After a first three-&-out the Ravens offensive line did start to mean business. The Ravens were not bad on the ground, but then as the game progressed they really abandoned their bread-&-butter, their running game. Some of that may have been the Chiefs staying ahead of the Ravens on the scoreboard for the entire game, but that is no excuse for Harbaugh to give up on it too soon.
Of course, the Chiefs defensive line became more stout as the game wore on, and as far as our pass defense went, we kept the Ravens to a single field goal after their first early touchdown. Three factors: One, Spags' game plan (extra pressure on a passing Lamar Jackson), two, a solid pass rush (collected a few significant sacks), and three, the masterful play of our secondary.
McDuffie, Reid, Sneed, Conner, Williams, Watson, Bush -- all on rails today.
The Ravens' first turnover was a strip sack fumble by Charles Omenihu. Concern for him emerged when he went out later with a knee injury -- he's been terrific on our D-line. The Ravens had two other turnovers, both critical to keep the Ravens from winning.
Mahomes and Kelce in particular were their typical excellent selves in the first half, scoring a touchdown and making critical connections, one of which was Mahomes throwing a last-second duck before going down -- Kelce snatching just-off-the-turf to make the key 1st down play.
Thing is, with a nice lead Mahomes worked hard to keep Jackson off the field by managing the game trying to do what other teams want to do to the Chiefs -- keep Mahomes off the field. My fear was I started to see something here that was really annoying in last year's Super Bowl, and it happened with great frequency: Creed Humphrey's snaps. They were again really crappy. Over and over Mahomes had to pick the ball off his feet, and in the Super Bowl this year that has got to get cleaned up.
At one point Jackson had a pass batted up high in the air and as much as we're all hoping for an interception, instead Jackson split the defenders and caught it himself then ran for good yardage. That's nice. A perfectly fine play to remind us all of that Marcus Mariota touchdown in that 2017 playoff game loss to the Titans. A bit later, though, we did stop the Ravens offense.
Back with the ball in Mahomes hands, the Ravens' defense started playing with more fervor, but too often it was too much fervor. They started to rack up dumb penalties, the one of note here was their No. 98 lineman just cold-cocking Mahomes in the head, then when he went down dropping his 300-pound body on top of him. He was justifiably penalized, but if the Ravens played with some decency they'd have had a much better chance of winning.
Just before the half we matriculated the ball down the field enough for a field goal making the score 17-7. I'm sure most watching were stunned by the score. I made note of what television announcer Tony Romo said, something that will definitely be a Chiefs meme as we head to the Super Bowl.
"Mahomes is showing them, don't make me an underdog..."
After the second half started it was clear that the Chiefs defense made adjustments to further throttle Jackson. One post I saw about this game was that the 2007 Patriots and 2023 Ravens were historically great teams. (The Ravens this year clobbered good teams all year long... clobbered them, scores of 56-21, every other game.) In both teams' last postseason games they each scored 17 points, and were beaten by... wait for it...
Steve Spagnuolo.
It looked like the Ravens would get right back into the game when Jackson hit Zay Flowers on a medium crossing route and he dived into the end zone. Looked like a touchdown, until we all watched the ball squirt into the endzone. Trent McDuffie jumped on it, and we all wondered -- ahh, was that a fumble? Did he actually fumble it before he got across the goal line?
Sure enough, replays show -- he did. What a critical play by L'Jarius Sneed with the punch-out a half-yard from the Ravens TD.
As the 4th Quarter progressed Mahomes was working valiantly to manage the game. Keep the clock moving even though the Ravens were playing ferocious defense. Again often enough the Ravens were playing too ferociously earning penalties that really hurt them. There was another roughing the passer call against a Ravens guys who hammered Mahomes with a helmet-to-helmet.
Our special teams were terrific, and one of their best plays was a Tommy Townsend punt downed at the Ravens one.
The Ravens started moving the ball, though, and yes, there were a couple pass plays that were really close PIs on the Chiefs. Joshua Williams tugged pretty good on Odell Beckham Jr's arm on a deep miss, and on a Deon Bush interception in the end zone that should have never left Jackson's hand we got a decent push on their guy at the back of the end zone right when the pick was made.
There was enough static about the officiating going unfairly against the Ravens, and there sure are a lot of people thinking the NFLers are favoring the Chiefs because of the Taylor Swift attention the Chiefs are getting. But the officiating? It was actually pretty even, indeed even going against an overly aggressive Ravens team but that was all easily justified.
The Ravens managed to get a field goal to get within one score, but in the end that was all she wrote. On 3rd down just before the two-minute warning Mahomes threw a perfectly dropped medium-deep ball that -- ta-da! -- Marquez Valdes-Scantling caught to seal the win.
MVS has been excoriated for his not-so-great play this season, but remember last year's AFC Championship Game against the Bengals? He balled out when we needed it the most. Tonight he caught just two passes, but this one as he was falling down secured the win for us.
Overall, it was certainly Mahomes and our defense, but we got exceptional work from our O-line, our solid back Isiah Pacheco, of course Travis Kelce, our special teams, and our fine coaching led by the master.
That defensive effort in all these critical games? It can't be denied that Brett Veach reeeally concentrating on drafting defensive players has paid tremendous dividends.
And one last thing for now. Just thinking about all those playoff disappointments because there was just that feeling that the Chiefs just didn't have enough got-it to close the deal.
Well, whaddya think of us now?!
On to yet more Super Bowl glory!
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The photo is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.
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