In the aftermath of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 27-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, three of their stars voiced doubt about the AFC juggernaut they faced at Arrowhead Thursday night. That tells me this team isn’t good enough to win the AFC and certainly not in the same class as the Chiefs.
I’ve been on the other end of the horseshoe far too many times in my life, where the Kansas City Chiefs couldn’t make the big play and lost. However, for much of Patrick Mahomes’ career, that hasn’t been the case very often.
Yet, teams that face Kansas City can’t seem to respect them enough when they lose to them repeatedly. In the case of the Baltimore Ravens, they played their absolute best as a football team against the Chiefs. Lamar Jackson was incredible, but he could NOT make the big plays at the end of the game. He had three open receivers inside the 10-yard line and missed all of them.
So, instead of taking ownership after the game, Jackson emphatically stated that the pass to Tight End Isiah Likely was a touchdown. Hey, Lamar, the video doesn’t lie. After the game, the Raven’s young tight end dissed the Chiefs about their chances to win in the postseason.
Further, linebacker Roquan Smith was upset that a man in street clothes pushed him in the back after he hit Mahomes out of bounds. The refs refused to penalize the Ravens defender, so Mahomes new teammate, Peyton Hendershot, gave him a shove defending his all-world quarterback.
Smith vowed to go after him when the two teams played again.
The Ravens are one of the biggest failures in the NFL. Sorry to be so brutally honest, but they are Lamar Jackson and little else of substance. Instead, they run their mouths and think that the bully ball works for them.
Well, it didn’t work in the AFC Championship game, and it didn’t work at Arrowhead last night. They even tried to take out Mahomes, hitting him at his knees out of bounds in the third quarter. Yet, they’re talking smack after the game.
Head Coach John Harbaugh is in his 17th year as the Ravens’ Head Coach. He embraces his team’s violent nature, especially the defense, but his experience should eventually tell him that this tact will not work in the NFL.
It’s one thing to play physical and with passion; it’s another to try and hurt people on the opposing team. In the AFC Title game, they went after Mahomes and were flagged numerous times.
Still, yes, the Ravens had a chance to win, but instead of owning the closeness of the outcome, they took zero responsibility, and that’s their current franchise culture.
Last night, we saw a Ravens team that many have said is the second-best team in the NFL, but they are not worthy of that ranking. This team’s entire success is on the shoulders of Jackson. With the game on the line, he led an impressive drive in the fourth quarter, but in the end, he failed.
Playing against the Chiefs tends to make that happen, and he’s hardly the only NFL quarterback who will suffer a similar fate against the back-to-back Super Bowl Champions.
This game came down to the final play because the Chiefs’ red zone offense stalled three times, and Jackson ran for his life, extending plays.
I’ve stated numerous times that Jackson is a great talent, and he made some excellent decisions by throwing the ball last night and escaping pressure, but that style of quarterback is not designed to win AFC title games or Super Bowls.
History will show I’m correct. Of all the winning Super Bowl quarterbacks, not one was a run-first, pass-second quarterback.
On the flip side, Mahomes is an elite talent, and even though he missed some wide-open receivers, he found the path to victory, scoring enough points to win the game. Considering he was playing with a rookie wide receiver (Xavier Worthy), who scored two touchdowns, and a rookie left tackle (Kingsley Suamataia) who rarely had help on his side of the field, I’d consider that a big success.
For those doubting the Chiefs offense, Hollywood Brown should be active next week against the Cincinnati Bengals, starting on Sunday.
I understand the Ravens were frustrated with the loss, but their attitude after the game tells me they’ve learned nothing since their AFC Championship loss. They imploded as they always do and have nobody to blame but themselves. Yet, they didn’t.
In Summary, despite Jackson’s best effort and the four hundred-plus yards of offense he directed, they still lost, and in the NFL, that’s the only measuring stick of success.
