The Ravens went into Kansas City and made Matt Cassel look like the 2nd string quarterback who hasn’t been in the playoffs since high school that he really is. Here are my thoughts on Baltimore’s 30-7 win versus the Chiefs.
A statement – For a team that has been criticized for underperforming, the Ravens made a statement with a dominant veteran like performance against the young Chiefs. The cherry on top was Willis McGahee doing the tomahawk chop after the Ravens went up by 23. This is a clear statement. Here we come Pittsburgh.
Second half adjustments – The Ravens appeared to make the proper adjustments on the Chiefs in the second half. Jamaal Charles was still a threat, but Kansas City plays appeared to develop slower. Kelly Gregg also provided pressure in the backfield on Matt Cassel.
Momentum shift – After the Ravens defense forced a fumble and an interception on the the Chiefs offense the Ravens took the momentum with them into the win column. Baltimore’s adjustments made Cassel look like a different quarterback in the second half. The offense turned those turnovers into 10 points and took the crowd out of the game at Arrowhead.
Offense proves itself – While the first half was shaky, Baltimore proved that their star studded offense can click on all cylinders. The offense utilized everyone from Willis McGahee to Anquan Boldin and Ray Rice to keep the the Chiefs on their feet. Most importantly the Ravens kept the clock ticking when they needed to which kept their defense fresh.
Flacco’s pocket presence – Flacco had two fumbles in the first quarter. One on the goal line that was recovered, the second was lost on the Ravens’ 48. It set up Jamaal Charles’ 41 yard TD run. Joe Cool is great and while being calm is a good attribute, he needs to know when to get rid of the ball. As the game progressed, Flacco did learn to take off down field a few times, which helped to set up their go ahead TD before the end of the first half.
Charles had their number in the first half – Terrence Cody came up with a big strip on Jamaal Charles. The ball was recovered by Brandon McKinney, but the Ravens went three and out after Flacco was sacked. The Ravens defense struggled to tackle Charles all day. Ed Reed and Ray Lewis both had missed tackles on an 11 yard gain in the 2nd quarter and Dawan Landry continued his trend of failing to tackle opponents. Reed made up for it later with a huge hit on Dexter McCluster on third down. As a side note, Reed’s hit was violent and perfectly clean. ProFootballTalk tweeted that the NFL should send DVDs of the hit to players to show them how it’s done.
Started slow – On their first five carries the Ravens had -2 yards rushing. Baltimore was stopped on their first goal line stand. The Ravens don’t fool anyone on the goal line. Whenever McGahee comes out, you know he’s going to get the ball and you know he won’t cross the goal line. Baltimore had 27 plays and the ball 12:37 compared to Kansas City’s five plays and 2:23 in the first quarter. But the Chiefs had a 7-3 lead after 15 minutes. I can’t complain though. The Ravens adjusted beautifully.
The Ravens put together a good game plan, took advantage of Kansas City’s weaknesses with their strengths and look ready for next week.
Next stop Pittsburgh.
Maybe this team did just sleep walk through the regular season. That second half was one of the most dominating that they've played all year. Nothing negative from me today.
Dominating? I could have dominated the Chiefs with a high school team!! KC made it too easy…there were several incidents where Baltimore should have scored TDs and settled for field goals.
That's not going to happen next Saturday.
I think dominating is the right word. Perhaps a high school team could have beaten the Chiefs, but your former head coach Bill Cowher took KC. See you next week.
CSF – Instead of going against one of my fellow Raven fans, I'll go after the opposition. The Ravens cannot be faulted for playing an inferior opponent. They played a Division winner with 10 wins in their house and manhandled them. One only needs to remember back to yesterday when the defending World Champs played a 7-9 team and went home one and done. The Ravens did exactly what they had to do and did so rather impressively.
True….the Seattle win was impressive. Bill Cowher's pick was ridiculous. I cannot believe he chose against the AFC North.
As far as World Champs: that's where I have a REAL issue. They were Super Bowl champs. A game played within the 48 contiguous states is NOT a world championship. The Spanish National team won a WORLD football (insert :soccer here) championship. My Steelers have won 6 NFL Super Bowl Championships. You cannot call it a world championship if no one else besides the good old USA participates!!!!!
If you can remember my Canadian friend the Baltimore Stallions won the CFL Grey Cup so we are truly the World championship city! I also noticed someone saying that the reason the Steelers are so much more successful than the Ravens was………. Well in the last 15 years it's Ravens 1 SB and Pitt 2! The 4 you won in the 70's was anchient history that was equaled by The Baltimore Colts 3 NFL Championships and one Superbowl! Back in the 50's and 60's when your precious Steelers never won anything in their 50 years of existence! We won our 1st Championship with the Colts in our 5th or 6th year and the Ravens Won a Superbowl in the5th year also! So the way I see it we are way ahead of you! All good things come to an end and I can feel it this year! We are going to win next week! I don't know how or what will happen, but I think you Steeler fans even know that we are going to win next week and you will be home and sad for the rest of this season!
Baltimore Stallions??? Oh, please. Even die-hard CFL fans would never call it a Canadian league as most of the players are Americans and rejects from the NFL. You are missing the point anyway. Whoever wins on February 6th has won the Super Bowl, can be called NFL champs or champions of the USA but if you don't play beyond your own borders, it's a bit ridiculous to call yourself WORLD champions.