Let's Talk About Baltimore (AFC Championship)

[SHOWTIME]

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

[TwistedChief]

Originally Posted by Chief_N_Bama

Wink consistently fielded elite defenses. Couldn’t beat the Chiefs. McDonald fields an elite defense and it’s automatically assumed that he will? Because a second year coordinator is gonna throw looks at Mahomes he’s never seen before?

It’s amazing how much credit ravens get for things they haven’t accomplished yet.

Come on, dude. Don’t compare MacDonald to Martindale. It’s not even close. Wink is stupid vanilla whereas MacDonald is young Spags with a versatile defense very similar to what we’re doing now.

Mahomes might carve them up tomorrow because he’s Mahomes but it’s not going to be a paint-by-number Wink Martindale blitz scheme Mahomes will overcome.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by OneWinningDrive

No disagreement with any of that. To be clear, the Ravens' strength is not their front. To put things in perspective, their front is the weakest part of the defense. They haven't even tried to get a dominant edge beyond taking Oweh in the 1st in that trade between the Chiefs and Ravens for Orlando Brown Jr. Instead, they built the d-line from the inside out. But even there, they didn't spend high-end draft picks on their DTs like the Eagles did; Madubuike and Jones are both 3rd rounders, and Michael Pierce was a cheap signing/UDFA.

The strengths of the Ravens' defense are the secondary and ILBs. And both of those units are significantly better than what the Eagles had. The Ravens' YPA through the air are the lowest in the NFL this year, and through much of the season it was the lowest in several decades. The Smith/Queen ILB duo were both all pros this year.

So while the Ravens' front might not be as good as the Eagles' front, the Ravens' everything else is way better than the Eagles' everything else. And even still, the Ravens' led the league in sacks with four rushers, so the front is perfectly fine.

I think the Eagles were a wildly overrated team last year and going into this, and I don't like the comps people like making here between them and the Ravens. The Eagles won a lot of close games, but they played a Charmin soft schedule. Their collapse this year speaks volumes about who they are.

While obviously Smith and Queen and Hamilton are outstanding and would be starters for the 22 Eagles squad, other than Marcus Williams I don’t think anyone else starts for the Eagles.

Both of the defenses the Chiefs overcome in the Super Bowl were viewed as historically great defenses and pass defenses.

That’s why we’ll need to see it to believe it.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

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.

Is that a Chiefs problem, or a "if we can't win this year, we are in trouble problem"? If the Chiefs are in contention into the 3rd quarter the pressure is going to be so immense on the Ravens and their fans. Epic.

[Chief_N_Bama]

The eagles were #2 in pressured and #1 in sacks last year while blitzing only 22% of the time. The ravens are 23rd in pressure rate and #1 in sacks while blitzing 19.5%.


Your pass rush is nothing Mahomes and the Chiefs can’t handle.

[ReynardMuldrake]

Originally Posted by Chief_N_Bama

Wink consistently fielded elite defenses. Couldn’t beat the Chiefs. McDonald fields an elite defense and it’s automatically assumed that he will? Because a second year coordinator is gonna throw looks at Mahomes he’s never seen before?

It’s amazing how much credit ravens get for things they haven’t accomplished yet.

[OneWinningDrive]

Originally Posted by IowaHawkeyeChief

Derwin James says hi...

Great talent. Night and day difference between the Ravens and Chargers. Literally every player on their defense regressed this year, including James.

[DrRyan]

Watching last week's game now. Texans played a good first half and melted down in the second. Seemingly, making no adjustments when things turned bad. Spags is one of the best in the league at adjusting at the half and on the fly. They had good pressure and contained lamar pretty well in that first half.

I'm really hoping to see Spags bring 5 (occasionally 6) at a high frequency and leaves Sneed and McDuffie on an island. With more focus on containing and collapsing the pocket than sacks. Make him throw it sooner than he'd like and if he can win that way, so be it.

In Pat I trust in a game the outcome is on the QBs arms.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by IowaHawkeyeChief

He's not playing and going through something personal...My god you are a scumbag to take glee in their responses. You can hate his play, and be glad hes out, but he is still a Chief that helped us win a Superbowl. Weird...

You are naive

[Chief_N_Bama]

Originally Posted by TwistedChief

Come on, dude. Don’t compare MacDonald to Martindale. It’s not even close. Wink is stupid vanilla whereas MacDonald is young Spags with a versatile defense very similar to what we’re doing now.

Mahomes might carve them up tomorrow because he’s Mahomes but it’s not going to be a paint-by-number Wink Martindale blitz scheme Mahomes will overcome.

So, if Mahomes carves up Macdonald it’s because of Mahomes not because of Macdonald. But when Mahomes carved up Wink it was because of wink even though no one else carved Wink up?


Ok… if that makes sense to you.

[digger]

Ok NFL fans, who is winning the Championship games this weekend? ��

Here are my picks. Let me hear yours. ����#NFL #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/qcGw4ETilL

— JJ Birden (@jjbirden) January 27, 2024

[MMXcalibur]

Ravens are 4.5 point favorites.

How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, NFL?!?!?

[StalkRavenMad]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

Ravens DC Mike Macdonald is still relatively inexperienced… just his second season as an NFL DC and this will be his second playoff game.

Let’s see him try to gameplan and adjust vs Andy.

I'm 2 years Mike Mac has had 1 game where we questioned if he's been ready. Thats was last season against the Dolphins where we blew a 21 pt lead in the 4th qtr. This season Mike has been spot on. Youvgu6svsay those TOs against SF was luck but that was a result of getting Purdy off rythmn. I trust Mike Mc. Will have a good gameplan tomorrow.

[|Zach|]

Watched this interesting video on our defense that I thought was well done. Eye opening stat that we leaders in the NFL in unblocked pressures. Spags doing so many things well not sure he gets the credit he deserves.

Even if the Ravens have success I believe in our ability to adjust just like you saw against the Bills.

[OneWinningDrive]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

While obviously Smith and Queen and Hamilton are outstanding and would be starters for the 22 Eagles squad, other than Marcus Williams I don’t think anyone else starts for the Eagles.

Both of the defenses the Chiefs overcome in the Super Bowl were viewed as historically great defenses and pass defenses.

That’s why we’ll need to see it to believe it.

The Ravens' secondary doesn't necessarily jump off the page when you do a back-of-the-napkin breakdown of player by player. It's more so the collection of guys together. Hamilton/Williams/Stone are all top-tier safeties in the NFL (Stone was 2nd in the NFL in interceptions). Humphrey is who he is. Stephens/Maulet aren't well known outside of Baltimore, and I'm not going to sit here and tell you they're elite players, but they've been excellent this year. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that's evidenced by the Ravens' YPA, which is better than the '22 Eagles (or any other team in '22).

The Ravens know how to construct defenses. They've been doing it for 25 years. There's a difference between a defense that puts up good statistics against lower competition but can't perform when push comes to shove and one that has the depth to account for everything that is thrown at them in the playoffs. This Ravens defense strikes me as the latter, but playing the Chiefs is the ultimate test of that.

[TLO]

Originally Posted by MMXcalibur

Ravens are 4.5 point favorites.

How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, NFL?!?!?

Good. Let the money flow in on the Ravens behalf.