AFC Championship Game 2012: Terrible Patriots D Will Crumble Against Ravens

The New England Patriots are amazing on offense, but it is their dreadful defense that will end up costing them the 2012 AFC Championship game.

Baltimore’s offense may play a role in that upset as well.

With the Ravens traveling to Foxborough for this battle, the odds are already stacked against the team. But all is not lost. Baltimore will be squaring off with the 30th ranked Patriots' defense.

That’s right folks. Despite all of the firepower New England possesses on the offensive side of the ball, the team’s defense is atrocious. While the run defense is just fairly terrible at 17th in the NFL, it is their porous pass defense that drops them all the way down to 31st in the league.

With New England looking so dominant all season, there has been no game plan set forth to stop the Pats' assault. The Ravens have developed a game plan that hearkens back to the heyday of Baltimore supremacy.

Ravens veteran running back Ricky Williams tells the Baltimore Sun about the key to beating the Patriots:

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If you hit them in the mouth and you stand up to them, that's the way you play it. I think when you're as good as they are, you get used to people kind of being intimidated. And I think when you show them that you're not, it automatically makes them have to change the way they’re used to playing, and that automatically gives us an advantage.

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Whenever you hear a member or the Ravens, even if it is the most laid back dude in NFL history, you have to respect his words. If the team convinced peace-loving Ricky Williams to prepare like it's war, imagine what is going through the mind of Terrell Suggs or Ray Lewis.

Baltimore has to keep their foot on the throttle all game and wear down the Patriots defenders with a heavy dosage of the run game and play action passes. If Baltimore can get Ray Rice and their run game going against a mediocre New England front seven, the team can move the chains, eat up clock and most importantly, keep Tom Brady and the Patriots offense grounded.

The focus of most of this pressure will come down on fourth year starter Joe Flacco and whether or not he will be able to exploit the vulnerable New England defense. While the weapons in Baltimore aren’t the best in the NFL, Flacco has made good use of them in the regular season, but he has to translate that into postseason success.

With a defense as bad as New England’s, it shouldn’t be hard for Flacco to destroy them.

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