Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots

Conference Championships: Baltimore Ravens travel to face New England Patriots, one win from a Super Bowl berth. Kickoff: Sun January 22, 2012. Winner advances to the Super Bowl. Loser carries one of the year's hardest what-ifs into the offseason.[1][2]

Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots in the Conference Championships, with a Super Bowl berth on the line. The conference title round is the one that turns nameplates into legacy. For New England Patriots, the home crowd at the venue is asked to be a player; for Baltimore Ravens, the road environment is supposed to be the test that breaks lesser teams. Coaches will lean on what worked all year. Players will lean on what their bodies have left in them.

Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots have outlasted everyone else in their conference. One walks out of the venue with the conference title; the other walks out with a brutal what-if. Around the league, coaches are watching tape on both staffs for next year's prep. Every Super Bowl-bound team starts the offseason as the team to beat.

Baltimore Ravens versus New England Patriots in the Conference Championships. The teams who reach this round have already proven they survive a long schedule; the stats that matter most now are the ones that compress: scoring differential, red-zone efficiency, turnover margin. At this stage of the year, the simple math is that defenses tighten and the team that protects the ball wins more often than the team that scores the most. Whichever side of Baltimore Ravens-New England Patriots cleans up the careless plays first usually walks out with the result. Conservative-game expectations should not surprise the reader; both staffs know exactly what worked all season and will lean hard on what travels. The early answer is the kicking game, where any swing of field position compounds.