AFC Championship Game 2012: Weak Passing Attack Will Doom Joe Flacco and Ravens

The defensive-minded Baltimore Ravens will head to Foxboro this Sunday afternoon in hopes of pulling off an upset over the AFC's top-seeded New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game (3:00 PM ET, CBS).

Unfortunately for the Birds, their weak passing attack, which lacks creativity and a consistent go-to wide receiver will doom them in their effort to win the conference and earn a berth to Indy for Super Bowl XLVI.

The two teams have yet to meet this season. However, their last playoff meeting in January 2010 produced one of the more lopsided results Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have ever been a part of. Baltimore spanked New England 33-14 on that Sunday in Foxboro, but this weekend will be different.

For as dominant as the Ravens defense has been for the last decade and how tough it has looked all season long—including last Sunday, allowing just 13 points to the AFC South champion Houston Texans—it will have its hands full and bubbling over with the Patriots' explosive offensive attack. 

New England was the NFL's second-best passing offense in 2011, racking up more than 317 yards through the air per game on average. The Ravens, meanwhile, only accumulated around 214 yards of passing offense on average this season.

The problem: Baltimore's leading rusher, Ray Rice, is also its leading receiver by receptions. Rice's 76 catches this season are 19 more than the next Ravens player and wide receiver. Anquan Boldin has 57 to lead all wide receivers. The Pats' leading receiver is Wes Welker, who caught 122 balls during the regular season, more than twice that of Boldin.

Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron deserves a good portion of the blame, however. Week after week Cameron and head coach John Harbaugh set fourth-year quarterback Joe Flacco up for failure with two-wide receiver sets and heavy tight end packages that make it tough for guys to get open.

In New England, they split their tight ends out wide and force the defense to cover. In Baltimore, tight ends like Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta, who are both extremely talented, are constantly coming off the line from a three-point stance, and the result is less time for them to get open for Flacco.

It's the same for Baltimore's wide receivers. Flacco is forced to either find Boldin or the rookie Torrey Smith on the outside, but he has to first wait for either guy to shed his coverage and somehow get enough separation from the defense where he can squeeze in a ball.

The only thing unique about the Ravens' passing attack these days is that they are content to make life tougher for themselves and easier for the defense.

Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers have created the perfect blueprint for assaulting teams through the air at the NFL level. And they set records, win Super Bowl and MVPs because of it, not because they limited themselves to two-wide receiver sets and traditional jumbo packages. 

Baltimore needs points this weekend, and points never come solely from the running game, no matter how good it is. Flacco can throw for scores in the red zone and on the goal line, but he will need some help from the coaching staff and his receiving corps if he and the Birds are going to move the ball in between the 20s consistently. 

It's frustrating to watch the Ravens' offense function when there's a better way. The better way is the Patriot way, and Baltimore will find out the hard way on Sunday afternoon in New England.