AFC Championship Game 2012: Patriots Will Be Ravens' Easiest Foe This Postseason

The New England Patriots are the top seed, but the Baltimore Ravens match up with them the best of any possible or future opponents this postseason. They will even be an easier matchup than the Houston Texans were.

The Patriots will live and die with Tom Brady's arm and their passing game. They had the second-ranked passing attack in the NFL. They were second only to the New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees' record-setting year, while the rushing attack was only 20th in the league.

The Patriots running backs have averaged about 23 rushes per game. This number is a bit inflated as it reflects the Patriots running clock after they've obtained a lead late. In actuality, the Pats are a pass-dominated offense. A team like that will not defeat the Ravens.

You must run it, and run it well to defeat them. If you look at the four games (Jacksonville, San Diego, Tennessee and Seattle) the Ravens lost this year, teams averaged 42 carries and 117 yards per game. They passed the ball only 28 times for 234 yards per game. This tells me they established the run, and let that success set them up to take shots down the field. The four teams had six completions of over 25 yards, despite their commitment to the run.

The Patriots don't have the personnel or the philosophy to be successful on the ground to that extent. Look at the offensive lines and backs for those teams (Chris Johnson, Ryan Mathews, Marshawn Lynch and Maurice Jones-Drew); all of them represent playmaking ability and physicality superior to the Pats rushers. The Pats' leading rusher had 667 yards this season. BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead are nice backs, but not the type that can penetrate the Ravens' stellar front seven.

The Ravens pass rush and secondary, led by the brilliant, ball-hawking safety, Ed Reed, is made to derail teams that attack them with pass-happy offenses. Surely, Brady is no T.J. Yates; he won't loft as many passes up for grabs as the Ravens saw this past weekend, but they also won't have to contend with a stud like Arian Foster out of the backfield.

The teams that are able to have success against the Ravens on the ground also limit possessions and put pressure on Joe Flacco; he is the Ravens' weakest link. In those four losses, Flacco threw six INTs. That represents half of his total for the entire year.

The way to effectively attack the Ravens is by ground, and the Patriots don't have the ability to do that.

Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter.