OK, NAME a team featuring a strong defense and a strong running game, competing in the playoffs for the first time as the AFC's No. 4 seed.
Easy, right? It's the Ravens.
But did you know the exact same description fit the Tennessee Titans just a year ago?
Yes, the Ravens' opponent in Sunday's divisional playoff game at Adelphia Coliseum finished second in the AFC Central a year ago, was host to and won the franchise's inaugural playoff game in the wild-card round and then turned to the challenge of winning twice on the road to reach the Super Bowl.
A year later, the Ravens are in precisely the same position. And though the odds might be against their reaching the Super Bowl when you consider recent NFL playoff history, the Ravens can draw confidence, oddly enough, from the team they'll try to eliminate Sunday.
A year ago, the Titans followed up their first-round win with two victories on the road, including an upset of the AFC's No. 1 seed, and reached the Super Bowl.
"It's not easy," Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher said Wednesday of getting to the big game as a first-year playoff team. "But once you get by your first-round game, it gets easier."
Historically, the Ravens face extra-long odds. Since the NFL expanded from four to six playoff teams per conference in 1990, only three of the 40 teams that won first-round games have gone on to the Super Bowl. As well, 17 of the past 20 Super Bowl teams benefited from a first-round bye.
None of that favors the Ravens. But on the other hand, the Titans delivered in the same situation a year ago, so it's possible. And the Titans lost the Super Bowl to another first-year playoff team, the St. Louis Rams, who were, in fact, the second straight NFC champion to reach the game in their first shot at the playoffs (in the recent past, with this coach and nucleus).
In other words, three of the past four Super Bowl qualifiers were first-time playoff teams, as the Ravens are now.
So it can be done.
Until recently, it was almost unthinkable that such a first-year playoff team could reach the big game, especially as a wild-card qualifier. The time-tested method for getting to the Super Bowl was losing nobly in a middle round in your first trip to the playoffs, then reaching the promised land as a more experienced favorite in your second or third trip, with another noble loss sometimes required.
