BALTIMORE – Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs showed their championship caliber once again on Sunday, defeating the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the AFC title game.
Reid, Patrick Mahomes and company are headed to their fourth Super Bowl in six seasons, not because they had a prolific offensive attack or an impressive fireworks display. No, they got their ticket to Las Vegas because Reid and his team won their chess game with John Harbaugh and his Ravens assistants and positioned their team for the bravest victory in the history of this budding dynasty.
The Chiefs, long known for lighting up scoreboards with dizzying, dazzling heroics from Mahomes, didn’t even score in the second half on Sunday. Instead, they drew heavily on experience and also leaned on the most dominant defense Kansas City has fielded over the past six seasons. That defense turned in a performance that largely neutralized presumptive NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and one of the league’s most imposing offensive attacks heading into the 2023 season.
But overall, the Ravens found themselves on the losing end after succumbing to pressure early and failing to overcome devastating mistakes late.
Well aware of how the Ravens are built and how they like to attack offensively (with a strong running game that ensures balance and paves the way for a better passing attack), the Chiefs understood the importance of a fast start. They put on early pressure to force Baltimore into a quick three-pointer and then put on as impressive an offensive display as they’ve had all postseason: a 10-play, 86-yard scoring drive, capped by Mahomes’ 19-yard pass to Travis Kelce. With that, the Chiefs extended their streak of game-opening touchdowns to eight consecutive playoff games.
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The Ravens responded with a touchdown of their own: a noteworthy escape from Jackson and a 30-yard pass to Zay Flowers. But the Chiefs came back with a methodical 16-play, 75-yard drive that ate 9:02 off the clock.
Mahomes couldn’t miss, completing 11 passes in a row to start the game. Kelce was as helpless as ever. And that Chiefs defense that went from serviceable to dominant this season kept up the pressure and managed a sack and recovery at the Baltimore 33-yard line.
And so, the Ravens found themselves on high alert.
Punt, touchdown and fumble were not the desired tone for Baltimore early in the first half. The Ravens’ defense had allowed opening touchdown drives just twice in their last 26 games, and until Kelce’s touchdown reception, Baltimore’s star second-year safety Kyle Hamilton had never allowed a touchdown to a tight end. as a professional.
The score may have read 14-7, but as Baltimore found itself in uncharted territory, the deficit felt much larger. And that was when the Crows committed their mortal sin.
Overwhelmed by the ease with which the Chiefs had scored, they panicked. On defense, they momentarily lost their composure while committing personal fouls that gave them life. And, offensively, they let themselves be fooled into believing that they had dug themselves into a much bigger hole than they actually found themselves in. As a result, they abandoned their bread and butter and attempted to adapt a style of play they are not cut out for.
After dominating the field all season, the Ravens opted for a pass-heavy attack too early.
For the rest of the second quarter, the Ravens ran the ball just twice (one of them on an off-time play by Jackson). For the rest of the game, they ran the ball just seven more times. The league’s leading rushing team, a unit that averaged 156.5 rushing yards per game while boasting the NFL’s most balanced offense, became one-dimensional and finished with just 81 rushing yards, never regaining control in a game. very winnable.
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The Ravens trailed only 17-7 at halftime. However, they came out in the second half with the same feeling and frenetic approach as if they were losing by a larger margin. They kept shooting even though their defense kept them in the game and the Chiefs off the scoreboard.
“I’d say it was that kind of game,” Harbaugh said of the season-low 16 rushing attempts. “That’s how it developed.”
The absence of a running game meant that Baltimore’s offense never renewed the rhythm that carried it so often this season. And the lack of balance relieved pressure on the Chiefs’ defense because it allowed Kansas City’s pass rushers to cover their ears and chase Jackson. Meanwhile, when the quarterback wasn’t getting hit, a familiar problem arose for the Ravens: a lack of consistency in the receiving department.
Time and time again, Jackson dropped back to throw, but had trouble finding an open receiver. Aside from Flowers, who finished the game with five catches on eight targets for 115 yards and a touchdown, Baltimore’s receivers had a tough time getting separation. Running back Justice Hill was the second-leading receiver with four catches, and it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that Odell Beckham Jr. managed to get involved (three catches for 22 yards).
“We could have run the ball,” Jackson said. “But we were on the ground and trying to get the ball downfield. You have to make something happen.”
Zay Flowers had a touchdown catch on Sunday but also a costly fumble. (Geoff Burke/USA Today)
Although one-dimensional, the Ravens had a chance. To open the fourth quarter, they reached the shadow of Kansas City’s goal line on a five-play, 78-yard drive highlighted by a 54-yard pass to Flowers. But that possession ended painfully with a fumble when Kansas City’s L’Jarius Sneed stripped the ball from Flowers as the receiver darted toward the end zone after an 8-yard reception.
And on the next possession, after reaching the Kansas City 25-yard line, Jackson threw an interception in triple coverage while trying to connect with tight end Isaiah Likely.
Justin Tucker’s 43-yard field goal with 2:38 left cut the deficit to a touchdown, but the Ravens got no closer.
The Chiefs didn’t score in the second half, but they didn’t really need to. They did enough offensively to spell out their dominant defense and take precious minutes off the clock: five minutes here, two minutes there, another four there. By the end of the game, they had won the battle for time of possession between 37:30 and 22:30.
The loss represents a missed opportunity for the Ravens, even though the game never felt as close as the score might indicate. Jackson and his teammates regretted only one touchdown and will spend the offseason repeating costly mistakes. It’s impossible to help but wonder if a more patient approach would have better benefited the Ravens and helped them find a better offensive flow throughout the game.
“You’d like to use the saying ‘I’d love to get this back or get this play back,’ but you can’t get those plays back,” right tackle Morgan Moses said. “You have to learn from them and move forward. And you know, this is not over. Any time you have a quarterback like Lamar, you get a chance to play games like this again.”
This one will sting for a while though, especially because of how it ended.
The 2023 season was a year of change and growth in Baltimore, and perhaps the Ravens can take advantage of that. But on Sunday, as they aimed for their ultimate goal, they strayed from their identity as the pressure reached its peak and never recovered.
(Top photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images)
