The Ravens are a uniquely weird team in Week 14 of the NFL season.
They're weird because their QB position is a great unknown.
Joe Flacco is, of course, the world's most underwhelming Super Bowl MVP, and has sucked this year. We know who he is, we have millions of hours of underwhelming tape to depressingly watch. And he returned to practice this week, but did not play, Eric Berry style.
But that might change. He may see the field.
Which is interesting, because their backup QB, Lamar Jackson, a 1st round selection by the Ravens (albeit with the 32nd pick), is a very weird player. He runs, and runs, and runs with the ball. His completion percentage is a not-terrible 60%. And he's only played three weeks, so tape on him is slim.
We know this: he is fast, he is not afraid to run the ball, and he's a damn gazelle when he does.
The good news: we can probably spy him. His weapons are bleak. Alex Collins is his #1 RB, and he's averaging 3.6 yards a carry. His #1 receiver is John Brown, who initially looked like Tyreek Hill when he first hit the league, but has since statistically slowed down and is now just a good receiver with very difficult speed to account for. Michael Crabtree is their #2 alongside Willie Snead, and Tyreek Hill has more yardage than both of those guys combined, but Crabtree has had good games against us in the past.
As a result, the Ravens are still somehow 13th in the league in yardage, they are averaging 25 points a game.
The Ravens have good pass protection, as they've only given up like 25 sacks or something like that. Ronnie Stanley is their LT.
But really, the Ravens offense wins by trying to run the ball, passing decently, and then letting Lamar Jackson get creative.
As far as the defense is concerned.................. biggest test of the year right here folks.
#1 rated defense in yardage (they're allowing under 300 yards/game).
#1 rated defense in points (they're allowing 17 points/game).
I think it's safe to say we're going to beat those averages but they should still slow us down pretty significantly. I don't know if Patty will have another 4 TD game here.
The Ravens get good pressure on the QB -- they're 9th in the league in sacks, and the pressure comes from everywhere. Suggs has always played well against us but he only has 5.5 this year. They blitz a good amount.
Simply put, the Ravens pass defense will be the biggest challenge Mahomes faces all year. They're allowing under 200 yards passing all season. Eric Weddle is a goddamn general at the back of their defense, and they've got a solid corner or two despite the fact that none of their corners are true ballhawks. Brandon Carr will make a rare appearance against the Chiefs, which is whatever, but he's apparently playing well.
The Ravens have a mean defensive line, and maybe the meanest NT in the league in Brandon Williams. I'm willing to bet they drop everyone in coverage, smother Kelce, and dare Spencer Ware to beat their DL. That's a very tall order, and I don't think our run game is up to the challenge. Mahomes will need to tap every ounce of his MVP talent to get yardage.
In special teams, they have arguably the greatest kicker in modern NFL history in Justin Tucker. They've had one punt return for a TD.
They're 7-5. They're on a three game win streak. Lamar Jackson has started all three games.
Their wins: Bills, Broncos, @Steelers, @Titans, Bengals (no Dalton), Raiders, @Falcons
Losses: @Bengals (Dalton), @Browns, Saints, @Panthers, Steelers
That schedule is all over the place. They beat Pitt in Pitt, but pathetically lose to the Browns. The most damning game on the schedule is the Saints game, where they only lost by a point.
How is this team so good? I've asked before. They have no elite talent on offense and are still racking up yardage and point. They have a damn good defense but don't intercept the ball and they don't have any sack masters like the Chiefs do.
Originally Posted by The Pest:
I believe there was a tweet posted in the GDT that Sutton was on the sidelines yelling at players in the secondary. That was early on in the 2nd half....and we got ****ing worse. Obviously no one on the defense was listening to him.
Originally Posted by The Pest:
I believe there was a tweet posted in the GDT that Sutton was on the sidelines yelling at players in the secondary. That was early on in the 2nd half....and we got fucking worse. Obviously no one on the defense was listening to him.
Or maybe they were listening to him and that's why they got worse. Posted via Mobile Device [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Have you watched some of the recent breakdowns on the run defense?
Man, I just don't know what the hell else Sutton can do; what he can truly scrap. I mean he has guys just abandoning their gap so that three of them can crash the same hole and take each other out while the RB just hits the simple cutback for 15 yards.
His safeties won't engage blockers, his down lineman aren't finishing plays. I mean it's incredible just how often these guys are making high school level mistakes.
Veach needs to wear some of this as well. He and Reid were the ones touting the 'attitude' we added to the defense. I'm not seeing it. The best I can see is Hitchens trying really hard when he's taking himself out of the play. The guys putting forth effort are doing so stupidly. The guys that seem to know where they're going don't seem to care if they actually get there.
I think we've definitely reached the 'new voice' stage because I don't know how the hell you get this kind of myriad of mistakes all around the D. But I also don't think it's a result of anything Sutton's defense is doing in particular. These guys are just fisting themselves with fair frequency.
Excellent post! It really is a chicken and egg quandary. First off- everything you said. I don't think I have ever seen worse Safety play for the Chiefs unless you go back into the mid 80's...maybe. When Bob does freaking call the perfect play and catches them behind the line for a huge loss on a running play- Murray misses the tackle and gives up 25 easy yards.
On other plays I am sitting there practically yelling at the TV- They are going to run this....and they do.... and we look completely out of place, like it was a HUGE surprise--there goes the 5th, 8 yard run of the game. It is insane.
Parker, Murray, and Sorensen are the worst Safeties in the NFL and offer zero run support. Look what Derwin James has done for the Chargers, he has more production and big plays than all 3 of these guys put together.
Then you have Hitchens who sucks in coverage, biting on a head fake for an easy TD. Who do blame on that? Sutton since there was no help deep- or Hitchens for being so slow and pathetic?
No Superbowl winner has ever had a D giving up 7 yards a carry on the ground- it is unsustainable and the Achilles heel of this team. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Halfcan:
Excellent post! It really is a chicken and egg quandary. First off- everything you said. I don't think I have ever seen worse Safety play for the Chiefs unless you go back into the mid 80's...maybe. When Bob does freaking call the perfect play and catches them behind the line for a huge loss on a running play- Murray misses the tackle and gives up 25 easy yards.
On other plays I am sitting there practically yelling at the TV- They are going to run this....and they do.... and we look completely out of place, like it was a HUGE surprise--there goes the 5th, 8 yard run of the game. It is insane.
Parker, Murray, and Sorensen are the worst Safeties in the NFL and offer zero run support. Look what Derwin James has done for the Chargers, he has more production and big plays than all 3 of these guys put together.
Then you have Hitchens who sucks in coverage, biting on a head fake for an easy TD. Who do blame on that? Sutton since there was no help deep- or Hitchens for being so slow and pathetic?
No Superbowl winner has ever had a D giving up 7 yards a carry on the ground- it is unsustainable and the Achilles heel of this team.
Hitchens was on the sideline earlier in the game with a gimpy quad. Sutton is a fucking moron for putting him into 1 on 1 coverage with no help over the top against their best receiver. [Reply]
There was a discussion earlier about elite quarterbacks and the Super Bowl.You don't need one to go all the way in a given year. We won in 2000 with Trent Dilfer who was about as un-elite as you can get. Joe Flacco took us to the title in 2012. While he was very good then, I wouldn't have called him quite "Elite". He certainly hasn't maintained that level since.
So Mahomes is certainly good enough to take you all the way.Quite amazing for a second-year QB.
Despite the pass-happy nature of the NFL, I'm old fashioned; I still believe that offense wins games but defense wins championships. That's our big edge over you.
You won't beat us because you overpower our defense and score 45 points.It's too good. I'm afraid our offense will try to run, run, run, and you'll be ready for that. We could also turn the ball over and give you a couple of easy scores. I'm afraid our offense may tank early, and things will snowball. That's why I think you have the edge in this game.
The Ravens should become even more strange than they already are.
So if I'm Harbaugh, I come out throwing, Sunday. You'll be packing the box to stop the run. That leaves single coverage on our wide-outs. Given a little protection, Jackson can exploit that because the Chiefs won't expect it.We slow your rush with play-action which your front seven must respect, and then let 'er rip.It could net us a quick score and set the Chiefs back on their heels.
If we score first, it gives us some momentum and we'll make a game of it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mikezpen:
Despite the pass-happy nature of the NFL, I'm old fashioned; I still believe that offense wins games but defense wins championships. That's our big edge over you.
You won't beat us because you overpower our defense and score 45 points.
You'll have to excuse us if we're a little dismissive but we've heard this kind of stuff already this season. [Reply]
Only one game did the opposing defense actually really slow down the Chiefs, and that was at Denver. In the rest of our “low” scoring games we scored around “only” 30 points because we stopped trying to score in the fourth quarter due to having big leads. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mr. tegu:
Only one game did the opposing defense actually really slow down the Chiefs, and that was at Denver. In the rest of our “low” scoring games we scored around “only” 30 points because we stopped trying to score in the fourth quarter due to having big leads.
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
Ravens have forced the 3rd fewest turnovers in the NFL and haven't had an INT in 32 quarters and and 1 full OT period. That's 8+ games.
Their only shot to win this game is with turnovers and they haven't been doing that.
Originally Posted by terp1976:
Arizona would disagree with you.
The score was 26-14 with 10 minutes left in the game. The next two possessions the Chiefs had, which were their last two of the game, they ran 6 plays with five runs and one pass. Two three and outs. The Cardinals can disagree but they would be wrong. [Reply]
