He needs to stay locked in and focused. The drifting stuff should be used in rare situations. He had one awesome TD to Hardman against Baltimore a few years ago where he did the drifting thing against heavy blitz. Torched them on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxmzugJRRVk

Agree. My “house money” talk is about my feeling as a fan.

I hope the team doesn’t feel that way for a second. I want them going in expecting to win, not just being happy to make it this far.

I wonder if he gets in his own head about working on things in the regular season, trying to force himself to do things a certain way and trying to get guys involved, etc... and then the playoffs hit and he just goes and plays football.

Given they obviously use the regular season as one long preseason.

Since draft position matters all your top 10 wrs are first rounders? that's makes no logical stance where they were drafted, what round was puka drafted? obj is washed, bateman is jag, zay is solid, andrews is all pro, likely is solid, but you're just listing names, James cook is pro bowl rb 1300 scrimmage yards,Shakir is a stud, diggs is an all pro, kincaid is already one of the best tight ends in the league and better then likely, Andrews is elite, but he didn't have that. Both are medicore, but lamar is a 2x mvp and He can elevate a team, meanwhile joe brady by his playcalling acknowledged he had weapons and made Josh a game manager.

I think what most people mean by this is that KC is not the favorite. The pressure for them to win is not like it is for other teams. KC has been there and done that, so they know what it takes to win. Buffalo had the pressure of trying to beat KC, especially with them finally getting a chance to do it at home.

Now Baltimore has it as they also get KC at home and Jackson has to deal with the pressure of beating the Chiefs and Mahomes. KC is the hunter right now vs the hunted. That is a much better position to be in.

His passing ability doesn't scare me but definitely his running does.

The last game I watched, the Ravens gave up 3 points to Houston's offense. They would have won that game with Kyle Boller at QB.

Spags copied Fangio's cover 2 shell blueprint that made Mahomes struggle in 2021. 2 deep, cut off the deep pass and force the QB to make long drives and not make mistakes.

Allen made the plays in the red zone 2X to Shakir but never at any other moment. I bet he does the same thing to Lamar.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/Chiefs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Chiefs</a> gameplan was perfectly executed. Bend but dont break. <a href="https://twitter.com/Bills?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bills</a> had 0 explosive plays. They were not going to get beat deep. Forced a lot of checkdowns and scrambles and got the most important prize. The W. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BaldysBreakdowns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BaldysBreakdowns</a> <a href="https://t.co/7MEq5CRH1X">pic.twitter.com/7MEq5CRH1X</a></p>&mdash; Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaldyNFL/status/1749461468892803316?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I feel like the Ravens are like the Chiefs when we beat the Texans back in 2015. That was the Texans. These are the Chiefs. No reason for us to be afraid.

Doesn't mean we can't lose, but I firmly believe we will win. If I'm wrong...meh. It happens. But I just think this team is clicking and in full playoff mode...and they go to the Superbowl at least half the time they go to the playoffs...

No reason to believe we can't win this game.

No way.

You don't defend them the same.

You're single high all day because Lamar can't throw the ball outside the numbers well.

Josh does that in his sleep.

Lamar can't throw outside. It's all the crossing stuff, or broken plays.

But the strength of the defense is the secondary. And we cannot play Smith man to man because he will eat us alive running. Josh is a big bruiser but Lamar is dynamic and that is way way way harder to contain.

The best game I can remember where someone did this, was Philly against Atlanta the year the Vick was crushing everyone similarly.

They played a mush rush, and kept the lanes closed down, and forced Vick to pass. And he couldn't. I need to go find that game now....

Exactly where I'm at. I want another Lombardi, I want ALL the Lombardis, but I just know that I won't be devastated if it doesn't come to pass this year. Still ticked and/or disappointed, I'm sure, but not devastated.

And if it does happen, WHICH TBH IT WILL??? OH BABY

Here's the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B20v...l=JamieJohnson

Philly held the Falcons to 3 points, Vick to 30 yards rushing and two picks. No tuddies.

Lamar is very similar to Vick in his prime and both guys really wait for lanes if the first 1-2 reads aren't there.

So I'm really interested to see how Spags cooks this one up.

Ravens are going to run all over us if we do that

Local baltimore radio were joking on the Chiefs. Very confident in a blowout.. They seem to think they've already won the SB and it's just a formality. Bizarre coming from a franchise that's 2-3 in the playoffs with Lamar compared to a team with Mahomes (13-3). Somebody needs to send the Chiefs clips of these clowns.

Yeah, we have seen the Chiefs do a lot of mush rushes against Josh Allen, so we know they have that trick in their bag for sure. Makes sense to do it with Lamar Jackson also.

Watching the Ravens a bit again today, I just don’t see much difference in Jackson as a passer. He has better weapons and a more pass friendly scheme, but he still gets inconsistent when he’s moving to throw, and he still struggles throwing outside the numbers.

If you look closely you'll see the two most proven QB's they faced (Stafford and Watson) lit that defense up in Baltimore and Burrow was doing the same until he got injured. I'm digging into the numbers and tape but I think people might be surprised by how basic the list of QB's that defense has faced.

Why not just use Tap a Talk?

Yeah, like any QB you can pull together enough ok throws to make a youtube vid, but he certainly looked like the same passer as me... doesn't even look all that confident throwing the ball from what I saw the other day.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Patrick Mahomes&#39; 4 games vs. the Ravens:<br><br>2018: 377 passing yards, 2 TDs<br>2019: 374 passing yards, 3 TDs<br>2020: 385 passing yards, 5 TDs<br>2021: 343 passing yards, 3 TDs <a href="https://t.co/zCBODITGlT">pic.twitter.com/zCBODITGlT</a></p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1749493028493123967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

If you think Baltimore's weapons are worse than Buffalo's, I don't know what to tell you.

Kincaid and Shakir are up and coming, but lets not pretend they are studs yet.

Baltimore's weapons are Bona Fide by comparison to the Bills. If anything their production is more indicative of Jackson's limitations than his ability to produce. Jackson is a special player with the ball in his hands, but last I checked, running backs don't win championships. Any weapon is going to struggle to produce by traditional metrics when your QB distributes the ball all of 28.5 times a game in his FAR AND AWAY most pass-oriented year.

So yea, I do think the Raven's weapons have their hands tied, and all things being equal, are on par with, if not better than the Bills. I guess its a good thing Lamar is a good running back. It really elevates his team.

The texans were missing player but even so that'd be why they beat the chiefs, also seen the bills hold the cowboys to 3 and win throwing the ball under 100 yards.

To say the Bills had zero explosive plays is technically correct, but come on. Allen threw two perfect deep balls that were dropped. I don't think the Chiefs D played particularly well yesterday, but I tip the cap to Josh Allen. Having said that, Lamar Jackson just isn't as good as Josh Allen.

Just a reminder of how quickly Lamar chews up yards when he does decide to run. And damn, Fred Warner wasn't even close to touching him here.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Besides this being yet another ridiculous Lamar play, what cracks me up about it is Fred Warner on a dead sprint thinking he&#39;s just going to line Lamar up in the open field. <a href="https://t.co/riJttaPUVA">pic.twitter.com/riJttaPUVA</a></p>&mdash; Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanmink/status/1740047508070633602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Would love to score some tickets for this game, I’m from MD as well.

between the 20's... then it gets compacted. Hold them to 3, which was the plan last night, but Josh made to crazy 3 down throws in the redzone.

Perfect? The one was short and left and the receiver almost made an impossible catch on it. The pass to Diggs, who was very well covered and was thrown slightly to the outside and 50/50 catch at best. That was on the last drive too. So they miss a FG there or score a TD, we have the ball and 6 minutes to play...

The more I hear confident predictions against the chiefs, knowing that Mahomes also hears every word of it, the more confident I get that we'll win.

This team is a completely different animal in the playoffs, and I don't know why that's so hard for some people to grasp.

I referred to the "house money" as well. I feel like the AFC championship game was played in Buffalo last night. I really do. IMO Josh Allen is the 2nd best quarterback in the league and it isn't really a close 3rd. Allen played a near flawless game and left everything on the field and it still did not matter. A stadium full of Bills fans who knew that was the biggest game in their stadium in the past 30+ years poured their hearts and souls into that game and it still did not matter. I feel like that was the biggest obstacle left in our way. By far.

We are witnessing history. Mahomes is an absolute unicorn. He is the best quarterback that will ever play the game. His "over my dead body" mentality and downright refusal to let his team lose in these playoff moments is paralled in history by only Michael Jordan. I think our team knows we have the baddest MFer on the block and they are going to play free and loose from here on out. No more dropped passes. No stupid ass penalties. No turnovers. Jump on Mahomes' back and go secure the greatest dynasty and 6 year stretch the league has ever seen

They don’t have worse then buffalo, their both in the same group of mid though , also player by player who are you taking? Diggs or Flowers’s easy answer , shakir or washed obj? Easy answer , cooks or gus/hill easy answer , kincaid or likely? talking about passing metric while forgetting their like bottom 10 in passing attempts and run heavy and value efficiency over volume, joe Brady made Allen a game manager , Lamar is playmaker that’s going to be the difference

But won’t their pass rush be more lethal than the Bills? And less injured?

I’m dooming

Playoff Patrick.

That would be more beating off than me. Challenge. :)

Billls front wasn't injured, it was full go. Thuney is great, Allegretti is probably 75% -80% of him, and is a solid backup, would probably start on several teams. Hes fairly mean as well...which I like... We will just have to see, next man up at this point.

My question is this...IF Mahomes beats the Ravens and heads to the SB (which I want please!) does Mahomes get the League MVP? Beats Tua, wins on the road to Allen, then again on the road vs. Jackson. Leads his team to a back to back SB AGAIN! Does he win the League MVP?

No. It's based on regular season stats. As an unwritten rule the playoffs are kinda of a tiebreaker when its close.

Lamar has won the MVP with 99.9% certainty, deserving or not

Nope that is a regular season award...

Doubt it.

Yeah, to put it another way, in 2019 after Mahomes' 2nd pick in the SB, I had that pit of the stomach feeling of badness.... rage in 2020, that pit of the stomach feeling at :13, mass confusion at the Bengals game a week later.

Did pretty well last night watching it all shake out for 3 quarters, but then was stressing the **** out at the swing from going up 10 and thinking they had the game won to turning over the ball.

Not expecting any of that this weekend, outside of maybe stressing the **** out in key late moments and then letting it go..... and not because it's some kind of psychological ploy to prevent it from happening if I say 'house money' enough times.

Thank you for the explanation! I wasn't sure how that worked. :thumb:

:hmmm:

https://i.imgur.com/S5Y2GdA.jpg

He is already a stud IMO. Bills OC and Kincaid's youth(lack of experience dealing with great 2ndaries) just didn't have an answer for OUR 2ndary.

Don’t they vote before the playoffs begin?

NFC teams that rarely ever play them struggle with him and his style. KC and especially Spags is more familiar with him. He’s still a dynamic player, but he doesn’t do anything they haven’t seen before.

Huh? Stroud?

They vote in November/December. Playoffs never decide it.

Always assumed not since its not announced for weeks later. Honestly just assumed it was a week max before it is announced. Usually seems like players who performed better in playoffs had an edge but maybe not.

Nope, zero benefit from the Playoffs. They wait until Super Bowl weekend to announce it at the NFL Awards ceremony, but the voting is done by end of December.

Our linebackers and secondary are some of the fastest in the league.

They key to this game is going to be a quick start to the first half. We typically are a much better 2nd half team than we are a 1st half team

EXACTLY !!!!!

And Spags has already beat Lamar twice with lesser Chief defenses.:shrug:

Not really just this season. In the past we would consistently get off to a fast start and continue into the 2nd half. Just saying.;)

Fair to a degree… thought the talent on the Houston offense looked overmatched though in a way that never allowed Stroud much of a chance

Too slow at RB, OL was missing a couple key players. It was too much especially with Baltimore very rested.

Stroud beat the Ravens ?? :spock:

Last time a team was this hyped vs KC was SB 57. There was just no way the Chiefs were beating the most dominant team in the league…….

The Texans were a great story this year and Stroud was impressive. But at the same time they outplayed their talent and experience. We all hoped Baltimore would have lost, but the differences in the two teams showed in that game. They were overmatched. The Texans look to be a year or two ahead of schedule.

And IF Stroud continues to become a student of the game(and I think he is off to a good start) he will be up there in the top 5. But if that does not happen DCs will catch up to him and he will go by the wayside just like a lot of other great athletic QBs playing back up. Same for Love.

Someone go to a Ravens board and tell them the White Stripes are pure garbage

Keep Toney and Skyy on the bench and we'll win! Oh yeah...don't call any plays in which Hardman gets the ball

I think they send out copy to use for the 2 weeks before the Superbowl, they autofill it early with the one seeds. This has come up in years past as well.

Ravens DC owns Stroud. Beat him in college and held him and his team to 0 offensive TD's in two games this year. Stroud was a stud vs almost everyone else but impotent vs Balt this year.

I agree with your overall point but I honestly would probably take Flowers at this point over Diggs. Diggs looks washed to me. But no WR scares me vs this secondary. Lamar is a great athlete but I think our LB's (assuming Willie is good to go) matchup really well with him. I am weirdly much more confident about this game than I was the last one.

Probably betting companies watching dumb people put tons of money on this outcome.

My biggest concern is being mentally and physically ready next week. I'm pretty sure we're 0-3 after beating the Bills in the playoffs.

0-2

On paper Baltimore seems like a difficult matchup for KC. KCs defense is great but they are better against the pass than the run and Baltimore wants to run. Baltimore is said to have an elite defense but they are designed mostly to be able to stop the pass and they let up a similar ypc as the Chiefs.

Baltimore is good at forcing turnovers and the Chiefs have one of the worst turnover differentials in the league.

I just still like our chances alot despite all of this. Dont know why. It might have something to do with us being the Kansas City Chiefs.

Two games is still too little a sample size. The first Bills game was an example of "win the battle, lose the war" as the injuries to our O line from that game where just too much to overcome. The second time (Bengals meltdown game) you can argue a part of the problem was running out of emotional gas. I don't think Mahomes makes that mistake again. Also, looking back on the game yesterday, the team never panicked, never seemed out of it, just seemed like dudes taking care of business. Andy's talk about how the team interacted on the sideline supports that. I don't think the exhausted much more emotional energy yesterday than they would during any other game.

EDIT: I should've include this on my first response to baitism

Man, for some reason (maybe the one you pointed out but I was nervous about the last game) I feel really good about this game. Of course the Ravens can win, they're a good football team but in some ways, I feel like our LB's are the perfect match for Lamar. Furious George and his non stop motor will help as well. If our O line holds up (no easy task) I think we win this game.

Mahomes is 3-0 against Josh Allen in the Playoffs so it can't be 0-2.

#1 seed helps you dodge a tough opponent in the Divisional round. Baltimore definitely has a large advantage in that regard. KC had a similar advantage last year when Cincy & Buffalo played each other in the Divisional round.

We haven’t played Baltimore yet. Sunday was the third win.

They looked amazing against the Bengals in the first half of the '21 AFCCG... had nothing to do with a :13 hangover.

I think they did run out of gas in that game.

Nope. It was the season long rift.

I still firmly believe Mahomes was concussed in that game. The defense had enough juice in the 2nd half to give Mahomes opportunities. He was just missing wide open guys left and right.

Rams scored 31 points and had over 400 yards of total offense vs the Ravens defense.

Cleveland scored 33 points and had 178 yards rushing vs their defense.

The Rams and Cleveland ran the ball well in both of those games… both games in Baltimore.

Could be a combo of both things. Concussion mixed with an adrenaline crash.

You're right. I don't think Lamar can make this type of throw.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">3rd and 13 - Ridiculous <a href="https://t.co/rGQWaN4Bex">pic.twitter.com/rGQWaN4Bex</a></p>&mdash; Erik Turner Cover 1 Jefe (@ErikJTurner) <a href="https://twitter.com/ErikJTurner/status/1749418159902228966?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

To quite the great poet, Cousin Eddie

“You serious, Clark”