You do it every season. You wait for minutes like this.

You watch it come down to one drop. You lose you mind when that’s followed up with a missed kick. You are left with one case of insanely devastating frostbite that they haven’t found an over the counter remedy for your discomfort.

You are a Ravens fan. You dyed your hair purple (and maybe that wasn’t the best idea). You have a collection of beads that makes you look like you just got back from Mardi Gras. You just enjoy the team on a Sunday afternoon with some beverages and friends. You are going through a frenzied twelve-step program that seemingly has no end in sight. You don’t want to watch a second of the Super Bowl, a goal you were thirty seconds away of accomplishing on a cold day in New England.

You got Tom Brady, a man who should be in the Hall of Fame right now, to admit that he sucked against your defense. You know he did.  You saw Brady have a rushing touchdown, the score that put New England in Indianapolis, but he couldn’t solve the riddle that Chuck Pagano threw at him. You witnessed Brady looking rattled at times on a game plan that showcased the Patriots run.

You were on the doorstep of another trip to the Super Bowl. You can put up with the fans who hop along the bandwagon every postseason. You know these people, they are the folks who don’t know a fumble from a first down. You know they are good-natured fans, but you don’t want to hear that Billy Cundiff tried real hard when he missed a chip shot for a college kicker. You don’t want to hear people scream touchdown when the back judge signals incomplete to a journeyman wide receiver who can’t come up with a sure touchdown. You certainly don’t want to hear someone pointing fingers at Cam Cameron or Joe Flacco.

You know football is a game of chance. You know the Ravens were in the best position they’ve been under John Harbaugh to make the most important game of the season. You know they blew it.

You already can’t wait for next season.

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The Ravens continue their road to Indianapolis in Foxborough, Massachusetts this weekend for a shot at the Lamar Hunt trophy. Baltimore has one of these in its trophy case, a 2001 beatdown of the Oakland Raiders on the west coast that led to a Super Sunday in Tampa. Eleven years later, the team looks for a bookend.

Ray Lewis, the face of the franchise, has a shot to become a two-time World Champion. That’s more important that the other numbers that stick out in bold font. He’s made 13 Pro Bowls, ten All-Pro teams and won the defensive player of the year honor twice. That’s like getting a Honda for Christmas. It’s nice, but you’d rather have the Lexus. Lewis will make the Hall of Fame and go down as one of the greatest players to put on a uniform. Man, would he love another taste of a Lombardi Trophy.

Joe Flacco and Ray Rice both entered the league in 2008. In their fourth season, the consistent quarterback and fantasy football king of a running back have put it all together. Both have helped their team win and lose critical postseason games on the road. They know it’s their time now. The window is closing.

The season will end with one team hoisting the Lombardi trophy. Eight quarters remain.  In the words of the venerable sportscaster Dick Enberg, “Oh my!”

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It won’t last longer than three hours and will exist primarily on the ground.

It’ll be boring, full of running plays and seemingly dull.

Nobody said the road to Indianapolis was pretty. This Sunday’s game against the Texans will be a dream matchup for those who find exploding scoreboards collegiate. It’ll be low scoring, an absolute ware between two premier running backs who will want to show up at the most important time of the year.

The Houston Texans enter the divisional round of the playoffs with something the Ravens don’t have this season – a playoff win. Houston also has better regular season numbers in total offense, total defense and points per game. That means little in January, but it does mean that Ravens fans booking trips to the AFC title game should make sure they are refundable in advance.

There’s no automatic cakewalk in the NFL playoffs. Our friends in western Pennsylvania knows this all too well.

Baltimore has never lost to Houston. They are undefeated at home this season. The majority of the numbers favor the Ravens, as does Las Vegas.

It’s going to be a war on Sunday against the Texans. Just not through the air.

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The number one team in the country entered a neutral site game in its home state and couldn’t score one point.

In 35 bowl games this postseason, every team scored at least ten points.

Every team except for the LSU Tigers.

“We couldn’t sustain any consistency,” LSU head coach Les Miles said after the 21-0 dismantling on Monday night. “The calls became much more difficult.”

Miles and his team did one of two things as conference play dragged into bowl season: they didn’t practice hard or they didn’t take Alabama seriously. One way or the other, the Crimson Tide put on an impressive show of defensive pride and incredible determination.

They weren’t going to lose on Monday night.

“The whole defense is the MVP,” Courtney Upshaw (the defensive MVP of the BCS National Championship game) said. “The whole defense. Roll Tide, baby. Roll Tide!”

In my job, you aren’t supposed to root for a team. My job is to provide the viewer or reader with factual information and let them decide what to think of the game. Monday night was personal. I said to anyone who would listen that this LSU team was the most enjoyable, exciting and fantastic football team I’ve had the pleasure of watching in my entire life. I’m 32 years old and I’ve watched a lifetime worth of football. The Tigers gameplay made me smile during the game. For the first 13 games of the season, LSU couldn’t make a mistake. And if they did, they would pounce on it and make you forget about it. There were that good.

That’s all washed away after a dull, listless and pathetic performance against a quality team like the Crimson Tide in the Superdome. LSU knew they were beat in the third quarter. That’s why Miles didn’t go to Jarrett Lee to replace the highly ineffective Jordan Jefferson. Sometimes, the game moves too quickly and you get lost in it. You stand stunned on the sideline and can’t believe you have no shot to take home another crystal ball.

Sometimes, the other team is just too damn good.

Get ready for the rematch on Wednesday night in college basketball in Tuscaloosa. Let’s see if LSU can score a point.

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“This year takes on a different character for the Ravens than the last three years,” head coach John Harbaugh said at his Monday press conference after the Ravens 24-16 win over Cincinnati on Sunday. ” But right now, this is the most special – this is the one we’re in. This is the one we had the high hopes for.”

You and the rest of the state, John.

Purple lights have replaced white ones as we transition from Christmas into the postseason. Football acts as a more religious experience to some compared to the holiday season. After all, this team has a legitimate shot to bring back its second Lombardi trophy.

“We have an opportunity to take advantage of the week that we haven’t had in the past to try to improve ourselves. And that’s the plus of having a bye. That’s where you have a little bit of a leg up, plus you get a home game,” Harbaugh went on to say in his planned weekly meeting with the media.

The Ravens finished the regular season with an unblemished 8-0 record at M&T Bank Stadium. Baltimore even won both of its preseason games in the 2011 season, if you want to get technical. They have beaten three playoff teams at M&T this season (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh & Houston) and could get either the Steelers or the Texans next Sunday at home.

Baltimore only has two divisional wins in its short history as the Ravens. Both of them took place in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans, a team the Ravens couldn’t beat on the road in 2011. They’ve never won a home playoff game in the divisional round and have only won one home playoff game in franchise history – their first in 2000 against Denver.

Every season has a different feel to it and this year seems like it’s the Ravens year to remain without a loss at home.

First, the team needs an opponent. An unexpected week of rest and anticipation only amplifies the playoffs in Baltimore.

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The Baltimore Ravens can’t lose at home. On the road, you can’t figure them out. Baltimore has lost to Tennessee, Jacksonville, Seattle and San Diego on the road. They’ve looked terrible in all of those games. At home, they just find ways to win.

“I have never been perfect at home in 16 years of football. That’s amazing,” Ray Lewis said after the 20-14 win on Saturday. “As good of teams we’ve had here, we’ve always found (a way) to lose one or two here or there. I think this year we really made a focus on taking care at home. This is the result, us being able to go 8-0 and being able to be sitting where you want to sit at the end of the day.”

But where’s the focus on the road? It’s interesting – and not ironic – that a road test against a potential playoff team in Cincinnati on Sunday could give the Ravens a week off and the possibility of a number one seed and two home playoff games. If the Ravens beat Cincinnati, they are guaranteed a home playoff game and at least a two seed. Baltimore would need New England to lose against Buffalo for the road to Indianapolis to go through M&T Bank Stadium.

“We are at our best when we are at (home) and our fans are rocking. So we definitely need a home playoff game, by any means necessary,” Terrell Suggs exclaimed after the game on Christmas Eve.

So the Ravens have it all in front of them. Again. A chance for a week off. A shot at a home playoff game. A great chance of making the Super Bowl.

They just have to win on the road.

Buckle up.

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The Baltimore Ravens received a Christmas gift they’d rather return on Sunday. Thanks to a loss by the New York Jets, the Ravens made the playoffs for the fourth straight season under John Harbaugh. Fans got greedy. The lure of a home playoff game took control of the collective fan base.

And then the team stalled for sixty minutes. The San Diego Chargers, in a real must-win mode, beat the Ravens at whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it Stadium 34-14 on Sunday Night Football. (Qualcomm, in its infinite wisdom, changed the name of its stadium for ten days to Snapdragon. This aggravates producers who need to fill in graphics before a live show. Just sayin.)

As of my entry this morning, the Ravens can slide back into the number two seed if the San Francisco 49ers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the west coast on Monday Night Football. Baltimore’s lost control of its destiny – for a couple of hours. At this point, they just need a Harbaugh to win a primetime game this week.

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“If you believe,” Tebow said after his unbelievable win against Chicago, “then unbelievable things can sometimes be possible.”

I now believe in everything. The tooth fairy. Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny.

Tim Tebow’s run of seven wins and one loss as the signal caller for the Broncos took a team dead in the water and gave them more than a decent shot at a playoff berth. Tebow seemingly creates his own one-man show with 21 ancillary players on the field.

On Friday night, I watched a special on Tebow as he prepared for the NFL Draft after his senior season at the University of Florida. I don’t have a good judge of how much preparation a player puts into getting into prime condition. Tebow absolutely went nuts in his quest to become a professional quarterback. He doesn’t take shortcuts and doesn’t fake it. At one point in the documentary, Tebow looks at a still image from his final season with the Gators and breaks down the play where every receiver ends up on that route. About half of football players can do this. Tebow just sells it better than any other player.

Tim Tebow is a person we all want to become.

Make all the jokes you want, but Tebow has never been arrested, never been in trouble and acts like a model citizen on and off the field.

“It’s not Tebow Time,” Tebow said after the Bears win. “It’s Broncos Time.”

Boy, is it ever.

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That’s not happening at Reitz Arena.

The best team in the state of Maryland, the Loyola Greyhounds, continues to pile up wins. Currently, the best team in the MAAC boasts a six-game win streak including a pair of conference wins to kick off a season that could end in the tournament.

Nine other programs in college basketball still look for the first win of the season. Three of those teams are Maryland schools. UMBC and Morgan play an insane non-conference schedule to get ready for conference play. Towson, a team that didn’t win a conference game last season, can’t crack the overall win column so far in the 2011-12 season.

Loyola hasn’t knocked off a ranked opponent so far this season and has played a relatively close game in all of its six wins. (Their only defeat kicked off the season with a 12-point loss at Wake Forest.) The Greyhounds face a very difficult test on Wednesday night when they travel to George Washington. They won’t play another home game until next year and face the number one team in the country near Christmas.

Loyola knows its best shot to make the NCAA Tournament comes from winning its conference tournament. Even if the Greyhounds lose a handful of games, they don’t hold the same level of cache as a team from a big conference.

Don’t overlook the Greyhounds this season.

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Aside from being the very first day of the year, it marks what used to act as the most important college football day of the season. Memories of  New Year’s meals with family in Baltimore’s Little Italy instantly flashback to me as I’m typing this blog entry. I was the kid with the mini TV under the tablecloth checking on the score of the Carquest Bowl.  To an extent, I’m still that kid. They just pay me now.

As the Bowl Coalition morphed into the Bowl Alliance and transferred into the Bowl Championship Series, New Year’s Day became less and less relevant. The legendary band U2 was wrong in saying that nothing changes on New Year’s Day. They don’t decide a national champion in college football on January 1st anymore. Remember when the Sugar Bowl mattered?

Here’s where I may lose some of you. The Bowl Championship Series works.

Now in its 14th season, the BCS gives us something we never got when I was growing up. A true national champion. I still watch every college football bowl game and absolutely love the bowl season. Every college athlete should be rewarded for their season of hard work to go to a postseason game. I’m not dead-set against a playoff system either. When college football transitions into super duper conferences, I’m sure we will end up with a playoff involving eight teams.

We shouldn’t automatically jump on the negative bandwagon for potential flies in the ointment. The system, like most things in life, isn’t perfect. In a handful of seasons, quality teams were left outside of the national championship game. In the short history of the BCS only four teams with one or more losses has won the national championship game. LSU lost a pair of games in the crazy 2007-08 season. (And yes, all four teams came from the SEC.)

You can’t always get what you want. That’s a given in life and Rolling Stone lyrics.

We will get a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in Louisiana on Jan. 9. Don’t lose sight of that.

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