Quote:
Originally Posted by OneWinningDrive
Sure. None of us know what will happen. The point is just that the Ravens have shown better than any other team in the league that they can get home with four. Whether that actually happens against the team best at combating that is unknown. My original post wasn't a prediction as to what will or won't happen; I was just fact checking a poster who spams the same misinformation.
A larger point that here is that I think this Ravens team was constructed with the knowledge that the Ravens would likely need to go through the Chiefs at some point if they were to get to the Super Bowl. They fired Wink Martindale, whose calling card was to blitz and who failed against the Chiefs for that reason in the games people here love to cite. They built a d-line that gets pressure with four. And they drafted Kyle Hamilton to have a shot at containing Kelce.
You say that matchups matters, and I agree; the problem for the Chiefs is that the Ravens have been purpose built in certain ways to match up with the Chiefs.
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All well and good. Here's another key point that you probably don't want to consider if you are not a Chiefs fan:
The Ravens front is NOT as good at pressuring the QB with 4 as the Eagles front we saw last season. By a decent measure.
And the Chiefs OL, for all that the T have been maligned for their penalties, is BETTER at pass blocking than it was last year, because Taylor and Smith are better pass blockers as a duo than Orlando Brown and Andrew ****ing Wylie. In 2022, the Chiefs had to give help consistently to Wylie and Brown on pass sets. They often were running chips on both ends using a TE and a RB. This year, they have been more traditional and chipping a single side as needed, because both T are able to hold up on an island against outside pass rushes.
Yes, the penalties have been an issue. Each has been pretty clean in that regard the past few weeks.
I think most AFC teams are building their squads with an eye on how to beat the Chiefs, and agree with you that the changes the Ravens have made give them a better matchup than they previously had.