Ravens are the AFC's gathering threat in playoff race

— -- BALTIMORE -- As limited as they seemed on offense, the more aesthetically pleasing side of the ball, the Baltimore Ravens always figured to be a problem in the AFC. They still have a defense that is no fun to play against, and they still have a coach and a quarterback who have proven they can win the Super Bowl.

But now that New England Patriots tight end? Rob Gronkowski is out for the year, turning the conference tournament into something of a jump ball, the Ravens have officially evolved into a gathering threat. Start with their history in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the most likely site of the upcoming AFC Championship Game and the scene of Baltimore's next stop on Monday Night Football.

John Harbaugh's Ravens have won two playoff games in Foxborough, and they nearly won two others. Over the summer, after considering his relative success against New England while reading a MassLive.com ranking of the 25 biggest villains in Patriots history, Harbaugh decided he wasn't happy with his spot at No. 19.

"I think that's a little low," he told ESPN.com. "I plan on making that higher in the future."

He can start working on that next week. Harbaugh laughed when reminded of that comment after his team shredded the Dolphins and their six-game winning streak, but declined to add to it. The Ravens coach did stop outside his locker room to bat away the suggestion that the Gronk injury has opened a window of opportunity for some second-tier hopefuls in the AFC.

"I just think they've got a great team," Harbaugh said of the Patriots. "They've got Tom Brady. They've been the best team in the conference, and it's going to be our toughest challenge of the year."

No, a single 38-6 beatdown of a Miami team that wasn't as good as its winning streak suggested doesn't change the fact Baltimore has too many issues running the ball and too many receivers who have seen their 30th birthdays, including one, Steve Smith Sr., who started his career around the advent of the forward pass. But in the post-Gronk AFC, everybody is vulnerable and nobody with a defense, a coach, a kicker ( Justin Tucker has made 35 consecutive field-goal attempts) and a quarterback can be counted out.

Joe Flacco did a good job showing people Sunday why he remains the quarterback, and a pretty damn good one, by completing 36 of 47 passes for 381 yards and four touchdowns before taking an early seat. When Flacco threw for three scores and 258 yards in the first half, building the Ravens a 24-0 lead, he reminded everyone (Ray Lewis included) that he was a Super Bowl MVP and a quarterback capable of pitching a perfect postseason game (11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions in that 2012 championship run). Lewis had blitzed Flacco from the blind side last month by assailing his supposedly passion-free approach to his craft before the retired linebacker tweeted his videotaped apology to the active quarterback.

No blood, no foul. Flacco has never shown the demonstrative fire of, say, Brady, but there's a reason he has won 10 postseason games and 30 more regular-season games than he has lost. Flacco is the AFC's answer to Eli Manning -- a stoic who's a very good-but-not-great quarterback from September through December, and a fearless and opportunistic winner in January and the first week of February.

Manning was the MVP of two Super Bowls four years apart, and before you start laughing over the possibility that Flacco could perform the same trick, remember that the 2011 Giants were 7-7 before ripping off six consecutive victories and seizing ring No. 2. At 7-5 and leading the AFC North, Baltimore has won four of five; its only loss came to Dallas, only the best team in the sport. Flacco completed passes to 10 different receivers Sunday, and he was so hot that he actually threw for 91 yards on a remarkable 18-play, 88-yard touchdown drive (a Smith penalty allowed him the statistical oddity).

"We go as he goes," Smith said of his quarterback.

Flacco might've called his best audible of the week when he jumped his offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg in a meeting about becoming more aggressive with his playcalling, a take-that poke at Lewis and all others who have doubted the quarterback's inner fire. Mornhinweg agreed to open things up, and Flacco honored the coordinator's faith by throwing touchdown passes on Baltimore's first two drives.

The rest of the day amounted to fast-break basketball for the home team, and a whole lot of half-court breakdowns for the visitors. The Dolphins were overwhelmed by a Baltimore defense that isn't as ferocious as the franchise standard -- the 2000 Ravens who obliterated the Giants in the Super Bowl -- but is better than the 2012 defense that won it all and almost all of Baltimore's Marvin Lewis/Rex Ryan units.

Their current coordinator, Dean Pees, also gives the Ravens a competitive edge that can't be dismissed -- Pees spent two years coaching New England's linebackers and four years running its defense. In other words, he has a pretty good idea of how to defend Brady.

But the Ravens didn't want to spend too much time Sunday talking about defense; they've been doing that for years and years. They wanted to talk about offense, finally, and a breakout performance that breathes new life into their postseason hopes and dreams.

"I think it gives the guys a lot of confidence to see it and have done it," Flacco said. "Now we have to go up into a hostile place in New England that we really enjoying playing [at]. ... I'm looking forward to it, big time."

So is the head coach. Harbaugh had a much better day than his kid brother Jim, whose Michigan Wolverines were denied a bid to college football's final four. John went 2-for-2 on fourth-down gambles in the first half, and felt good enough about the performance to gesture to the crowd for more noise in the fourth quarter, with victory already assured.

Harbaugh needed this one to set up the next one. He hasn't seen the Patriots since they used a Julian Edelman touchdown pass to Danny Amendola, and all that hocus pocus with ineligible and eligible receivers, to overcome two 14-point deficits in the playoffs two years ago. Harbaugh is still upset over the way the refs officiated that game and those formations, and he told ESPN.com before the season he was "pissed off" over Brady's postgame remark that Baltimore should "study the rulebook and figure it out," a remark the Ravens coach described as "uncalled for."

So that's one reason why Harbaugh wants to become a higher-ranked Patriots villain in the near future. If nothing else, this Ravens team might be good enough to move him up the charts.