We all knew the Patriots would beat the Texans on Sunday. You, me, Dan Shaughnessy, Tom E. Curran and everyone else. Sure, there were the usual (though not particularly well-represented) contrarians and the idea that anything can happen in any game (as we sure learned Saturday night -- and has anyone located John Fox's testicles yet?), but the outcome of Patriots-Texans II seemed as certain as a playoff game could be. 

And it happened. It wasn't as brutal as the Monday night destruction, but the takeaway still was clear enough: The Texans don't belong on the same field as the Patriots. Tom Brady -- 640 yards, seven TDs and zero INTs in two games vs. Houston this season -- owns Wade Phillips, plain and simple. There were other factors, of course, but there are your the headlines -- there was no answer for Tom Brady's brilliance and the Texans are not (and I suspect this group as currently constituted will never be) ready for anything approaching prime time.

Now, the Ravens? Well, the Ravens are different. 

Look, I kicked dirt all over the Ravens about a month ago, seconds after they lost their third straight game (to the Broncos) and were 9-5 on the season. That's how we do it, right? Instant overreaction. Age and injuries, I figured, had finally caught up. I think we all very quickly moved them over to the Have Not side of the table and resumed trying to figure out which team would present the biggest challenge to Brady and Belichick's attempt to get to a sixth Super Bowl.

Would it be Houston, with J.J. Watt and Matt Schaub and Arian Foster and Andre Johnson? Or maybe the Colts, Chuck Strong and Andrew Luck and the whiff of destiny? But almost certainly it would be the Broncos and Peyton Manning, right in the middle of an 11-game winning streak and the ever-increasing likelihood of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Turns out it was the Ravens. And the Ravens, unlike the Texans, are dangerous. They will and should be a decided underdog this weekend (if you care, the early returns have the Patriots a nine to 10-point favorite), but there is a belief here that the Patriots could lose this football game.  

The Ravens finished the regular season at 10-6, but were at one point 9-2 and viewed by many if not most as the first or second-best team in the AFC, a very live Super Bowl contender. Now this team is healthy -- or as healthy as you'll be at this time of the year, I suppose -- and they are that team again.

Since that loss to Denver, they beat the Giants -- in a game the Giants absolutely had to have, and probably you know the Giants are kind of pesky in that spot -- 33-14, putting up 533 yards of offense, lost to the Bengals in a Week 17 game that meant nothing, playoff-wise, to either team and handled the Colts at home in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

Oh, and there was Saturday's overtime win at Denver, which is only one of the half dozen or so most dramatic games in the history of the NFL. 

This isn't the time or place (well, it's the place, I guess, but really not the time) to second or 722,888nd guess John Fox or figure out what another one and done (and another lousy weather playoff loss) in the postseason means to the legacy of Peyton Manning (hint: He's pretty much cemented his spot behind Brady on the all-time list -- something remarkable would have to happen) so let's focus on the Ravens, what had to have been the franchise's greatest non-Super Bowl victory and what it might (or might not) mean on Sunday at Gillette. 

First, second and third, Joe Flacco. I've always been on the fence, looked at him as good if just not good enough, but let's be fair: This is a guy who went into New England last year and outplayed Tom Brady (look it up -- Flacco was 22-of-36 for 306 yards, two TDs and a pick and Brady was also 22-of-36 but with just 239 yards, zero TDs and two picks) in an AFC title game and this year went into sub-zero weather in Denver and significantly outplayed Peyton Manning in a divisional round game. That's fairly high cotton. Flacco will never be Brady or Manning on a historical level, but we've seen enough from him over the last year to know he is only too capable of playing well enough to not just win in this kind of game, but to actually lead his team to that win. 

Flacco did it on Saturday -- forget the miracle throw to Jacoby Jones, magnificent as it was, my favorite was the floater to Dennis Pitta from out of the end zone on 3rd-and-13 in overtime, just a great, great throw -- and were it not for a terrific defensive play by Sterling Moore on Lee Evans he very likely would have done it last year in the AFC Title Game at Gillette. Matt Schaub was never going to beat Tom Brady but Joe Flacco definitely could (in fact, he already did this year, throwing for 382 yards and three TDs in the 31-30 Baltimore Week 3 win over the Patriots).  

The quarterback is the main reason I give the Ravens a real chance, but Flacco was the quarterback of this team during the losing streak, a streak that led to Flacco's offensive coordinator losing his job. So Flacco isn't the only reason this is a different team than it was five weeks ago. There is also the defense. Yes, we all are all readying to vomit at the endless Ray Lewis ball-washing stories in the media (is he coming back next year?) and I wouldn't mind someone asking Ray if God might be able to help him remember where he put that white suit (think Chris Berman might do the honors?), but I thought he was almost close to vintage at times in the Denver game. Terrell Suggs (10 tackles, two sacks on Saturday) is back, Ed Reed is Ed Reed, there is always Haloti Ngata and I think Paul Kruger is now their best defensive player. That's a formidable group and all are healthy (again, as healthy as they'll get) and will on the field Sunday.

And in games that mattered over the last month -- remember, Ray Rice was limited (three carries) in that Bengals game and Ngata, Suggs and Lewis were inactive -- the Ravens defense has held the Giants to 14 points, the Colts to nine points and the Broncos to 21 points (two special teams TDs) in five-plus quarters. 

They have the quarterback, they have the defense, they have winning experience in the postseason against this team in the building (wiping out just a little of the mystique of the Patriots in the process) they will play in on Sunday. The Ravens probably believe they should have beat the Patriots again in the playoffs last year and they've already defeated them this year. They won't play scared, they won't coach scared and they won't have to worry about Rob Gronkowski (or, perhaps, Chandler Jones or Danny Woodhead).

Here come the Ravens, again. And, unlike the Texans, they've got a real chance to end this season for the Patriots. Again.