The blame for Ravens 28, Patriots 13, begins and ends with Tom Brady, the worst quarterback on the field Sunday (no, I'm not counting Ryan Mallet) and, in fact, the worst quarterback in either game on Sunday. And it wasn't even close.

Brady isn't alone, of course, there were other plot twists and characters in the loss -- you can blame the injury to Aqib Talib, which seemed to instantly turn the secondary back into the mediocre group that needed Talib in the first place (Steve Gregory, Marquice Cole and Kyle Arrington were particularly brutal in the second half).

You can blame the third-down, third-quarter drop by Wes Welker at the Baltimore 34-yard line with the Patriots up 13-7 and driving, the kind of catch that Welker (or any NFL receiver, really) makes 99.9999 percent of the time. Bill Belichick elected to punt on fourth-and-8 (no problem with that move -- into the wind and the Ravens had done zilch offensively to that point), the Ravens took over at their own 13 and went on an 87-yard touchdown drive to take a lead they would never relinquish. 

You can blame whomever it was that decided to wake up Jim Caldwell and tell him a) Talib was out of the game and b) the forward pass is in fact allowed in the NFL.

You can blame Bernard Pollard, again a game-changer vs. the Patriots with a pair of crushing hits on Welker and Stevan Ridely, the latter knocking Ridley out and causing a fumble, which stopped a semi-promising drive and four plays later turned into an Anquan Boldin touchdown for the Ravens, pretty much putting this game away at 28-13.

You can always blame no Rob Gronkowski, though we were told by a great many folks in the media that this team had enough weapons to overcome the loss of the most productive tight end in the history of the league. It was strange, really, how minimized the angle was all week, as if Gronkowski was Daniel Fells and not the guy with 38 touchdowns in 43 career games. 

And, yes, feel free to blame God -- Ray Lewis told us again after the game that He was rooting for the upset, was pulling for David to knock off Goliath. I don't know God, but when is He going to start taking some criticism for watching eight hours of football on Sunday while the hostage siege in Algeria continues?

But the real takeaway was the struggles of Brady -- coming off of another terrific MVP-caliber season and brilliant effort last week against the Texans -- once again in the postseason, an occurrence that was unimaginable back in 2004 but one that has become an annual event over the last seven years. 

Look it up: Save for the 2008 season (obviously, as we say hello to Mr. Pollard again), Brady has submitted at least one stinker in each postseason. And for the third time in three playoff games, he was lousy against the Ravens on Sunday. 

The Patriots scored zero points in the second half on Sunday, as Brady threw a pair of interceptions and had three passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage (he had four total for the game). In that second half Brady was 15-for-30 for 181 yards, with no touchdowns and the two interceptions (for the game he was 29-for-54 for 320 yards -- the Patriots threw the ball 54 times and ran it 28 times against a Ravens defense that has been awful vs. the rush this season, so while we're at it let's hand some of that blame to Josh McDaniels).

The interceptions were costly, clearly, but there were also passes thrown behind receivers and skipped balls in front of Aaron Hernandez and Brandon Lloyd. And this wasn't just in the second half -- Brady was never really in that groove we saw against the Texans and so many other times this season (including against the Ravens in Week 3). The Patriots were in the red zone four times and came out with only one touchdown (and 13 points, plus a Brady pick), while the Ravens scored four TDs on their four trips. 

And I'm still not sure what Brady was or wasn't thinking at the end of the first half -- after running and sliding (with his spikes high against Ed Reed -- a clearly intentional move that will deservedly earn Brady a fine) down at the Baltimore 7-yard line with 20 seconds left in the second quarter, Brady let the clock run all the way down to four seconds before Belichick called a timeout. Not enough time remained to take a shot at the end zone and maybe grab a 17-7 lead at halftime; instead Stephen Gostkowski's 25-yard field goal marked the final points of the game for the Patriots. It was a Level 5 brain lock from Brady. If Mark Sanchez does the same thing in that spot he'd (rightfully) be blasted for his lack of clock management and general awareness. 

Now, Brady is not Mark Sanchez. He is one of the two or three greatest quarterbacks in history (sorry, Joe Montana has a very, very firm grip on the top spot and I don't think that title is ever going to be passed to Brady) and the window isn't closed for more Super Bowls and 5,000-yard seasons and MVPs. But let's be fair -- in the last six years Brady has lost playoff games to Eli Manning (twice), Joe Flacco (twice) and, yes, Mark Sanchez. In each of those losses he has been outplayed by the opposing quarterback, sometimes dramatically, with Sunday as a screaming example.

When we start sorting out legacies and who goes where and why, that stuff should matter. Brady's greatness is not in question, but the numbers are the numbers -- the Patriots have scored 14, 14, 21, 17 and 13 points in their last five playoff losses, and Brady has a total of eight touchdowns and seven interceptions in those games. 

Put it another way: In Brady's first 10 playoff games he had a 10-0 record with a 14-3 TD/INT ratio. In his last 14 playoff games he is 7-7 with 28 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. On its own, the last 14 playoff games are still impressive -- you are talking about two Super Bowl appearances and four trips to the AFC title game with a more-than-acceptable TD/INT ratio. But, in some ways, he's a victim of his own staggering early success. If we are going to be fair, though, Brady was judged only by his wins during the Super Bowl years. That was the reason we all put him above Peyton Manning. Now, as he plays poorly in another playoff game, don't we have to look at the losses? Isn't that being consistent?

And no excuses this time. All I heard this week was how old and slow the Ravens were on defense, how every single matchup favored the Patriots, how an extra playoff game plus 77 minutes in high altitude in Denver would equal a cooked Baltimore defense, how the up-tempo Patriots would be impossible to stop. 

Wrong. It turns out that Joe Flacco, not Tom Brady, was the best quarterback on the field on Sunday. It was Flacco, a good but not great quarterback, who led the Ravens up and down the field as Brady and the Patriots submitted a 30-minute buffet of three-and-outs and turnovers. It was Flacco, not Brady, who took advantage of matchups and made the throws that needed to be made. 

And so it's Joe Flacco, not Tom Brady, who will be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl in 13 days. And when you're right in the middle of the seemingly endless, always-nauseating barrage of stories about Ray Lewis and the Harbaugh brothers until kickoff in New Orleans, you'll know exactly who to blame.