One of the great things about sport — at least for me — is the way it lends itself to ridiculous hyperbole, like the way Saturday's showdown between the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers has been compared this week to the biblical battle of Armageddon.
The final battle between good and evil? Really?
No, not really, though it's tempting to cast it that way when you're talking about an opponent as aggravating as the Steelers and a game at Heinz Field that means, well, just about everything to the Ravens.
There is all the rivalry stuff, of course, and there is the actual football significance of the matchup, which I believe is going to determine whether the Ravens march all the way to the Super Bowl and win the Lombardi Trophy.
You see, while John Harbaugh and the Ravens are taking the playoffs one big game at a time and certainly would never think of considering what comes after, it is this game that will either end the Ravens' postseason run or release all of their demons upon the rest of the playoff field.
The Steelers, once again, may turn out to be a bridge too far, but if they don't stop the Ravens, I don't think anybody else will. Not the New England Patriots. Not the New York Jets. Not the Atlanta Falcons or Green Bay Packers.
If Ben Roethlisberger gets enough time to do what he does best and Troy Polamalu makes it onto the highlight reel again, we can all get on with our lives and make our travel plans for spring training. If Joe Flacco and the Ravens defense look like they did against the Kansas City Chiefs, we're going to be deep in the heart of Texas in early February.
Book it.
The Steelers are a big, physical team that obviously matches up evenly against the Ravens, if their two regular-season meetings were any indication. They split both games by a combined score of 27-27. The oddsmakers have the Steelers favored by about a field goal, but that basically accounts for the home-field advantage.
Flip a coin.
What happens next is another story. If the Ravens win and go to Foxborough to face the Patriots, you've got to like their chances a lot better, even though the Pats came from behind to beat them there in overtime during the regular season.
The Ravens dominated the Patriots a year ago in the first round of the playoffs and were very much in control of this year's game for the first three quarters. Their 10-point collapse in the fourth quarter — and some similar end-of-game issues later in the season — gave rise to the notion that they could not finish, but they have not let a game get away since the painful loss to the Steelers in early December.
The Patriots had the best record in the AFC and earned their place at the top of the playoff seedings with the league's top-scoring offense, but the Ravens should be able to handle them if they can take care of the ball. The Patriots scored a ton of points, but that was in part because they were far-and-away the best team in football when it came to turnover ratio (+28) this year.
OK, on paper, the Patriots look like the better team and they would be playing at home, but let's leave it at this: If you put Tom Brady on the box and asked him which team he absolutely doesn't want to face, trust me, he would say the Ravens.
Of course, everybody in Baltimore is rooting for a rematch with the Jets, for obvious reasons. That's the only way the Ravens could get back to M&T Bank Stadium, and who wouldn't want to see another well-hyped matchup against Rex Ryan and the team the Ravens beat on the road in their regular season opener on "Monday Night Football?'
In that case, the Ravens would be a clear favorite to win the AFC title game and go to the Super Bowl , where they would figure to match up pretty well against just about anybody who comes out of the NFC.
All they have to do is beat the Steelers.
That's all.
Listen to Peter Schmuck on WBAL (1090 AM) at noon Fridays and Saturdays and check out his blog, "The Schmuck Stops Here," at baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog.