Baltimore offense vs. New England defense

	RAVENS OFFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	Run	16
	Pass	24
	Tot. Yds.	23
	Scoring	12
	Int's allowed	18
	Sacks allowed	49
	PATRIOTS DEFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	vs. Run	20
	vs. Pass	5
	Total yds. allowed	8
	# of Ints.	13
	# of Sacks	35
	Turnover differential	-5

The Ravens are finally healthy at the running back position, and the one-two punch of Priest Holmes and Errict Rhett has proven to be a prominent attack. Holmes is more of a speed back with good quickness, burst and ability to break outside, while Rhett takes care of the short yardage carries and is capable of pounding the ball inside to wear down opponents' front seven.

New England is allowing 111.7 yards per game on the ground, but has been much more equipped to stop the run since the return of MLB Ted Johnson. Johnson has done an excellent job of jumping back into the lineup, giving the Patriots production between the tackles versus the run.

The Patriots defensive tackles have been stout in the middle, and are not wearing down as easily as they were in the beginning of the season when they had such a huge responsibility to protect rookie MLB Andy Katzenmoyer. The newest challenge for front seven now is to protect its defensive backfield, which means the linebacking corps needs to be more active either on the blitz to get to the quarterback or in coverage.

The Patriots have undergone an almost complete overhaul in the secondary because of injury. Injuries to cornerbacks Ty Law (broken hand), Steve Israel (sprained ankle) and safety Chris Carter (hamstring) left the Patriots with rookie Kato Serwanga at cornerback, rookie Tony George at free safety and second year man Tebucky Jones at cornerback, as well as first-year player Terry Billups in the nickel package. That is expected to be the lineup for this game as well. Even though Serwanga and Jones have held up marvelously for inexperienced players at the cornerback positions, the Ravens marginal receiving corps is improving and should be able to generate some offense in the passing game.

Everyone looks at the offensive production and the passing numbers of QB Tony Banks and automatically assumes that Banks has done a 180-degree turnaround as a passer. What is really happening in this offense is that the system has been scaled down and the reads for Banks have been reduced. Banks is still making mistakes -- in the last two games he has been under 50% passing -- but he is making a lot more big plays as a passer.

The offensive scheme has been tailored to Banks abilities, making his reads simpler and his role in the offense is more defined. The Raven receivers are among the worst unit as a whole in the entire NFL, but Billick has done such a great job of working matchups and putting his receivers in position, that the offense is benefiting from the scheme. This is important to note because of the inexperience in the Patriot secondary.

On paper, the matchups for the receiving corps looks to be even, but the Baltimore passing scheme is going to be the difference as they will exploit New England's weaknesses and capitalize on a few breakdowns for big plays.

New England offense vs. Baltimore defense

	PATRIOTS OFFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	Run	21
	Pass	7
	Tot. Yds.	10
	Scoring	21
	Int's allowed	20
	Sacks allowed	54
	RAVENS DEFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	vs. Run	2
	vs. Pass	10
	Total yds. allowed	3
	# of Ints.	22
	# of Sacks	47
	Turnover differential	+3

The Patriot's offensive woes continued last week as they scored just 10 points against the Bills in their three-point loss in overtime. Surprisingly, the Patriots were able to muster a running game with the 27-carry 127-yard rushing performance from veteran Terry Allen. Nevertheless, the rushing performance was enabled by the fact that the Bills dropped off into coverage and basically gave New England all the room they wanted up front.

This week, the task will not be as easy as the Ravens come into town allowing just 78.8 yards per game on the ground -- second in the entire league. Baltimore's defensive tackles, Tony Siragusa, Larry Webster and Lional Dalton can take the majority of the credit for this stout run-defense unit because of their ability to clog up the interior of the opponents offensive line, forcing teams to string the ball outside where they are usually met by the athletic, speed-oriented Baltimore linebacking corps. Allen is a crafty, veteran runner with solid skills, but if the holes are not created up front, he is usually ineffective as a runner because he only possesses marginal speed, burst and quickness.

The Raven's big advantage against the Patriots is the that they can create a pass rush without having to use a heavy blitz scheme with their linebackers. This allows the unit to play very disciplined, filling holes and keeping containment on the edges.

New England is going to struggle to establish a running attack against the Ravens because they will not catch them off guard, and the offensive line is not big enough or physical enough to create a surge against Baltimore's front four.

The Patriot passing woes are no secret. Bledsoe is getting limited time to make his reads and throws in the pocket, and the veteran quarterback has reverted to a lot of his old habits -- keying on receivers and throwing off his back foot. Bledsoe provided his worst performance of his seven-year career last week, completing 10-of-21 passes for just 101 yards.

Teams are still pressing the Patriot receivers when they blitz, forcing Bledsoe to make hot-reads to his receiving corps that has shown very little ability to break free from the tight coverage on the line of scrimmage. Bledsoe gets WR Terry Glenn back after he missed last weeks' game with a 101 temperature, but the passing woes still existed with Glenn in the lineup.

Baltimore's cornerbacks are not spectacular, but are solid enough in coverage that they should be able to hold up with a strong pass rush. DeRon Jenkins, Chris McAllister and Duane Starks are all a bit undersized, but play physical enough that the team ought to be able to play the usual tight, man-to-man coverage that the Patriot receivers have proven completely ineffective against.

The key for the Ravens is getting to Bledsoe to throw off the timing of offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese's offense. Baltimore ranks 11th in the league in pass defense, but they have sacked opponents 47 times this season and their constant pressure should be enough to throw off Bledsoe and the Patriot passing attack.

Special teams

Key matchups