Mark Craig: Play of Ravens mainstays is dream-team worthy

To honor last week's resurrection of defense in the National Football League, we thought it would be fun to assemble one man's all-time defensive dream team and name a mastermind to orchestrate it.

Don't worry. No Iowa cornfield was destroyed in the making of this article. And we don't need a new stadium.

We've picked a 4-3 scheme, although we're pretty sure these 12 men -- if playing and coaching together in the prime of their careers -- could line up however they wanted and still bend the best quarterbacks into one big balloon animal.

Together, this dream dozen has 15 NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors, two NFL Most Valuable Player awards and 27 Super Bowl victories. The secondary has 230 interceptions. The front seven has 823 sacks and, yes, one current associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Nine of these gentlemen are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The other three would be, too, if only they weren't getting ready to play and coach in Sunday's AFC Championship game in Foxboro, Mass.

Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Bill Belichick. As participants still seeking a trip to Super Bowl XLVI, they round out this particular all-time defensive dream team as what you might call our active museum pieces.

So often we're told to savor the latter part of a great quarterback's career. After all, you never know when NFL Insider Rob Lowe might declare it over via Twitter.

"They have some truly great players on the defensive side of the ball, future Hall of Famers, guys that are just really dominant at their position and have been for a number for years, or in Ray and Ed's case, about a decade," Belichick said. "They're two of the greatest players to ever play the game, on the same team, on the same defense, for so many years."

Lewis, 36, is in his 16th season at middle linebacker. Reed, 33, is in his 10th season at free safety. No, they aren't in their prime. Yes, they are leaders of a defensive-oriented team that's 13-4 and still standing a week after Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and their explosive offenses were extinguished.

The Patriots and Ravens have had their verbal spats through the years. But the respect has flowed freely this week. Especially toward Reed, who followed a subpar regular season with one of his typically great postseason performances (four passes defensed, one interception) in last week's 20-13 divisional playoff victory over the Texans.

"When you break the huddle, you find where he's at and you make sure you're not lobbing the ball up in his zones, because as you saw in the Houston game, he's going to go up there and make the plays," Brady said. "He's just an exceptional player. I don't think there is a weakness that he has."

Or, as Belichick said: "Can't say I've ever coached against anybody better than Ed Reed in the secondary."

"[Reed] probably covers more field back there as a single safety than most teams can cover with two," Belichick said. "He's got great instincts."

Now, on to our entire defensive dream team, which lines up this way (also see accompanying chart):

LDE: Reggie White. DT: Mean Joe Greene. DT: Alan Page. RDE: Bruce Smith. SLB: Jack Ham. MLB: Lewis. WLB: Lawrence Taylor. RCB: Deion Sanders. LCB: Mel Blount. SS: Ronnie Lott. FS: Reed.

Coach, game-planner, Tebow Tamer: Belichick.