If there was a team in the NFL no one else wants to play right now, I think you’d have to assume it’s the Baltimore Ravens. If I was a coach I wouldn’t want to put together the game plan that attempts to beat the Ravens stout defense. Minutes removed from defeating the Tennessee Titans on the road and a week after drilling the white hot Miami Dolphins in Florida, no team is gaining momentum quite like the Baltimore Ravens.

Unlike other hot teams in the postseason, the Ravens have a great defense. And beyond that, there’s an offense that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, led by a rookie quarterback who is playing very un-rookie-like.

Said Joe Flacco after the Ravens victory over Tennessee, “I’ve played 18 games or 19 now … you’re not really a rookie anymore.” He sure doesn’t look like a rookie when he’s on the field. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that his teammates constantly have his back and are there to support him all the time.

“Joe Flacco, yeah, a rookie,” said Ray Lewis in an interview with Warren Sapp. “Rookies only get caught if everything is put on their shoulders. Everything ain’t on his shoulders. It’s just gonna be, ‘Joe, we got you.’ That’s what I tell him all the time.”

But Baltimore doesn’t just avoid turnovers and crucial mistakes; the offense can also put up points. Perhaps it isn’t as electrifying as, say, the New Orleans Saints, but the Ravens offense does quietly average 24 points per game, thanks in no small part to its fourth ranked running game. Though it got off to a slow start and never really attained an outstanding per carry average, the Ravens’ three-headed monster consisting of Willis McGahee, Le’Ron McClain, and Ray Rice rushed for 2,027 yards during the regular season. It helped define the Ravens’ ball-control offense, which ran 1,058 plays (2nd) and controlled possession for 33 minutes per game (1st) during the regular season.

Of course, the real strength of this team is the defense. Allowing opponents just 1.11 points per drive (1st), or 15.2 points per game, during the regular season, the defense has exceeded those numbers in the postseason. The Miami Dolphins scored just nine points in the first round and against the Tennessee Titans, the defense, led by Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, allowed just 10 points. Both opposing offenses averaged at least 21 points per game during the season.

And though home field advantage receives a lot of hype leading up to the postseason, does is bother Ray Lewis his team will be playing on the road in every playoff game? Uh, no.

Because the Ravens defense is offered a lot of free reign to adjust on the field and during the game, communication is a necessity. Most fans understand it’s difficult to communicate on the field when it’s loud in a stadium, so a home crowd will usually scream and cheer at the top of its lungs when an opposing offense is on the field because it’s difficult for the quarterback to audible or for the offense to communicate. Unfortunately, it’s a two-sided coin and there are times when the defense is affected, too.

“A lot of times people don’t realize we play better on the road,” said Lewis in his interview with Sapp, whoechoed the sentiment by commenting, “they say defense travels well.”

The Ravens defense has traveled very well in the postseason, so it should come as no surprise the leader of the team is still Ray Lewis, the vocal linebacker who leads by inspiring his teammates and setting a strong example by giving everything he has on every down to defeat whatever opponent is on the field, any given week.

“Somebody is challenging our manhood. And if they can tell you that and I’m your leader, I’ll show you what I’m willing to do, first, and then see if you can follow me from there.” So far the Ravens have followed him to the AFC Championship game. Now every team fears Lewis’s teammates will follow him two more games to a Super Bowl victory.

The Baltimore Ravens are off to a 2-1 start under head coach Jim Harbaugh and with a rookie quarterback steering the offense. The bad news? Because their scheduled game against the Texans was canceled (to be played later this year), the Ravens are now in the middle of a 15 game stretch without rest. How will they deal with it? Well, this is a recap of how they’ve played so far.

1. The Ravens have the best defense in the NFL. Period. They’ve shut down - absolutely shut down - three offenses this season. They rank 1st in passing yards allowed (opponents have passed for an average of 117 per game), 2nd in rushing yards allowed (69.7), and the team that is closest to them in terms of total yards allowed per game, Pittsburgh, allows 50 yards more per week (Baltimore allows just 186.7 per game).

2. The one key category the Ravens don’t rank first in, points per game allowed, they rank second. That’s partly because the Steelers defense scored a touchdown week four and week one the Bengals defense scored a touchdown the same way, on a fumble taken for six. Barring those two touchdowns, the Ravens have held offenses to 3, 10, and 16 points this season. Average: 9.6 points per game. The NFL’s best defense allows more than 11.

3. Still not convinced? Consider this: the Ravens have held offenses to a total of two touchdowns. Two! No other defense can claim to allow an average of less than one per game. Or how about this: when an opponent has possession of the ball, it can expect to gain less than 14 yards per drive. That’s what the Ravens have allowed this season. Only two other teams allow less than 20.

4. Okay, I have one more number for you: 0.54. That’s how many points opponents score per drive. That means an opposing offense needs, on average, more than 37 drives in a game to score 20 points. Only one other team in the NFL allows less than one point per drive.

5. Fine, one more defensive stat, but then it’s on to the offense, okay? The Ravens have had the leading passer, rusher, and receiver in each of their first three games (in terms of yards), except one in which T.J. Houshmandzadeh led. Now, that might sound like an offensive stat. But first consider: Joe Flacco passed for 129, 129, and 192 yards in those games; Le’Ron McClain rushed 86, 66, and 63 yards; and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, when he led for the game, had 44 receiving yards. Unbelievable.

6. On to the offense: Joe Flacco can play. He doesn’t post great numbers - he’s thrown for more than 129 yards in one game this season (at Pittsburgh, no less) and he’s made some rookie mistakes (not protecting the ball, mostly) but he’s also looked calm and collected in the pocket. Keep an eye on him as the season progresses: all he needs to do is not lose the game for the Ravens; that defense can win it.

7. Flacco got his first touchdown pass of the season Monday Night. Interestingly, the Ravens defense has scored as many touchdowns this season (interception returned for a touchdown).

8. This offense’s strength lies in the running game. Though the team hasn’t had a standout running back up to this point in the season (Le’Ron McClain of all people has led the team in every game), the Ravens have run the fooball almost 60 percent of the time and, as a result, the team is third in the NFL in rushing yards per game. Six of the offense’s seven touchdowns are also attributed to the running game.

9. That doesn’t mean the running game has been perfect, though. Not at all, in fact. The reason the team ranks so high in yards per game is due mostly to sheer volume. The Ravens rank 18th in the NFL in yard per rush average, with a 3.9.

10. The Ravens don’t punt a lot (they rank 8th in the NFL in punts per drive), but there’s a pretty logical explanation for that: they turn the ball over a lot. They average .174 turnovers per drive, or just a little more often than one turnover every six drives. That puts them at 30th in the NFL.

10.