Every week leading into the New England Patriots' next game, ESPN NFL analyst Tedy Bruschi and ESPNBoston.com Patriots reporter Mike Reiss go over the matchup. This week, it's a Sunday game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore (CBS, 4:25 p.m. ET):

Mike: Let's get right into it, Tedy. What do you see from this Ravens team?

Tedy: This is a different set of circumstances for them this year. Last season they struggled down the stretch -- losing 23-20 to the Steelers on Dec. 2, losing at Washington 31-28 and at Denver 34-17, before beating the Giants 33-14 and closing with a 23-17 loss at Cincinnati. But then they turned it on in the playoffs, parlaying it into a Super Bowl.

It's nothing like the present picture. They've won four in a row -- against the Jets, Steelers, Vikings and Lions. Now they've taken the role of the team late in the season that is building momentum toward a playoff push. Watching them play Monday night against the Lions, when they don't even score a touchdown but get six field goals from kicker Justin Tucker, the resolve of this team is evident. It's going to be tough for the Patriots to go on the road and get this victory.

Mike: Bill Belichick has made the point that he's focused mostly on the Ravens' most recent games, and that's something you are stressing as well. The NFL season is long and maybe no team has evolved as much as Baltimore.

Tedy: If you look at this team in terms of yearly production, you're looking at the wrong statistics. You have to look at these last four wins and how they were won. To beat Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving the way that they did, they looked like a championship team. On Monday night in Detroit, Tucker, their "Mr. Clutch" kicker, comes through. Every aspect of this team -- from kicker, to returner, to quarterback, to defensive coordinator -- these guys are gamers. It seems like when they need a play, someone on defense makes it, or Jacoby Jones makes a spectacular kickoff return. It's a resilient team, a mentally tough team, one the Patriots certainly need to worry about. After Monday night's game, in his news conference, coach John Harbaugh talked about his team, its mentality, and the belief it has.

There are certain teams that have to show me something before I'd consider them legitimate contenders. The Lions fall into that category, along with the Bengals and Cowboys. But the Ravens are certainly not in that category.

Mike: So what specifically has sparked their turnaround, from your viewpoint?

Tedy: Early struggles should have been anticipated. They started 2-2, losing to the Broncos 49-27 in the season-opening game, and some people wrote this team off. But just like the Patriots, there is something to be said about consistently good coaching. That's what they get from Harbaugh and I know that's what they get from defensive coordinator Dean Pees and offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell. These coaches don't overreact to one loss and they don't go over the top after big wins. They always look at parts of their team that need to improve and players who need to get better.

Mike: Let's get into their offense a little bit. One of the big storylines in Baltimore is the status of quarterback Joe Flacco after mildly spraining his MCL in Monday night's win. He wore a brace in practice on Wednesday and was limited.

Tedy: Has Flacco's season been spectacular to this point? No. But he makes key throws when he has to. He avoided a scare Monday night when DeAndre Levy went low on him. On top of that, running back Ray Rice isn't doing what he used to do, but it's just like this team to get Rice or Bernard Pierce going late in the season, because they know how important the run game is. They split carries and whoever is playing well will get the bulk of the carries. I think they're struggling to get the ball to receiver Torrey Smith. Defenders are playing off him, letting him get the short stuff -- a hook or a slant -- but the games I've seen this year, I haven't seen the usual explosive plays from him.

But this gets back to the top-notch coaching that the Ravens benefit from. They don't care about egos. The Ravens have had some trouble running the ball, so they brought in Tyrod Taylor to run the Wildcat, with Flacco lined up as a wide receiver, in Week 12 against the Jets. That's when Flacco started to get irritated and said it resembled a high school offense. But these coaches don't care if you're Joe Flacco and if you signed a $120 million contract; he wasn't playing well, the running game was struggling, so they tried to make it more of an 11-on-11 running game and tried to get that going. These coaches will try things like that and it's something I have great respect for.