Let's Talk About Baltimore (AFC Championship)

[SHOWTIME]

Headed back to the AFC Championship Game!!!! Discuss.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

It was insane. The worst gameplan maybe ever. BAL got to the AFCCG on the back of their no. 1 ranked rushing attack, and then they just abandon it in favor of having Lamar Jackson drop back to pass 82% of the time of all people? Huge brainfart by their OC and Harbaugh for okaying any such plan. Just titanically stupid.

Its hard to run when we constantly had 7+ in the box, daring Lamar to beat us with his arm.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by IowaHawkeyeChief

Its hard to run when we constantly had 7+ in the box, daring Lamar to beat us with his arm.

If you're the best running team in football, and your QB isn't the best pocket passer, you should be running the ball. Certainly passing with Lamar 80% of the time is a huge mistake. And you can't let a defense just dictate when you're going to run based on just how many guys are near/in the box. JC, there was a time when good running teams (1990s DAL for one) just ran, regardless of how many players were in the box. '9 guys in the box? F U, we're running anyway!'


Hell, from a metrics standpoint, passing 80% of the time is a near certain probability to lose. Hell, the few times the Chiefs passed over 75% of the time, we lost. And the vast majority of teams that get that far out of whack between running/passing lose those games.


It was a stupid, stupid thing to do by BAL, regardless of how many guys we had in the box.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by smithandrew051

Sorta wonder if the Ravens wanted to prove a point, which got in the way of..ya know…winning the game.

Their defense wanted to make Mahomes pay for running. Which led to them playing out of control and racking up penalties.

Their offense maybe wanted to prove Lamar could win with his arm. Which led to them exposing him worse than most thought possible.

Maybe. I mean, who knows, right? Whatever they game-planned, it was stupid to go that far away from the strength of their offense. They were the best running team in football, by a lot, and they should've been leaning on that run game, or whatever the strength of their offense was supposed to be, if they wanted a chance to win. Imo.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

It was insane. The worst gameplan maybe ever. BAL got to the AFCCG on the back of their no. 1 ranked rushing attack, and then they just abandon it in favor of having Lamar Jackson drop back to pass 82% of the time of all people? Huge brainfart by their OC and Harbaugh for okaying any such plan. Just titanically stupid.

Was it the actual gameplan or did they panic early on? They went 3 and out early on. If I remember right they tried to run the ball in that sequence and it failed. KC comes back with a strong drive for a TD. Baltimore starts feeling like they need to throw the ball. They hit the deep ball TD to tie the game. KC comes back with another very strong drive for a TD. I think at this point Baltimore felt like they had to keep throwing the ball the rest of the game. They should have showed more patience given that their defense allowed 0 points in the 2nd half.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Was it the actual gameplan or did they panic early on? They went 3 and out early on. If I remember right they tried to run the ball in that sequence and it failed. KC comes back with a strong drive for a TD. Baltimore starts feeling like they need to throw the ball. They hit the deep ball TD to tie the game. KC comes back with another very strong drive for a TD. I think at this point Baltimore felt like they had to keep throwing the ball the rest of the game. They should have showed more patience given that their defense allowed 0 points in the 2nd half.

I was talking with my buddy who's a BAL fan last night after the game, and he said something similar. That maybe they panicked. Which seems nuts to me as well, because that's pretty much exactly what they did back a couple years ago when they were playing TEN in the playoffs, right? They got down by a couple scores in the first half, and completely shit kittens in their shorts in the 2nd half trying to throw the ball deep, and never came back to their running attack, iirc.


How the eff do you make the same exact mistake twice in the same situation?

[Kiimo]

This is where the dynasty of the Chiefs begins to end. They will list injuries, they will list the Swifties, there is the impending doom of Jim Harbaugh with a legit QB in their division.

The Ravens are merely going to stamp the ticket and put them, their fanbase, and the rest of the world on notice.

Anyone that knows football can see the Ravens are the superior team, just the way the Ravens were the superior team when they played at Pittsburgh, they beat themselves and lost.

That is Kansas City’s only hope is that the Ravens do not perform to their capabilities. If the Ravens team is playing on all cylinders and the Chiefs are playing on all cylinders, the Ravens win this matchup.

the ravens board is enjoyable today

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

I was talking with my buddy who's a BAL fan last night after the game, and he said something similar. That maybe they panicked. Which seems nuts to me as well, because that's pretty much exactly what they did back a couple years ago when they were playing TEN in the playoffs, right? They got down by a couple scores in the first half, and completely shit kittens in their shorts in the 2nd half trying to throw the ball deep, and never came back to their running attack, iirc.


How the eff do you make the same exact mistake twice in the same situation?

Two different OC's as well. Same "panic" mode while trailing by a small enough margin that they could have leaned more on the run game instead of throwing it non-stop. So is Johnny Harbaugh the one pushing the panic button in these situations? Hard to blame the OC when it happened with 2 different guys in that job.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Two different OC's as well. Same "panic" mode while trailing by a reasonable enough margin that they could have leaned more on the run game instead of throwing it non-stop. So is Johnny Harbaugh the one pushing the panic button in these situations? Hard to blame the OC when it happened with 2 different guys in that job.

Yah. It seems to point at Harbaugh. It'd be interesting to find out exactly instead of guessing.

And it does seem weird that Harbaugh would okay throwing it 57 times (or whatever the final number was, 51?) vs. running it 15 times, when he's always been a running attack guy. Just a very strange thing to do.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Was it the actual gameplan or did they panic early on? They went 3 and out early on. If I remember right they tried to run the ball in that sequence and it failed. KC comes back with a strong drive for a TD. Baltimore starts feeling like they need to throw the ball. They hit the deep ball TD to tie the game. KC comes back with another very strong drive for a TD. I think at this point Baltimore felt like they had to keep throwing the ball the rest of the game. They should have showed more patience given that their defense allowed 0 points in the 2nd half.

Also, part of their success this year was running the read option. Our alignment and discipline was not allowing the read option to be successful and we were winning up front this week as well compared to the Bills who had a much better Oline. Our first two drives were 7 min and 9 min and was going to limit their possessions and caused some panic, but running was going to be tough and they were getting behind the chains quite a bit attempting it.

[Dunerdr]

Anyone have a link to the full replay? Or is nfl+ the only way?

[ThaVirus]

Aaron earned an iron urn!

[Rainbarrel]

Sneed had a tendency to get a few PIs. His Lamarness couldn't get the ball with in a reasonable proximity. Foiled again!

[Hammock Parties]

over 24 hours and no photos of mahomes firing a legendary pass

i am sad

maybe chiefs will post top shots

i looked at baltimore sun, kc star, chiefs site, getty and usa today...NADA

[ForeverIowan]

In regards to the Ravens abandoning the run...that is the kind of pressure Mahomes puts on you. Especially when the Chiefs grab a quick lead. I relate it to falling behind by 10+ in basketball and thinking you can get it all back with one shot. You start chucking up contetested threes. Mahomes and Reid just freaking lean on you. Opposing offensive coordinators panic.

The past two weeks the Bills and Ravens both going for it on 4th and short deep in their own territory in the first freaking quarter. Horrible fake punts in a three point game. In the playoffs Mahomes makes you feel like you need to score on every single possession.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by ForeverIowan

The past two weeks the Bills and Ravens both going for it on 4th and short deep in their own territory in the first freaking quarter. Horrible fake punts in a three point game. In the playoffs Mahomes makes you feel like you need to score on every single possession.

No. 1 defense.

Going for it on 4th in their own house down one score...from the 35

I love having Patrick Mahomes on my team!