AFC Conference Championship: Ravens vs. Chiefs

[coordinator0]

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

3 P.M. EST

CBS

Lets go.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

To be the best you have to beat the best. I have full faith that this defense will be suffocating Mahomes all night long. 

It will be up to Lamar and the offense to continue scoring and put the pressure on Mahomes. Defense is gonna force multiple turnovers and we win by 10+ points.

[BareYourTeeth]

Expecting to hear about 1-3 again all week:

Lamar's record against the Chiefs.

Locked in.

Edited January 22 by BareYourTeeth

[diamondbull424]

The Chiefs are a much better running football team and that is the element of their offense that with their strong defense gives a lot to be concerned about. We know what Mahomes brings to the table. So that team is very balanced.

They’re more disciplined than the Texans but similarly athletic in their defense.

That said I have a hard time believing too many teams are dropping over 20 points on our defense outside of cataclysmic injuries piling up.

Now I think KC’s gameplan will be to look to shutdown our rushing attack and middle of the field as best as they can and let their secondary go 1v1. Force a Lamar to beat them as a passer.. at least early on.

So I think to the degree that our receivers can make some explosive plays early, that will open things up for our TEs and rushing attack up the middle.

I’m still not entirely sure what to make of the KC defense but our IOL will be crucial as Lamar is nearly unstoppable as long as we can reduce the interior pressure and the OTs can hold up for longer than 2 seconds.

The Chiefs will not go away though and so we will have to go hard all game long. It’ll be interesting to see who all plays. I’ll give an actual prediction once I see the healthy reports, but as it stands I’m thinking 24-16.

[Nobellythrower]

Pachecho is a good back, runs angry will be interesting to see him and ro meet.

This is the matchup I didn't want, Sneed has been the best corner this season, shutting down all the tops wr the chiefs have faced, along with mcduffie another top 10 corner, Also have Chris Jones who can just change the game. Spags is most likely going to stack the box, put a spy on lamar, and leave his cbs on a island , with some blitzes  , I think this is a hill/cook game where lamar should take the checkdown and let those get yac 

Mahomes eats up blitzes so mac has to cook up something to stop them. 

Edited January 22 by Nobellythrower

[SalvadorsDeli]

To the extent this is just about stacking wins and getting a ring, it doesn't matter who was in front of us, but the playoffs are also about rewriting your narrative and building legacies, it wouldn't have quite felt right if we got to duck Mahomes and the Chiefs entirely.

This is put up or shut up for Lamar and Harbaugh -- if you want that ring you gotta ****** that chain right off Mahomes' neck. Biggest home game in franchise history, the Bank had better be rocking. This is THE game they'll lead with at Lamar's Canton induction ceremony if he pulls it off, even moreso than beating Purdy or Goff in Vegas would be, in the same way that Peyton's biggest playoff moment was the comeback against Brady in the '06 AFCCG and not beating Rex Grossman two weeks later to win the Lombardi. Gonna take years off all of our lives I think but idk if I'd really rather have it any other way.

[Ray Reed]

4 hours ago, SalvadorsDeli said:

To the extent this is just about stacking wins and getting a ring, it doesn't matter who was in front of us, but the playoffs are also about rewriting your narrative and building legacies, it wouldn't have quite felt right if we got to duck Mahomes and the Chiefs entirely.

This is put up or shut up for Lamar and Harbaugh -- if you want that ring you gotta ****** that chain right off Mahomes' neck. Biggest home game in franchise history, the Bank had better be rocking. This is THE game they'll lead with at Lamar's Canton induction ceremony if he pulls it off, even moreso than beating Purdy or Goff in Vegas would be, in the same way that Peyton's biggest playoff moment was the comeback against Brady in the '06 AFCCG and not beating Rex Grossman two weeks later to win the Lombardi. Gonna take years off all of our lives I think but idk if I'd really rather have it any other way.

Harbaugh slayed Brady and Belichick in January in Foxboro.

Time to slay Reid and Mahomes. Come on Johnny.

[DreamKid]

There's a lot of focus on stopping KC's rushing attack being the key to victory for us, and maybe it is but ultimately every game against them is about your side scoring points. If you can't score 30-40+ you're asking for trouble.

The Chiefs are a tough out, but this is a game where we have no excuse for losing. Even down Dobbins and Mitchell(And potentially down Andrews and Humphrey), we're the more talented side with home field advantage and heaps of momentum/confidence. 

In theory, we're also now in position to unleash Lamar in ways we haven't previously. I think we saw some of that vs the Texans too. With so many regular season games and the nature of the sport it's important to prioritize preserving LJ's season long health and minimize risk. That limiter is somewhat removed right now with only 2 'Win or It's All Over' games remaining. We should be seeing more designed runs and looks that take full advantage of Jackson's special traits. It's empty the clip season baby, shoot all the shots you have.

You couldn't have a more perfect stage set, we either deserve to go to the Super Bowl or we don't- it's all on us.

[SalvadorsDeli]

4 hours ago, Ray Reed said:

Harbaugh slayed Brady and Belichick in January in Foxboro.

Time to slay Reid and Mahomes. Come on Johnny.

Beat Mahomes and then follow that up with a win in the Super Bowl and Lamar becomes the Manning of this era -- and the foil to Mahomes as this generation's Brady. 

If Harbaugh wins a second title, one through beating Brady/Belichek and one through beating Reid/Mahomes then he takes his place as one of the all-time coaching greats, and pretty comfortably becomes the 3rd best coach of this century after Belichek and Reid. 

They're so close to hitting those marks but people have been saying the same thing about Josh Allen for years and there's no prize for second place here. Only winning will do it. 

Do it and become legends, basically. 

[SalvadorsDeli]

1 hour ago, DreamKid said:

There's a lot of focus on stopping KC's rushing attack being the key to victory for us, and maybe it is but ultimately every game against them is about your side scoring points. If you can't score 30-40+ you're asking for trouble.

The Chiefs are a tough out, but this is a game where we have no excuse for losing. Even down Dobbins and Mitchell(And potentially down Andrews and Humphrey), we're the more talented side with home field advantage and heaps of momentum/confidence. 

In theory, we're also now in position to unleash Lamar in ways we haven't previously. I think we saw some of that vs the Texans too. With so many regular season games and the nature of the sport it's important to prioritize preserving LJ's season long health and minimize risk. That limiter is somewhat removed right now with only 2 'Win or It's All Over' games remaining. We should be seeing more designed runs and looks that take full advantage of Jackson's special traits. It's empty the clip season baby, shoot all the shots you have.

You couldn't have a more perfect stage set, we either deserve to go to the Super Bowl or we don't- it's all on us.

I think the other big potential X-Factor is whether Monken has anything stored in the vault for Mark Andrews, assuming he plays. I don't really recall us playing a lot of 12 personnel this year with Andrews and Likely on the field together. Likely has been playing too well to take off the field but in recent weeks it seems like Kolar has seen his snap count hover in the 50% range so there's a clear path towards Andrews getting integrated into the gameplan without eliminating Likely, but it would still mean a shift because I think where we've used 2 TE sets it's moreso been with Kolar or Ricard in an auxiliary blocking role rather than consistently sending two TE's out on passing patterns. 

The matchup problems that Likely/Andrews could pose on the field together could be huge. Hell, you could go 3 WR/2 TE that puts our five best pass catchers -- Zay, OBJ, Bateman, Likely, and Andrews -- all on the field together while still posing a huge threat in the running game with Lamar running behind 2 TE sets. Probably too much to hope that we've installed some new packages along those in the past 2 weeks since Andrews started practicing again but like you said, it's empty the clip season so if the Monken's got it in his bag then this would be the time to see it. 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

18 hours ago, SalvadorsDeli said:

I think the other big potential X-Factor is whether Monken has anything stored in the vault for Mark Andrews, assuming he plays. I don't really recall us playing a lot of 12 personnel this year with Andrews and Likely on the field together. Likely has been playing too well to take off the field but in recent weeks it seems like Kolar has seen his snap count hover in the 50% range so there's a clear path towards Andrews getting integrated into the gameplan without eliminating Likely, but it would still mean a shift because I think where we've used 2 TE sets it's moreso been with Kolar or Ricard in an auxiliary blocking role rather than consistently sending two TE's out on passing patterns. 

The matchup problems that Likely/Andrews could pose on the field together could be huge. Hell, you could go 3 WR/2 TE that puts our five best pass catchers -- Zay, OBJ, Bateman, Likely, and Andrews -- all on the field together while still posing a huge threat in the running game with Lamar running behind 2 TE sets. Probably too much to hope that we've installed some new packages along those in the past 2 weeks since Andrews started practicing again but like you said, it's empty the clip season so if the Monken's got it in his bag then this would be the time to see it. 

The thought of Zay Flowers in the backfield in this personnel package is almost enough to make a grown may cry tears of joy

[DreamKid]

This thread is noteworthy, but fortunately for us we never expect to get the calls in any game 🤣- so this is nothing new.

[Ray Reed]

8 hours ago, DreamKid said:

This thread is noteworthy, but fortunately for us we never expect to get the calls in any game 🤣- so this is nothing new.

[SalvadorsDeli]

https://www.baltimoreravens.com/_mobileview/news/taylor-swift-stavros-stavvy-ronnie-chiefs-ravens-celebrities-counter-afc-championship?hidebanner=true&adobe_mc=TS%3D1706058070|MCMID%3D10755103345035362195306023560956189035|MCORGID%3DF75C3025512D2C1D0A490D44%40AdobeOrg

Legit hilarious that the org is leaning into the Stavvy v. Swiftie angle, love this team. 

[AngusMcFife]

I mentioned this in NFL Gen, but I do like the fact that Mahomes and Reid have yet to go up against a Mike MacDonald defense.

When you think about it, Harbaugh axed Wink specifically because Burrow and Mahomes were torching us, and he thought MacDonald has the answer. So MacDonald almost certainly has a plan to deal with the Chiefs that's been in the vault for 2 years now.

And I'm sorry but I am not intimidated by the Chiefs offense. If we just keep 3 mid-grade weapons in check (Kelce, Pacheco, Rice), I don't see how they will consistently move the ball.