Things don’t look good for the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday.

First, they’ve lost seven straight games to the Indianapolis Colts, whom they will visit this weekend. That statistic may be somewhat surprising to many of you out there, given some of the great matchups these two have had over the last few years, including their 17-15 squeaker on Nov. 22, 2009.

Second, the Colts seemed unstoppable until they ran out of meaningful games. Though they had a few close ones, the loss of Tony Dungy in the offseason didn’t seem to slow these guys down. In fact, new head coach Jim Caldwell seemed to bring just the shake-up the team needed to get back on a roll.

Third, well, two words: Peyton Manning. Manning is simply the most dominant NFL player of our times, bar none. Just a few days ago, he won his fourth MVP award of his career, an NFL record. He essentially serves as co-offensive coordinator and has an incredible instinctual feel for the game that is one in a generation.

Finally, Ravens second-year quarterback Joe Flacco is, well, a second-year quarterback and an injured one at that. The team’s run-pass balance was so out of whack last week that Flacco only completed four passes for 34 yards, tying an NFL record low for playoff passing yardage.

So with the deck stacked that strongly against them that begs the question: Why is it that the Ravens will beat the Colts?

The fact of the matter is, right now, the Ravens are the best matchup for the Colts in the NFL. Since their pre-Thanksgiving tilt, the Ravens have re-dedicated themselves to their running game, with a 100-yard rusher in four out of their last five games. Last week against the New England Patriots, the Ravens ran an astonishing 52 times for 234 yards over one of the NFL’s elite defenses.

This week, the Ravens will face the Colts’ 25th-ranked rushing defense, and that thought has to have Ray Rice and Willis McGahee salivating. The pair give the Ravens a complete and balanced rushing attack, with Rice able to grind out the tough yards between the tackles and McGahee adding the extra dimension of slicing and dicing to the outside.

Rice and McGahee have also been good outlets in the passing game for Flacco as well, with the pair accounting for 93 receptions and three receiving touchdowns this season.

Flacco has been impressive in his two seasons at the helm for the Ravens, not so much as a passer but a game manager. He’s done what he’s had to to win, and been a consistent game manager and leader for the team.

His impressive 3-1 record in the playoffs is second to none when stacked against some of the other young quarterbacks around the NFL, including Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, and Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer, who hold a combined career 0-fer in the postseason.

Manning, who has a Super Bowl to his credit, seems to have hard luck in the playoffs. Many seasons, this sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer seems to be just unlucky, and has been knocked out of the divisional playoffs more than his fair share.

This season, he has his dependable pair of receivers in Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark, but seems to lack a legitimate go-to guy at the second receiver spot. While this wouldn’t be a problem for most teams, the Colts are more dependant on their passing game than most, given that their running backs are incapable of taking over a game.

The Ravens’ Ed Reed is more than enough of a matchup for Clark, and in fact seemed to erase him completely from their last game, holding Clark to one reception for three yards. With extra attention devoted to Reggie Wayne (who recorded seven receptions, but no touchdowns), young Colt Pierre Garcon stepped up and provided 108 receiving yards for the blue and white.

That was when the team was on a roll, and notched their 10th straight win that day. However, the team started easing back on the throttle once it locked up home field advantage, and simply shut it down the last couple of weeks.

While it’s not a philosophy that holds a lot of water, many coaches seem to think that veteran teams such as the Colts can turn it on an off on a whim. This is certainly debatable, but this game is likely to come down to an elite performance from a young player such as Garcon or Austin Collie, and these players may not have that built-in "on" switch that someone like Manning or Wayne might have.

Finally, the Ravens are the team who has been playing one game at a time throughout the entire season and only clinched in during the last week of the season. The Colts are the team who decided they were Super Bowl contenders a month ago and started looking forward.

Teams that stop playing the opponent directly in front of them tend to find themselves home on the couch a lot faster than they might have expected.

Expect a tough, tight game this weekend. Expect Manning to throw for a lot of yards. Expect the Ravens to look like an old-school team; three yards and a cloud of dust (or what passes for dust on field turf).

But expect the Ravens to be the one who get to play next weekend.