This is the National Football League. When in doubt, overanalyze.

It’s time for Baltimore at New England, and Lord knows that Peter King, the “Around the Horn” panel and Vinnie from Walpole need something to wring their hands about Monday.

By extension, therefore, it’s also time for all of us to develop the long-term memory of a Golden Girl on crack.

Whatever happens this afternoon at Gillette Stadium, you, I and everyone outside the two locker rooms in question will react with expedience and excess.

That’s life in the once-a-week, parity-suffocated world of pro football, to begin with. Blend in the incendiary ingredients of the last 13 days at Camp Bill Belichick and you have created the perfect bomb.

Which is a bit of warlike imagery we probably won’t hear associated with the Patriots in the foreseeable future, come to think of it.

Yes, in case you forgot, Randy Moss is gone, off to become the highest-profile passes in Brett Favre’s repertoire that don’t allegedly involve his Blackberry. And today’s contest is the Pats’ first, post-exile, ensuring that the result will be hailed as a referendum on the wisdom of that decision.

None of it makes sense, given that we’re four months away from the next Super Bowl. I’m also pretty sure that Tom Brady won his last one with Darren Flutie, Tom Waddle and Jim “Crash” Jensen as his wide-outs and lost his last with Moss on the flank.

Far be it from me to bear the bad tidings, but somebody needs to prepare us: Baltimore probably will win this game.

The Ravens right now are the better team, probably the best in a league where the gap between transcendent and terrible is the strength and thickness of a surgically repaired knee ligament.

Ray Lewis still leads the toughest defense on the planet.

Joe Flacco is an emerging star at quarterback, surrounded by new options named Anquan Boldin and T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

Ray Rice is the every-down back that the Patriots lack.

And let’s forget names for a moment and consider results. Baltimore already has beaten the other two sexy picks to represent the AFC in The Big Game With the Roman Numerals, the Jets and Steelers, both on the road.

Hard to imagine them being awestruck by the Patriots, who share Three Dog Night’s loneliest number in the loss column but wouldn’t be in the same area code if we were weighing the two teams BCS-style.

New England beat Celebreality, er, Cincinnati and the University of Buffalo at home, then took advantage of the worst special teams performance in NFL history to win at Miami before the Moss purge.

They are who we thought they were and they are what they should be at this point. Three up, one down, bye week in the rearview.

Win or lose today, that puts them in better shape than two of the three Patriots teams that ended their seasons smudging and smooching DNA all over the Lombardi Trophy.

There’s still more than enough time for Belichick to mold this team in his grouchy, lunch pail image and win more than a wild card game.

Playing prevent defense from the coin flip has worked so far. Given the sorry state of quarterbacking in the league, there has never been a better time to have a suspect secondary.

The Patriots get enough out of their fantasy-unfriendly backfield to move the chains.

Deion Branch isn’t what he once was (a System Guy to end all System Guys; sorry you didn’t notice, Seattle). What he is, is a guy who can still get enough separation to use a butt-ugly pair of gloves and pick up eight yards for Brady on third-and-7.

Will all that be enough today, when the Patriots will need to be more spectacular than merely serviceable? Maybe not.

Much to the chagrin of ESPN and WEEI, however, the league doesn’t distribute much hardware after Week 6.

So relax, pour the Kool-Aid and think long-term.

It’s the Patriot way. It’s also probably the only way you’re going to digest this particular Sunday afternoon without heartburn.

Kalle Oakes is a staff columnist. His email is [email protected].