And, as it happens, I believe said energy will both stick around and grow. For a few more weeks, at least. I think there’s an air of destiny about this group and I think they’ll handle their business up in Foxboro. Sometimes with a team like this you can just see, or feel, something. Plus it’s Ray Rice‘s birthday today and that’s just too perfect.

Have fun today, ladies and gents.

With that out of the way, here we are. Ravens-Texans for the right to face the aforementioned Bronco busters. January football in Baltimore with the home squad heavily favored. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of, no? For many of you out there I’m sure it is. So, regardless of the outcome, congrats on this day. Enjoy it because they don’t come around often.

As for the game itself I think we all know that if the Ravens play the way they’re supposed to play they win by 10-14 points at least. I think we also all know that if they fall asleep at any moment on Arian Foster or Andre Johnson then, well, they’ll get what they deserve. This isn’t a hard game to analyze.

As for the pick, I think the home team pulls it out but not without some tense moments along the way. Let’s say 20-17 Ravens.

Your picks/thoughts are, as always, both welcome and anticipated.

But that’s not the thing.

Rather, the story is that Tebow now stands as living and damn-near-incontrovertible proof that intangibles matter.

Here’s a guy who by every conventional metric should be a nobody in the NFL. Virtually nothing about the way he plays quarterback suggests success, at least based on what we “know” about the position. Yet here he is.

He rescued the Broncos from utter irrelevance early in the season. That was crazy. He then sputtered down the stretch, giving rise to a tide of “I told you so.” Then he spent the first quarter of Sunday’s game looking like he couldn’t author a big play in a pickup game.

That second quarter was insane. Not only did he author big plays, he basically authored only big plays. Then he settled down again, the Steelers crept back in and then…well, you know how it ended.

You look at his final stat line — 10 for 21 for 316 yards and two TDs, and a rushing TD on top of it — and it just doesn’t make sense. A completion percentage below .500 coupled with two scores and a 31.6 yard average? What the hell? How is that even possible?

The answer is, it shouldn’t be. But every now and then you see this, guys who just do, conventional wisdom be damned.

Steelers linebacker James Farrior summed it up when he said, “They made more plays than we thought they were capable of making.”

Now, generally speaking, one of two things happen to guys like Tebow. They either flame out quickly or they end up rewriting the rules. Michael Vick — as much as I loathe him for his off-field conduct — deserves credit on the field because before him a quarterback’s running ability was always considered a bonus, never a primary threat.

More locally — and as a way of making a broader point — Cal Ripken rewrote the rules for shortstops. Before him, the idea of a big guy with some power playing that position was unheard of.

You can’t quantify guys like that because the surprise is what makes them who they are. Received wisdom binds us to what we can measure until someone comes along and shows another way. There really aren’t any rules, there are only things we say won’t work until someone shows us that they actually will.

I don’t know what the future holds for Tebow but I’m going to come right out and say that you, I, and everybody else would be crazy to doubt him. His skill set may not make sense but he gets the job done. After what he did against the Steelers, who am I — who is anyone — to say it can’t continue?

Enough folks have already been proven wrong going down that path. I’m not trying to join them. He might very well flame out but as far as I’m concerned he’s doing special things on the football field and the only logical response to it is, “what the hell, let’s see what this kid can do next.” Because, truth is, you never know.

You would think, given Baltimore’s spotty historical record at QB, that Flacco would be (to quote) carried in the arms of cheerleaders. But he’s not.

Instead, he’s a constant topic. Radio callers and internet denizens alike wonder loudly and often whether or not Flacco’s “the guy” who can win this town another Super Bowl. They wonder because they look at Flacco and they don’t see the things they see in quote-unquote franchise quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady (among others).

They don’t see these things because these things do not exist. Flacco is not one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Anyone who’s watched him play over the past few years knows as much.

But let’s be clear about something: only a handful of QBs are truly great, truly elite. The fact that Flacco isn’t top-five or arguably even top-ten shouldn’t be held against him. It’s time for Ravens fans to realize that very good can be good enough.

Anyone waiting for Joe to “take the next step” and become a top-tier guy is waiting for the wrong thing. That’s not who he is. The expectation should instead be that he does enough. Because when he does, and when Ray Rice and the defense and the coaching staff do likewise, the Ravens are hard to beat.

Joe Flacco can’t put the team on his shoulders and send them to February with sheer will and talent. But so what? Most teams don’t have that guy. And even some that do — looking at you, Patriots — have such severe shortcomings in other areas that they’re not much better off. Ravens fans should be happy that they have a team built to win and a quarterback who can handle being a player in that scheme, even if he’s not capable of extraordinary things all by himself.

The Ravens might not win the Super Bowl this year. If they don’t, though, I highly doubt it will be Joe Flacco’s fault.