Ten Things About Today’s Game Week 14: KC 27 BAL 24 OT

10. Feel free to use all the words that end in “OUS” that you want tonight: Stupendous, Fabulous, Marvelous, Righteous…. because they all apply. Congratulations to our Chiefs being the first AFC team to secure a playoff spot. Today was not pretty and felt a lot like the game we eventually lost to Tennessee a couple years ago when Andy iced Succop, who got two shots at the kick and beat us with his second attempt. It just felt like it was going to be a back sliding, missed chances kind of day, one of those days where it just ain’t your day. But we have the 2018 version of Young Elway. And this kind of day is what puts people in Canton at career's end.

9. I’m on the shady side of the field, and it was chilly. This time of year the sunshine is always on the visitor's bench. But it was dry and the field was in good condition. It felt really nice when they did the player introductions and they shoot off those big columns of fire from the flame throwers. The game was a tale of two halves: Chiefs offense being better than the Ravens defense in the first half, Ravens defense being better than the Chiefs offense in the second half, until there was around 90 seconds left in regulation. That’s when the play of the year thus far happened, keeping KC in the game with a chance to tie it up in the last minute. I’m amazed that Mahomes was able to pull this game out, and I’m absolutely thrilled about the outcome. But I think it’s important to talk about three things that could certainly end up being our weakness in the playoffs: a) Run Defense; b) Penalties at inopportune times; c) Special Teams.

8. Everybody knew the Ravens were going to try to run the ball down our throats, much like Tennessee did in the second half of our playoff loss last winter. And they basically did just that. Baltimore looked like a wishbone team that just threw the ball occasionally for kicks. Jackson ran for 71 and Edwards for 67, although two Ravens TDs were on passes. Turns out save for Kendall Fuller, our pass defense wasn’t too good this week either. Hitchens, Ragland and Fuller led the team in tackles. Baltimore’s running game the first half was unstoppable. Their first TD was a 75 yard drive where EVERY PLAY was a running play. In the third quarter, KC came up with a big running game stop to get a turnover on downs on a fourth and one. Mahomes ended up giving it right back with a pick a few plays later. The warning sign here is that teams will be able to look at this film and see how the Ravens ran on us. They averaged over five yards per carry. That’s potentially disastrous in a playoff game.

7, Penalties at inopportune times were a huge negative. Sometimes they don’t seem like a big deal when they happen, but they certainly can happen to lead to big problems and bad plays. And they adversely affect other aspects of your game as well, like play calling and special teams. Here’s a couple of examples: When the score was tied in the 4th quarter, The Ravens forced a Chiefs punt. On the punt play, Harris is called for holding, and a Ravens player is called for a block in the back. So the Ravens get the choice of a re-kick. We re-kick, and Jones for the Ravens runs it back 55 yards to set up the eventual go ahead TD. Inside two minutes KC calls time out during their final desperation drive to tie the score. Mahomes had just thrown an Alex Smith check down special to Ware on a 3rd and 4 and gained nothing. Out of the time out, Robinson has a false start, and 4th and 4 goes to 4th and 9. That’s much worse down/distance, and it took the play of the year by Mahomes and Hill to overcome it. These kind of penalties to give opponents second chances, or to make it harder on Mahomes to move the chains at critical times could mean playoff disaster. We lucked out today. KC may have got some home cooking from the zebras. Fuller has about three pass defenses that could have been called DPI, but he got away with all three. Ravens played very Chiefs-Like in the penalty department. They ended up with 11 for 112 yards. A lot of that was holding penalties that the refs are finally starting to call when Ford, Chris Jones and Houston are QB hunting.

6. I said last week that Special Teams were eroding. They took yet another step backwards. Toub’s unit has not given up a punt or kickoff return for a TD in six years. That almost changed today. Jones didn’t score, but the Ravens took the lead late because of the poor punt coverage flipping the field. Buttkicker was 2 out of 4 on field goal attempts. Sure, he got the eventual winner, but he should have hit the 43 yarder at the buzzer. It wasn’t all his fault. Winchester’s snaps have been off target enough to throw off the placements. On the two misses, the snap was low and inside to Colquitt, and on the OT kick the snap was low and inside too. We’re not getting any real punt or kickoff returns, but part of that is because teams kick out of bounds rather than kick to Tyreek. On kickoffs we’re learning we’ll probably have a better chance just giving the offense the ball on the 25 and let them do their thing. There hasn’t been a positive contribution by the Special Teams for several games now. That needs to trend up.

5. Three big heroes today: Hill, Ware and a Williams. I saw Hill come off the field early in the first quarter holding his hand. I thought he may have got it pinched between a couple helmets while he was blocking. Looked like he either hurt his hand or wrist. Then later in the game, he came up lame and had an issue with a heel or ankle. He taped it up, gutted up and played with the pain (I’m looking at YOU Eric Berry.) Hill had No TDs, but did have 8 catches for 139 tough yards. Like Jamaal Charles, Tyreek is small is stature but tough as a truck stop steak. Another hero was Spencer Ware. He had 139 in all purpose yards and was five for five on pass target receptions. He landed hard on his right shoulder right before the half, then came back in and ran tough in the second half despite the painful shoulder. Damian Williams had two TDs: One rushing for the Chiefs first score, and one receiving to tie the game in the final minute. Not bad for a guy who seen almost no action. If you put Ware’s day plus Williams day together you get….ta daaah…a typical big game from Kareem Hunt. So, we got Hunt-like production, but used two guys to make the magic. Kudos to both for stepping up when called on.

4. Mahomes got beat up again this week. He’s been taking some serious shots starting with the Rams game. He was sacked twice and threw a pick off his back foot, with the ball landing somewhere between Kelce and Hill. But even with his day being rough he still threw for 377 and came up big when the game demanded it. After the Chiefs tied it, he was also on the sideline screaming encouragement at the defense, and just about lept out of his shoes when Houston got the strip sack on Jackson. Buttkicker couldn’t seal the deal, but since we got the ball first in the OT, Mahomes was able to get us down for a go ahead field goal. Then Baltimore’s offensive line imploded because Houston and Ford were screaming off the edges, drawing holding penalties and piling penalty yardage on Jackson. In years past, that’s the kind of crap that would happen to us; and Elvis, or Huard, or Alex, or whoever would wet their pants and we’d crumble. It was great that we could do that to our opponent. Ravens having to end the game with RG3 instead of Jackson was sweet, especially after they beat up our guys all day long.

3. Ravens were 5-12 on third down and 1-3 on fourth down. Notice how teams are going for it on fourth down against us more and more often? I think they figure field goals will do them no good, so if they’re on the Chiefs side of the field, they’re going to go. BTW: Was Romo doing his impression of Dan Fouts today? I came home to watch the highlights and he was fellating Harbaugh and Jackson the entire game. Truth of the matter is Baltimore is now a 7-6 team, and that’s just a notch above mediocre in my book. KC ended the year undefeated against the AFC North. That’s impressive.

2. Kelce made NFL history today. It was the first time a tight end had 80 or more catches for 1000 plus yards in their first three seasons. That’s better than Gonzalez, or Gates, or Mackey, or Newsome or Gronk. Congrats to Kelce. Well done. It was a little fearsome that he disappeared in the second half. He only had one catch in the second half. He may have been drawing extra attention after Tyreek got slowed by his injury.

1. So we are in the playoffs, and if we can hold serve the road to Atlanta will come right down Arrowhead’s main street in January. It is possible….POSSIBLE… we could actually see an AFC Championship game at Arrowhead, and win the trophy that has CHunt’s daddy’s name on it. Still a long way to go. Phyllis managed to squeak past the Bengals. Denver lost to Frisco, Indy beat Texans, Oakland shocked the Steelers and Miami beat the Pats. So right now the only team in our rear view mirror is the Bolts, and they have to come to Arrowhead on a short week for a Thursday nighter. Hopefully it’ll be cold, and Tyreek can heal up a bit. Should we put out the bat signal for Eric Berry? It’s time for him to rise and shine. Thursday will be here before we know it. Exciting week. Today was big. Thursday will be even bigger.
[Reply]