Rested Ravens will try to shut down Texans

Baltimore’s Joe Flacco has his own slice of NFL history. He’s the only quarterback to reach the playoffs in each of his first four seasons.

He also has a chip on his shoulder about how he’s widely viewed as more of a game manager than a playmaker.

“You guys want everybody to be Aaron Rodgers and be Tom Brady, but you guys realize those [teams] don’t run the ball, right?” Flacco told reporters this week. “If we tried to do that, the criticism we’d take around here would be ridiculous. We could win eight games like that and we could lose one and you guys would be like, ‘What were you guys doing?’

“You guys have to remember that. If you guys want an elite quarterback, you have to stop complaining when we go out there and throw the ball 60 times a game, because that’s what elite quarterbacks do.”

Centered

Matt Birk knows the clock is winding down on his career, and the 35-year-old Ravens center understands there probably won’t be many more opportunities like this one, if any.

“Two out of my first three years in the league I went to the NFC championship game,” said Birk, who was with the Minnesota Vikings at the time and never reached the Super Bowl. “At that time, I probably didn’t know what it meant or just how precious is was. And I haven’t been back since.”

Ray Lewis is the only member of the team with a Super Bowl ring from the 2000 season.

“This is probably my best shot at it,” Birk said. “My first year we were 15-1. That team and this team are the two best I’ve ever been on. The last three years we’ve been kind of building to this point. I think we’ve gotten better each year. Somebody my age, I realize this is probably my last and best shot at it.”

Two-timing

Houston’s Arian Foster ran for 153 yards in his playoff debut last weekend, trampling Cincinnati for a pair of touchdowns in the 31-10 victory.

A good game Sunday would put Foster in the running for most rushing yards in a player’s first two postseason games.

When the Texans played at Baltimore last season, Foster got a flattering compliment from Ravens All-Pro linebacker Lewis, who told him after a play: “I love the way you play this game. You have a very, very bright future.”

Foster told reporters this week that those comments were incredibly flattering.

“I was having a little success, but he didn’t have to do that, but he did it, and it was kind of surreal,” Foster said. “The whole game I was kind of just like, ‘Ray Lewis just said.’?”

The players with the most rushing yards in their first two postseason games in NFL history:

Player / Team / Year / Yards

Duane Thomas / Cowboys / 1970 / 278

Terrell Davis / Broncos / 1996, ’97 / 275

Eddie George / Titans / 1999 / 268

Shonn Greene / Jets / 2009 / 263

Fred Taylor / Jaguars / 1999 / 248

In the zone

Baltimore ranked first in the league this season in red-zone touchdown scoring average, giving up touchdowns 38.1% of the time when the opponent crossed the Ravens’ 20-yard line.

The Ravens allowed an AFC-low 16 touchdowns in the red zone, better than any team but San Francisco (14).

Opponent red-zone scoring in the 2011-12 season (includes red-zone drives, RZD; red-zone touchdowns, RZTD, and touchdown percentage):

Rank / Team / RZD / RZTD / Pct.

1 / Ravens / 42 / 16 / 38.1

2 / Cardinals / 58 / 23 / 39.7

3 / Browns / 49 / 20 / 40.8

4 / 49ers / 34 / 14 / 41.2

5 / Redskins / 57 / 25 / 43.9

Another view

NBC’s Cris Collinsworth: “To me this is the one that’s pretty easy. Houston is going to have to run the ball, obviously, with Arian Foster & Co., but [Ravens defenders] Haloti Ngata, Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed — all those guys with an extra week off — I expect to see them just flying around defensively, and their offense going almost strictly through Ray Rice running it and Joe Flacco passing it to him. I like Baltimore.”

By the numbers

How teams compare statistically. Stats are per-game averages, except for sacks and turnover differential, which are for season (league rank in parentheses):

Category / Texans / Ravens

Points scored / 23.8 (10) / 23.6 (12)

Points allowed / 17.4 (4) / 16.6 (3)

Pass offense / 219.1 (18) / 213.9 (19)

Rush offense / 153.0 (2) / 124.8 (10)

Pass defense / 189.7 (3) / 196.2 (4)

Rush defense / 96 (4) / 92.6 (2)

Sacks / 44 (6) / 48 (3)

Penalties / 6.2 (13) / 5.8 (9)

Turnovers / +7 (7) / +2 (12)

Farmer’s pick

The Ravens have the league’s second-best run defense, and that will come in handy against Houston. It’s a tall order for Texans rookie quarterback T.J. Yates to win with the pass on the road. If Baltimore can put the clamps on Houston’s ground game, the Ravens will advance. Ravens 20, Texans 13.