Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Here's what you want to know more than anything else after the Ravens ugly 13-7 win over the hapless Cincinnati Bengals Sunday: Where in God's name was the offense?
How could the Ravens, with all their supposed offensive weapons, manage just one touchdown and two Billy Cundiff field goals against a Bengals defense ranked 19th in the league?
How could a team looking to build momentum for the playoffs seem so inept moving the ball against a Cincinnati team that did a complete nosedive (4-12) in the standings that will probably cost its classy coach, Marvin Lewis, his job?
Good questions, all of them.
The problem is, I don't have any answers. And what makes it even more troubling is this: the Ravens didn't seem to have any answers after Sunday's game, either.
"I don't know — I don't have much to say," wide receiver Anquan Boldin said of the team's offensive struggles. "It was just one of those days."
"Offensively, I'm disappointed with some of the things we did," said Ravens coach John Harbaugh. "I'm a little bit frustrated with some of those things, but we have to find a way to win the next game."
Translation: They better fire up the coffee pot and lay into a couple of cases of Red Bull out at the Castle in Owings Mills. Because the Ravens coaches will be looking at so much film, trying to revive this offense, that they probably won't sleep all week.
The truth is, the Ravens will try to forget this stinker of a game in a hurry, a game they could have easily lost but didn't. And that's only because Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer fired a ball 10 feet over running back Cedric Peerman's head with 16 seconds left in the game and the Bengals facing a fourth-and-1 on the Ravens' 2-yard line.
This is how bad the Bengals were: They fumbled four times and lost three of them. And Palmer threw two interceptions, both picked off by safety Ed Reed, who amazed everyone in Ravens Nation by not attempting one of his trademark crazy laterals and making things even worse for the home team.
Given all that Cincy ineptitude, the Ravens knew they were lucky to come away with the win.
And so in the moments immediately following the game, they tried putting the best face they could on the victory, which was the PR equivalent of putting the proverbial lipstick on a pig.
"Going into the game, we had some momentum and we were fired up," said linebacker Terrell Suggs. "And then they made some plays and naturally that can crush momentum. But we got the W.
"We're definitely going to go back and look at the tape tomorrow and we're going to get our corrections made and get ready for these playoffs. First things first, 12 wins is 12 wins. If we were 4-12, you all would be writing exactly how terrible the Ravens are, but we got the 12 wins.
"By any means necessary, we got it done. This is the NFL. This is the highest level of football, and we won 12. So you can't take that away from that."
Sure, T-Sizzle is right. Twelve wins is 12 wins. And 12 wins is something for the Ravens to be proud of, no question about it.
But this team's stated goal from the beginning of training camp was to win the Super Bowl.
And when your offense manages only 199 net yards and scores only 13 points against a terrible team, that's not exactly the kind of momentum that gets you deep into the playoffs.
Sure, the Ravens have now made the playoffs three straight seasons under John Harbaugh. And they wind up as the AFC's no. 5 seed, with a first-round game against the Kansas City Chiefs next weekend.
But that's not enough for a team that spent a ton of Steve Bisciotti's money in the offseason trying to upgrade this offense.
And it's not enough for a team with so many hungry veterans in the twilight of their careers who sense this might be their last opportunity to win the only trophy that really matters to them.
"Why should we be proud if we make the playoffs?" said wide receiver Derrick Mason. "If you don't win the Super Bowl, nobody remembers you. It's good, in a sense, that you give yourself an opportunity to get to the Super Bowl.
"But if you lose in the first round, second round, AFC Championship game or the Super Bowl, no one remembers you. The only team that people remember are the guys holding up the Lombardi Trophy."
If the Ravens hope to do that, they better figure out a way to put points on the board.
And they better do it fast.
Listen to Kevin Cowherd Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with Jerry Coleman on Fox 1370 AM Sports.