If the Baltimore Ravens are going to finally break through and win their division, they are going to have to do it without their best wide receiver. The Ravens will lose Anquan Boldin for the final two games as a result of torn cartilage in his knee. This is a significant loss for a team that is looking to win their division and earn a playoff bye. The Ravens are currently 10-4 and tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers atop the AFC North. The Ravens have the tiebreaker but won’t have an easy time winning the final two games. For an offense that is already less than stellar, this is a tough loss for the Ravens.

Boldin will have minor surgery to repair the torn cartilage. While surgery on the knee is usually really serious, Boldin shouldn’t require an extensive coverage. In fact, he is expected to return for the playoffs. Apparently, the injury has been lingering and it was decided that now was the best time to get everything fixed. Baltimore did not disclose which knee was injured. However, the team did announce that Boldin will be ready for the playoffs. That is a good thing for this team, but it could make winning the division difficult.

Boldin has 57 catches and was on track for a 1,000 yard receiving season. He is one of the best threats in the Baltimore passing game. Without him, Lee Evans should get more action in the final two games. Baltimore still has Joe Flacco and Ray Rice so they should still be able to move the ball. However, losing a receiver like Boldin at this point in the season can’t be easy.

Baltimore has played seven playoff games in the past three seasons and all of them have been on the road. This team knows more than any other how important it is to get a home playoff game. The Ravens were on track for that until they lost to the San Diego Chargers. They still control their destiny. If they beat the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals in the final two weeks, they will win their division and earn a bye. They are still good enough to do that. However, losing Boldin is definitely a blow.

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OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh arrived for work in a good mood Tuesday morning following the San Francisco 49ers’ victory Monday night over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And with good reason: The Ravens moved back into first place with the Steelers’ loss.

“He was coming in: ‘Did you see that game? Who won?’” quarterback Joe Flacco said about Harbaugh. “OK, we all know who won the game. We know you’re way more excited now than you were two days ago. You could definitely tell he was excited, and we should be. We’re obviously in a better position because of what happened.”

The 49ers’ win over the Ravens’ AFC North rival put the Ravens (10-4) back in first place in the AFC North and into the second seed in the playoff standings.

The Ravens’ embarrassing 34-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers on Sunday night knocked them out of first place in the division for a day, and they fell from the top-seeded team in the AFC to fifth. Now, they’re second behind the New England Patriots.

The Ravens own the tiebreaker edge over the Steelers (10-4) after sweeping the annual series. They are in position to earn a first-round bye and a home playoff game provided they win their final two regular-season games against the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Man, it was a fun to watch,” Harbaugh said. “It was pretty cool. The fact that if we win both games now, we will win the division, that means a lot. That’s really meaningful. It’s a tough league, and we have to win every week.”

However, the Ravens would have preferred to not require assistance.

“It’s a gift, but we wish we didn’t have to get it that way,” linebacker Terrell Suggs said.

The Ravens are 7-0 at home heading into their home game Saturday against the Browns.

And they’re undefeated in their previous games against Cleveland and Cincinnati this season.

“We’ve just got to take care of business,” Suggs said. “We’re playing two teams that know us very well, two division foes, so it’s going to be interesting. We’ve got to get back to doing what we do best, and that’s playing Ravens football.”

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh arrived for work in a good mood Tuesday morning following the San Francisco 49ers’ pivotal victory Monday night over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And with good reason: The Ravens moved back into first place with the Steelers’ loss.

“He was coming in: ‘Did you see that game? Who won?’” quarterback Joe Flacco said of Harbaugh. “OK, we all know who won the game. We know you’re way more excited now than you were two days ago. You could definitely tell he was excited, and we should be. We’re obviously in a better position because of what happened.”

The 49ers’ win over the Ravens’ AFC North rival puts the Ravens (10-4) back in first place in the AFC North and seeded second in the playoff standings.

The Ravens’ embarrassing 34-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers on Sunday night knocked them out of first place in the division for a day, and they fell from the top-seeded team in the AFC to fifth. Now, they’re ranked second in the playoff seeding behind the New England Patriots.

The Ravens own the tiebreaker edge over the Steelers (10-4) after sweeping their annual series earlier this season. They are now in position to earn a first-round bye and a home playoff game provided they win their final two regular-season games against the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Man, it was a fun to watch,” Harbaugh said. “It was pretty cool. The fact that if we win both games now, we will win the division, that means a lot. That’s really meaningful. It’s a tough league, and we have to win every week.”

However, the Ravens would have preferred to not require assistance.

“It’s a gift, but we wish we didn’t have to get it that way,” outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said.

The Ravens are 7-0 at home heading into Saturday’s game at M&T Bank Stadium against the Browns.

And they’re undefeated in their previous games against Cleveland and Cincinnati this season.

“We’ve just got to take care of business,” Suggs said. “We’re playing two teams that know us very well, two division foes, so it’s going to be interesting. We’ve got to get back to doing what we do best, and that’s playing Ravens football.”

The Baltimore Ravens are in a huge battle for playoff positioning. The Ravens are currently 10-3 and have the same record as three other teams in the AFC. Baltimore is in position to earn home field advantage throughout the playoffs if they can finish the season strong. Baltimore should be able to do that based on their remaining schedule. To make things easier, it looks like they will be getting one of their top players back. Ray Lewis is slated to return in Week 15 against the San Diego Chargers.

Lewis has missed four straight games with a toe injury. The injury wasn’t originally supposed to keep Lewis out this long. In fact, he was holding out hope to play soon after the injury. But it turned out to be more serious than originally thought. Now, Lewis is ready to return to practice and the Ravens expect him to be in the lineup. He should be fully healed and there shouldn’t be any lingering effects. With the four weeks of rest, Lewis should be healed and ready to play in this game. He doesn’t have much injury history either and that should work to this advantage in terms of playing his normal style of football.

The Ravens played well without Lewis. They won all four games he missed and that has put the team in the position they are in right now. But this is still a better football team with Lewis in the lineup. He gives them a truly elite presence in the middle on defense. There is a reason he is regarded as one of the greatest middle linebackers in NFL history. The Ravens were fortunate to win without him. Now, they will be much better for the final three games.

After the game against the Chargers, the Ravens close with games against the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. None of those games are overly easy, but Baltimore is better than all three opponents. With a healthy lineup, the Ravens should have no problem winning out and securing the best record in the AFC. That would be a huge step forward for a team that has been forced to play on the road over the last few years in the playoffs. The return of Lewis gives them the boost they need.

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OWINGS MILLS – The weather is cold, the ground is hard and unforgiving and harsh elements tend to fall from the sky.

It’s December, the time of year when football teams with brute strength, unrelenting will and a capacity to run the football and play stingy defense tend to thrive.

The Baltimore Ravens are one of those teams as they demonstrated again during a 24-10 road victory Sunday where they stomped all over the last-place Cleveland Browns as running back Ray Rice rushed for a career-high 204 yards and the defense sacked quarterback Colt McCoy three times.

“That’s December football,” center Matt Birk said. “You have to run the ball well in order to win and we were able to do that. It was that kind of game.”

Since coach John Harbaugh’s arrival in 2008, the Ravens have won 9 of 13 December games.

And the Ravens have been the kings of the later portion of the season with a 24-9 combined mark in November, December and January for a .727 winning percentage that ranks above the New England Patriots (.719) and the Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts, who both own a .697 mark.

With a physical running game, the third-ranked defense overall and the second-best run defense in the NFL, the Ravens are well-suited for this time of year.

“I think we have always just had good teams,” Harbaugh said. “We play good defense. We have been able to run the ball. We’d believe that everything we do is built for December. We are trying to be our best in December and January.

“The whole program is organized that way. I think our players understand that, and they begin to think that way. So, we try to improve throughout the course of the season in every area and be at our best this time of year.”

By design on a sloppy field on a cold, rainy day, the Ravens set a franchise record with 55 rushing attempts against the Browns.

As the Ravens (9-3) compete with the Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans for the top seed in the AFC, their late-season push has them on track for home-field playoff advantage provided they win their remaining four games.

“We’ve always played good December football,” Rice said. “We’re a December, January team. It would be great to play a playoff game in Baltimore. We just got to win football games from here on out. It’s clear-cut.”

While the Ravens dominated on offense with the running game, they shut down Browns star running back Peyton Hillis.

He rushed for only 45 yards on a dozen carries with a long run of nine yards.

“We believe in running the football, absolutely,” Harbaugh said. “We think you have to run the ball and stop the run to be the kind of physical football team we want to be.”

The Ravens only had quarterback Joe Flacco attempt 23 passes against the Seahawks.

After getting pass-happy and abandoning the run in losses to the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Seattle Seahawks, the Ravens are tilted more toward running the football now.

For the season, the Ravens have thrown 435 passes for 2,762 yards and 339 runs for 1,378 yards.

The Ravens aren’t necessarily done throwing the ball, though.

“The teams that are scoring the most points are the teams that are throwing the ball the most,” Harbaugh said. “But our objective here is not to score the most points, per se. It’s to score more points than our opponent on any given Sunday. That’s why we’re really not willing to sit here and say that we are a run-first outfit.”

The Ravens have never earned the top seed before in franchise history.

Due to their sweep of the Steelers, a win over the Texans an edge in common opponents over the Patriots, the Ravens are primed for a first-round bye and home playoff games throughout the postseason should they beat the winless Colts, the San Diego Chargers, Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals.

“In the month of December, it’s all about positioning ourselves for a playoff run,” fullback Vonta Leach said. “That’s all we talked about. We didn’t talk about letdowns. Obviously, we have had letdowns in the past after we came off big wins. We just know that it’s December and we wanted to come in here and establish ourselves and continue our winning streak.”

NOTE: Rice has been nominated for FedExGround NFL Player of the Week.

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Aaron Wilson is Ravens beat reporter for the Carroll County Times: sports@carrollcountytimes.com.