Ravens defensive lineman Pernell McPhee analyzed the problem with the team’s vulnerability to the run this way: "If you see the Baltimore Ravens, what are you going to do? Run the ball. Until we do something to stop it, that's what we're going to get."

Maybe McPhee doesn’t realize just how much of a pickle this issue potentially is for the Ravens. The defense ranks 30th in the NFL against the run. That does not put you in the playoffs. And we don’t just mean that in a philosophical sense. As Casey Stengel or a presidential debater might say, you can look it up.

In the past 20 years, only one team has finished the season ranked No. 30 (or its equivalent when there were fewer teams in the league) against the run and made the playoffs — the 2003 Chiefs. Those were the offensively dynamic Chiefs of Priest Holmes running for over 1,400 yards and scoring 27 touchdowns, Trent Green topping 4,000 yards passing, Holmes and Tony Gonzalez with more than 70 receptions each. And then losing in their first playoff game.

Is that the kind of profile these Ravens want to emulate, even if they could? Not very likely. As the record shows, you can’t be that bad against the run and expect to win.