By CJ Carlson
The Kansas City Chiefs were able to control the AFC Championship game from the very beginning, resulting in another Super Bowl appearance. The 17-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens wasn’t easy, yet Patrick Mahomes and company continued to march forward.
Looking at this game, there were a few things that stood out. The first half was dominated by the Chiefs offense. They controlled around 20 minutes of that first half and continued to pick up chunk plays down the field. Meanwhile, Baltimore had one nice scoring drive that really only took a few minutes. The rest of their offensive possessions were quick punts. When it came to the opening half of action, Kansas City had full control.
The second half saw it completely swing to Baltimore, but they repeatedly made mistakes. Despite not allowing a single point in the second half, Baltimore lost by scoring just three themselves. They had a huge reception to Zay Flowers down the field, only to lose 15 yards of that due to a taunting penalty. Then, not long after, Flowers dives to the end zone but fumbles as he crosses the plane, resulting in a touchback.
Had he not lost the ball, Baltimore would have inched to a 17-14 score with time remaining. Fast forward to eight minutes left, and Lamar Jackson throws and end zone interception. This isn’t even mentioning the early strip sack in the first half on Jackson either.
Kansas City Chiefs Forced The Ravens Out Of Their Game Plan…Apparently
This was one of those games where you have to think if the Chiefs outplayed the Ravens, or if Baltimore simply beat themselves. An argument for both can absolutely be made, though there’s a genuine question on what the Ravens offensive coordinator was doing here. Todd Monken had relied upon a heavy run game all season long. They were the top ranked rushing offense in football by a nice margin. They were going up against the 28th rush defense in the Chiefs. So, what do the Ravens do? They ran the ball just 16 times, with eight of them coming from Lamar Jackson himself.
Of those other eight runs from their backfield, only three of them were on early downs. Those three runs went for 17 yards. Baltimore, in the biggest stage of the season, decided to entirely scrap their gameplan and try to have Jackson out-pass Mahomes. To all football fans out there that were watching, this was likely a thought that popped into your mind as well.
We’ll have Mahomes square off against Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl in two weeks. Meanwhile, the Ravens will head into the offseason with a ton of questions about themselves. It’s going to take some looking in the mirror to figure out what went wrong with this talented of a roster.
