NFL Playoff Picks 2012: Why the Patriots Will Beat the Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens haven't made it to the Super Bowl since 2000, when they defeated the New York Giants to earn their team its first and only ring.

If they are to get to the Super Bowl this year, they'll first have to go through the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

Defeating the Patriots isn't impossible—they lost three games in the regular season, after all—but it's going to be too much for the Ravens to handle this week.

The Ravens have one of the league's top defenses, but it's their deficiencies on offense that will cost them a win and a trip to the Super Bowl.

Quarterback Joe Flacco threw two first-quarter touchdown passes in the team's divisional round win over the Houston Texans, but the offense managed to score just one field goal in the remainder of the game.

Constant pressure on Flacco kept his completion percentage just above 50 percent, and he was sacked five times and hit six more times. Further, the Texans defense was able to contain running back Ray Rice, holding him to just 60 yards on 21 carries and 20 yards on four receptions.

While it seems like the Patriots, with their weak defense that was giving up 411 yards per game on average during the regular season, won't be able to repeat the effort put up by the Texans last week, their performance against the Denver Broncos seems to indicate they can.

The Patriots kept constant pressure on Tebow, sacking him five times and forcing him to fumble the ball. They notched 10 tackles for loss, and though they gave up 144 rushing yards, they allowed just a single touchdown.

Flacco's two touchdowns against Houston were a result of the Ravens defense intercepting Texans quarterback T.J. Yates and giving Flacco a short field. When Flacco had the whole field to work with, he couldn't get any significant yardage, his receivers were well covered and the pressure was unyielding.

The Ravens will need more than two touchdowns and a single field goal to beat the Patriots on Sunday. New England has scored 30 or more points in 12 games during the regular season and won't likely be held below that this week, despite the strength of Baltimore's defense.

New England's offense is one of the highest-scoring, highest-yardage units in the NFL this season, with quarterback Tom Brady throwing for over 5,000 yards in the regular season. He's got a number of weapons at his disposal, primarily tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez and wide receiver Wes Welker.

Baltimore's defense will have to successfully bring pressure on Brady every time he takes the field. Rushing the passer is generally one of the Ravens' strong suits, however they didn't have a single sack on Yates last week.

If they cannot get their hands on Brady on Sunday, there's little hope for the Ravens to keep the Patriots from scoring practically at will. The Ravens need the Patriots to score as few points as possible or else Flacco and Rice won't have a chance to catch up.

While defense often wins championships, the Ravens defense just isn't strong enough to give the Patriots offense a hard enough time on Sunday to prevent the team from winning. At the same time, Baltimore's offense isn't playing well enough to match their Patriots counterparts yard for yard, score for score.

Even Ravens safety Ed Reed knows that Flacco has been struggling and will need to do significantly more to help his team this week than he did last week against Houston. However, it doesn't seem likely for that to happen, and thus the Ravens will fall in Foxboro on Sunday.