the regular season and the only starting quarterback in NFL history to reach the playoffs in each of his first four years.
"A quarterback has to do what his team needs him to do to win, and Joe has done that," Belichick said.
Flacco is 5-3 in the postseason. To become 6-3, he's going to have to get the Ravens into the end zone.
"As an offense, an offensive guy, I would think so," Flacco said. "At the same time, we have a good defense. The way (the Patriots) have played all year, the way they've played in the past, they put points on the board. So I think as an offense, you have to go in there and put points on the board, too."
Flacco will be facing the league's 31st-ranked pass defense, so there may be an opportunity for him to succeed. He might even be put in a position to win the game with a last-minute drive, as he did at Pittsburgh in November.
In spite of all his accomplishments, Flacco still absorbs a surprising amount of criticism. A victory over New England might change all that.
"Like I told Joe, no one wins games by themselves," said Lewis, the only remaining Ravens player from the 2000 Super Bowl champions. "We are in this as a family; we are in this as a team. Nothing on the outside matters. What matters is what we think on the inside of this building and what we feel about him and the confidence we have in him. Everything else, you can throw out the window. Joe has come in and led us to the playoffs in each of the last four years. If that was anybody else, they would be praising him. Joe Flacco has done a heck of a job getting us into the position to win."
The only thing missing is that elusive final step — winning it all.
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Wes Welker from Tom Brady remains key for the Patriots
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.—The question seemed to blind-side Tom Brady and he reacted quickly as if he were zipping the ball to one of his three star receivers.
It's rare, isn't it, to have a tight end as the marquee player on offense?
"Well," Brady told the reporter, "Wes is pretty good, too."
With Rob Gronkowski getting so much attention -- from defensive players, highlight clips and the media -- Wes Welker sometimes seems overshadowed in the New England Patriots outstanding offense.
In Saturday night's 45-10 divisional playoff win over the Denver Broncos, the spotlight focused on Gronkowski and tight end Aaron Hernandez, each weighing at least 245 pounds. Welker weighs just 185.
Gronkowski caught 10 passes, three for touchdowns. Hernandez grabbed one scoring pass and gained 43 yards on a run out of the backfield. Welker did score on a 7-yard pass, but his 9.2 yards per catch were just fifth on the team.
The Baltimore Ravens defense, though, better not let its guard down against Welker in Sunday's AFC championship game.
The speedy, elusive slot receiver led the NFL with 122 catches and 1,569 yards receiving this season when he was voted a first team All-Pro and chosen for his fourth straight Pro Bowl. His 554 receptions in his five seasons with New England are the most in the NFL in that span, 80 more than second-ranked Brandon Marshall.
But as this season progressed, the reputations of Gronkowski and Hernandez grew as they built on rookie years that gave a glimpse of their multiple talents when they combined for 87 receptions and 16 touchdowns. Their total this year: 169 catches and 24 scores.
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Associated PressThe Patriots' Wes Welker has caught 554 passes in the last five seasons, 80 more than any other NFL player during the span.Welker doesn't think opponents are giving him more space to run his routes while they devote extra coverage to the tight ends.
"I'm just trying to do my job out there. Those two guys are phenomenal players and at some point the defense is going to realize how good they are and it's definitely going to open up things for me and vice versa," he said. "We all are together in this and all play together and all play our role."
He certainly gets less attention than if he were the Patriots' only dangerous receiving threat. Teams also must make sure that Deion Branch doesn't get a step on his defender the way he did on his 61-yard touchdown catch against the Broncos.
It's a difficult challenge, compounded by Brady's extraordinary ability to read defenses and make split-second decisions on the best place to throw the ball.
"We don't really know what the defense is going to do after the ball is snapped," coach Bill Belichick said Tuesday. "Usually, we see multiple things. We see one coverage on one play and another coverage on another one and then a pressure somewhere along the line there.
"Who gets what and where the ball goes and whose opportunities those are is really a function on every play of how our pattern matches up with the defensive call they happen to have on. There's really no way to know that. Sometimes you have a coverage indicator based on an alignment or film study or that kind of thing, but teams do a good job of disguising that."
Welker caught a career-high 123 passes in 2009, but missed the Patriots' wild-card game against Baltimore after suffering a major knee injury in the regular-season finale at Houston. So he wasn't around to help them out of a 24-0 deficit after the first quarter. The Ravens won, 33-14.
He missed two regular-season games and most of another then, but hasn't been sidelined this season.
"It's always tough when your team is out there playing and you're not able to, especially in the playoffs," Welker said. "We had such a good year that year and (I'm) wanting to help my team and things like that. I'm just glad it's behind me. I'm glad it's over and I'm in the position I'm in to be able to play in this game."
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APPatriots quarterback Tom Brady.In the first half of this season, the Patriots went 5-3. Welker had 66 catches, Gronkowski 44 and Hernandez 33.
Since then, they're 9-0 and the production has been strikingly similar -- Welker with 62 catches, Gronkowski 56 and Hernandez 50.
"I think we're pretty balanced between the receiver position and tight end position and being able to run the ball, complementing that with the play action pass," Brady said. "I think it's a matter of making sure all those guys are complementing each other."
That's the challenge the Ravens must overcome to pull an upset.
"Their offense has got weapons everywhere," Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. "It starts with the quarterback and it runs through the tight ends. They can run the ball. They've got guys on the outside that can play and get downfield. It's the most explosive offense in football right now."
And don't forget about Welker.
Primarily an over-the-middle receiver, he can make the big play.
In the season opener, a 38-24 win over the Miami Dolphins, he took a pass on the left side from Brady and outran the defense for a 99-yard touchdown, the longest offensive play in Patriots history.
"I only threw it 25 yards. Wes did all the work," Brady said after the game. "When I saw him break away, that was awesome."
Donte Whitner
