OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- File the next sentence under things that would never happen in the World of Belichick:

The best player on the defense using the media to call out the quarterback six days before the AFC championship.

This is exactly why the Patriots tell us nothing. It's simply not worth it. The inevitable clean up is just energy wasted. Are there players in the New England locker room who think Antwaun Molden isn't the second coming of Ty Law? Probably. But you'll never hear about it, ever.  

But Ed Reed (a future first-ballot Canton inductee, one of the 50 or so best players in history) felt he needed to get some thoughts about Joe Flacco off his chest. So he decided to skip the A-list national guys -- Adam Schefter, Jay Glazer, Chris Mortensen, Peter King, Rob Lowe -- and do a little QB venting on SiriusXM NFL Radio. 

"I think Joe was kind of rattled a little bit by (Houston's) defense," Reed said Monday. "(The Texans) had a lot of guys in the box on him. And, I mean, they were getting to him. A couple times he needed to get rid of the ball. I don't know how much of it was play-calling ... but it just didn't look like he had a hold on the offense. ... It was just kind of like (coaches) was telling him to do, throw the ball or get it here, you know, get it to certain guys. And he can't play like that."

Again, that's not mild stuff. Rattled, getting to him, can't play like that? Hard to compare, but can you imagine Rodney Harrison calling out Tom Brady after a lousy game in 2004? Impossible, and by the way it's not because Harrison is allergic to criticism. The Patriots do business one way, the Ravens go another direction. Can't argue with the results, these are two of the four or five most successful franchises of the century. But when you allow guys to say whatever they want -- the Ravens aren't unlike the Jets in this regard -- there are then going to be sessions like the one Flacco had with the media Wednesday.

"You guys aren't going to let it go, huh?," Flacco asked after the third question of his press conference was also the third question about the Reed comments. "I talked to Ed about it, it was a little funny, I was kind of caught off guard, but it is what it is. We talked about it and it's not really that big a deal."

And he's right, of course. The Ravens ultimate fate in this game will not rest in Ed Reed's level of confidence regarding Joe Flacco. 

What Reed said is a story, however, because there's some truth in it. Flacco was shaky against (a very talented, very aggressive) Texans defense. He absolutely looked timid at times. And that has happened to every quarterback in history when faced with a consistent pass-rush -- Brady, Manning, Elway, Unitas, doesn't matter.

And if Flacco was anywhere near the class of those guys what happened last Sunday wouldn't mean much, just an odd parentheses in a Hall of Fame career. But Flacco isn't one of those guys. He had the worst season of his career in 2011 - shouldn't be happening to a supposed "franchise guy" in season four of a career, that should be prime breakout real estate - and his playoff career is mixed at best (seven INTs, six TDs, 66.2 passer rating in eight games). 

"I think I'm more shocked about how someone can speak about someone who is a flat-out winner," said Ray Lewis, who seemed to want play the Us Against the World card when asked about Flacco/Reed, I guess forgetting it was a fellow player firing away on the quarterback. "There's no one side to anything, there isn't one player who makes the team great. It takes a team effort and what Joe has done for us since day one … I told people the first time I saw him throw the football that he was special. You are talking about a guy who has been in the playoffs all four years and has given his team a chance to win games. We win as a team, we lose as a team."

Yup, the Ravens are 5-3 in Flacco's eight playoff starts. But how much credit would you give him for the 33-14 win over the Patriots, a game that saw him complete 4-of-10 passes for 34 yards? Or how about the 1/4/09 victory over the Dolphins (9-of-23, 135 yards)? This is how it goes - we give the QB's too much blame for playoff losses and too much praise for playoff wins. 

Would Flacco be a "flat-out winner" if he played his entire career for the Browns? He's somewhere in the top half of the league's quarterbacks, which means he's been the best quarterback of the Lewis/Reed era in Baltimore. Until Flacco, it had been a festival of Tony Banks's, Elvis Grbac's, Kyle Boller's and the occasional Anthony Wright's. Put it another way: When Trent Dilfer is the gold standard, you know it's been defense first, second, 34th and 88th during this run.

Flacco isn't perfect, but he's competent and never injured, which almost automatically gets you a spot in the top dozen QB's in the league. But even with this Baltimore defense, he'll very likely have to do more than manage the game on Sunday.

Maybe Ed Reed knows the truth: to beat the Patriots, Joe Flacco will have to be great for the first time in his postseason career.

"I don't care, I'll have a ring and we'll be holding a trophy," Flacco responded when asked if a Super Bowl win is what is needed to change his national perception. "The perception won't change but it doesn't really matter."

Now there's an answer that's always works in the World of Belichick.