Reports out of Foxborough that Ray Lewis' retirement party was set to kick off Sunday evening were greatly exaggerated, just like they were last weekend in Denver.  If there's one thing that you can count on heading in to the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, it's that fans of the San Francisco 49ers will undoubtedly make the same overplayed, unoriginal joke.

One way or another, they will be right.  Lewis and his Baltimore Ravens defeated Tom Brady and the New England Patriots to advance to Super Bowl XLVII.  I wrote a column on Friday that predicted Joe Flacco would outplay Brady for the third time in as many games, and that's exactly what he did, throwing for 240 yards to go with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

For some reason, most people were not giving Baltimore a chance in this game.  Vegas even decided the Ravens were nine-point underdogs.  Even when New England went in to halftime up 13-7, despite losing two players to injury from their already under-performing secondary, New England was still favored to win the second half.

Flacco and company had other plans.  Not only did Flacco throw all three of his touchdowns in the second half (connected with Anquan Boldin for two of them), Baltimore's defense shut-out the Patriots en-route to their 28-13 victory and Super Bowl birth.

As I was watching the AFC Championship game, two things were very clear to me.  The first was that Brady's deep ball is not what it once used to be, and even if it was, he simply does not have the personnel to take advantage of it.  The second was that the Patriots defense is a shell of it's former self, who was among the best defensive units in the league in 2001, 2003 and 2004 when Brady won his three Super Bowl rings.

I can't help but think that by losing this game, New England actually lost much more.  It's my opinion that they lost the mystique that they have, and I think the Patriots dynasty that people my age, in their mid-20's, have become familiar with over the last decade-plus is over with.

Aside from Brady, the team's best position player on both sides of the ball are not under contract heading in to next season.  Wide receiver Wes Welker is anything but a certainty to be brought back.  It's no secret that New England does not go out of their way to hand out cash to receivers.  Although Welker has had much more success with Brady than he has with anyone else, it's not known if he has any interest in taking less money than what he can get on the open market to remain with Brady.  If he does, the team will have cleared it's biggest off-season hurdle.

Mid-season acquisition, Aqib Talib helped plug a gaping hole in the Patriots secondary.  They still faced an uphill battle, but with Talib aboard, it gave them a big-play corner that many of teams wish they had.  Talib will be a free agent once March rolls around, and he had already made it clear that he plans on testing the free agency market.  "Definitely enjoyed my time in New England, we'll see what happens in the future.", he said.

Don't worry, Patriots fans, all is not as dark and gloomy as I may be making it seem.  You still have one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.  You still have one of the best coaches the NFL has ever seen.  On top of that, an already stellar staff of assistants became much stronger when New England announced that they have hired Kansas City's offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll.  More importantly, you still play in a division with the Bills, Dolphins and Jets.  You're a shoe-in to make the playoffs next year (and most likely as long as number 12 is taking snaps out of the shotgun), just don't be surprised when you fall short of the Super Bowl again.