Some rapid reaction to the Ravens’ 9-6 snoozefest win over the Chiefs:

The Ravens are a good football team who are going to win between 10 and 13 games. Not all of them are going to be pretty. Today certainly was not. The Chiefs couldn’t make the Ravens pay for any of their mistakes, and they made way too many themselves. This is the third 9-6 game in Ravens history, the first the Ravens have won. Let’s hope it’s the last one for a while.

Observations and musings after the bump.

  • It goes without saying that Jamaal Charles ran wild in the first half. Ravens have not allowed a 100-yard rusher in a single half since 1998. The second half was a different story, when Baltimore’s defense figured out that the Chief’s offense was more conservative than Matt Drudge. I guess their gameplan was to field goal the Ravens to death?
  • Flacco certainly wasn’t amazing, but all the drops today didn’t help. Boldin, Pitta, Leach, Rice, et al could’ve helped out the QB a little more.
  • The running game was quietly great today, racking up 5.8 yards per carry as a team. Kudos to Rice, Pierce and the o-line.
  • You have to love playing against a team whose fans are openly rooting for Brady Quinn to be their quarterback. Even when you play like the Ravens did today, you’re never out of it when that’s the case.
  • Speaking of the Chiefs passing game, why do they have passing plays in their playbook that specifically rely on receivers setting illegal picks?
  • After potentially getting away with a fumble on the Ravens’ deciding drive, Joe Flacco absolutely ripped the Chiefs’ hearts out with the 16-yard run for first down. It was emblematic of how things went for the Ravens today. Not by design, certainly not poetry in motion, but it worked.