How Do the Ravens (And the Rest of the AFC) Knock Off the Chiefs?

Published Jan 27, 2025, 5:00 PM
Team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing talk about the AFC Championship game and what it says about the Ravens' chances to get to the Super Bowl next season.

Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Mink here with Garrett Downing, and we are gonna talk about the championship games in the AFC and NFC. It's the Chiefs and the Eagles going back for a Super Bowl rematch and what it's gonna take for the Ravens to get to that point as we all hoped they would this season but obviously fell short. So Garrett, you know, I think this is a no surprise the Chiefs once again. Yeah, just you know, I mean, gosh, you gotta tip your hat to the Chiefs.

Right.

As much as we all of us don't like it, obviously, you have to tip your hat. They have a dynasty going and they're going for the first ever NFL three peat and they've been. They've been the seven straight AFC championships. And once again for the Ravens and the Bills and the rest of the AFC, everybody's looking up at the Chiefs and saying, how do we get there? How do we knock them off that pedestal?

Right, everyone's trying to figure that out right now. And you look at it like the Chiefs. I think that John Harball made this point. He made it right after the game against the Bills, and then he reiterated it again during the season review press conference last week with Eric the Kasai. He made the point that you have to have him admiration for what the Chiefs have been able to do considering how hard it is. Basically it's hard to win these playoff games. A lot of things need to go right. You need to avoid the mistakes that hurt the Ravens this year against the Bills, the turnovers, uncharacteristic things, penalties. So you need to play you need to play well. You need to avoid the things that puts you in a hole and hurt you, and you need to do it when the pressure is at its highest and when the moment is so big. And I think that's what the Chiefs have been so good at. And I think that kind of speaks to what the point that John Harball made, which is like you have to have admiration for their ability to do it over and over again and just the consistency of being in that spot. And I think I think, like if I were to distill it down right now to what the Chiefs have going for them beyond a Hall of Fame, quarterback and a Hall of Fame coach and a Hall of Fame tight end, and it's great players, like that's obvious, but they also they just know how to win. And they've been in this situation over and over again, and so they win these close games. And there's just this aura to a certain extent that they know in these tight games that they're going to come out victorious because they've done it so many times and they know it, and I think the opponents know it too, and that all of that capital all that plays into the back and forth of these games, and the Chiefs are able to capitalize on it.

And how you.

Stop that's that is what everybody's trying to figure out.

Right, I mean, to your point, so this is the Chief's ninth straight win in the postseason and in their seventeenth consecutive victory in a one score game, which broke their own record. I mean, that's crazy, straight one score game wins, right, And to me, it's a self fulfilling prophecy, right. I Mean, when you've done it so many times, you, to your point, have the belief that it will happen again. And that's kind of you know, the Ravens are wearing these scars, and the Bills you know, are wearing these scars from over the years of just falling short and some crazy flukish play happening like the Zay Flowers fumble and this year the Mark Andrew's fumble and the two point conversion drop. These ads scars, now are those scars that you can't overcome. Certainly not you can, but when you have, I mean, and maybe they make you tougher. There's certainly an argument for that, right like when you've gone through it, they forge you and all those things, all those scars. Well, the flip side of that is like when you've had so much success in those moments, when you've won so many of those big games, you also when you're not carrying that kind of baggage, I think it can also help you in the opposite direction on the flip side of that, right where it is this self fulfilling prophecy.

M Yeah, I think that that's definitely true. And the Chiefs have kind of mastered that. They've mastered this ability to feel like they're they're the they're the champs. They come in with a belt, they're the they're the bullies. You got to knock them off the pedestal and they carry themselves that way. But they also at the same time are really good at using any kind of fuel to drive, like the motivation, like this user closing in on a three peat. Yet like multiple times over the past couple of years, it's been like nobody believes in us, and I'm like, wait, no one is.

No one says that, And that's been there.

Like mantra going back like to last year when they had to go on the road and they made the whole point about how people say we can't win on the road in the playoffs, and then they won the Buffalo and of course they want here and and even last week for them, they made the point like all will probably the Bills will probably any reads, like the Bills will probably be favored in this game going up against us, and so like there he's kind of a ma that motivation and all coaches do that, all.

The all the mahomes flopping, you know.

The refs, The refs are on our side.

Are on their sidee the NFL wants them to win, and they're carrying all that stuff.

Too, right, And so like they're really good, honestly at using all that stuff as motivation. Like even going back to the first one that they won on this in this stretch, that was when the Bengals had beat them the previous year and the burrough Head stuff, all of that, Like they use all of that as motivation. And so they're really good. I mean, especially the leaders of that team, Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and Travis Kelcey, like all those three that that that trifecta right there. They're really good players coaches. But also like using that motivation is fuel, and I think that's part of the reason they've been as good as they have been.

And and like you know what, like.

And you look at it, you look at it too.

It's like, you know, you look down the box score and like nothing jumps out to you about the way the Chiefs won this game, right. I mean Patrick Mahomes had a good game for two hundred and forty five yards and one touchdown. You know, ran for two those were big, right, And and he looks that's what makes him so hard. I mean, especially in the postseason, it feels like, you know, he will just come up with clutch runs. He's not obviously no Lamar, but he's quicker than people think. And he beats you with his legs and two touchdowns. Those are two huge scores, you know, But Kareem Hunt led them with sixty four yards. This wasn't sa Kwon Barkley out here running for eighty yard touchdowns and stuff. Right, Like their run game is I mean they signed Kareem Hunt. What in the first month of the season, Yeah, something like that. You know, Xavier Worthy six for eighty five. I mean Travis Kelsey only had two catches and they still won the game. And it's just like the other part is like you know what you're gonna get from the Chiefs. They're gonna you know, they're gonna play pretty mistake free football, Like they play the same script almost like the Steelers. They remind me this, it's the same script every time. It's like Mahomes isn't gonna make Like he'll make like one or two kind of crazy plays like last week the falling down touchdown that he threw, but like he's probably not gonna throw for three hundred and fifty four hundred yards.

In this offense.

Like Travis Kelce, you will make a couple clutch catches. Then their defense when they get in the third down situation, spags is gonna dial up pressure, especially if you're on the brink of field goal range or or whatnot. Like he needs a big stop. You know, pressure's coming. Can it's can you stop it? Where's it coming from?

You know?

Like that's the crazy part about their defense too. It's like that the play where Dalton Kincaid, you know, dropped the long pass like everybody in the whole stadium.

New pressures coming.

Yeah, everybody knew it and they and they did it, and they still had Josh Allen run around frantically loft it up a long ball. You know. I mean I side note like I feel for Bills fans to a degree, they've been through it also, And I also they are feeling what Ravens fans felt last week right where tight end drops a big pat huge pass called it and't go their way on the spotted fourth down, Like they are feeling exactly what Ravens fans feel like.

Yeah, and you're looking at probably the three best quarterbacks in football right there with Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. And so you have like you have Lamar and Allen who are have been transcendent players, great players, and they're looking up at Mahomes both trying to figure out how do you get to that point? And like everyone's kind of scratching at that. And it's this feeling that Ravens and Bills fans, like I said, no, they know all too well over this recent run that the Chiefs have been on. And like the thing that you didn't mention in talking about the Chiefs that I think that they do so well is like, obviously they have a great offensive mind and Andy Reid, who's been one of the best coaches ever but maybe the best offensive mind certainly of this modern era football. And they come up with these really really like they're not necessarily trick plays, but when they need six yards or they need three yards, they're masters at finding ways to do it. And they did it multiple times in that game against the Bills. And the crazy thing to me is like the Bills kind of played the same game against Kansas City as they did against the Ravens the week before, Like they played mistake free football. They they didn't turn the ball over, they scored four touchdowns, and so they played a pretty similar script to what they did against the Ravens the week before. But then that then you get into and the and the and the Chiefs also generally played mistake free football, although they did have a turnover.

Yeah, and I mean the difference is the Chiefs turned the ball over once and the Ravens did three times, right exactly, but the Bills difference.

So the Bills play mistake free football. The Chiefs played mostly mistake for you, although they did have that one turnover. But still when you get into that close situation, all of a sudden, it's the fourth quarter and these two teams are going back and forth, and it just like maybe this comes back to that self fulfilling prophecy. You just know, like, Okay, here it is. It's gonna be I know how this is gonna end. This is gonna end with some sort of Chiefs drive and they're gonna get the job done because they always do. And like that's how it just it feels, and how you eliminate that, Like, I don't know, They've got the same thing the Patriots had going for two decades, which is that you just expect the Patriots to be in the AFC Championship Game and a.

Whole bunch of Super Bowls.

Now, of course, the Center win it every single year when and when the Ravens beat them in twenty twelve, like they beat them, they blew them out. They blew the doors off of them in the second half. And that's easier said than done. But if you're in a close game with these types of teams, it's really hard. I think it's it's exponentially harder to win those close games against these dynasty teams when.

It's complimentary team football, you know, I mean the Bills, the door was open, right the Chiefs went down the field they are late in the fourth quarter, and it sittled for a thirty five yard field goal. Right, they went up thirty two to twenty nine with thirty thirty three left. The door was open for the Bills to drive back down. But it's not just Mahomes and Kelsey in the offense, right then the defense gets that stuff. Can somebody hire Steve Spagnolo, by the way, I mean, how many Chris Jones said it after the game. He's like, we're gonna keep being good as long as y'all stop keep not hiring Steve Spagnola to be a head coach.

What can we get this guy out of here?

I know, I know, every year it's like Spag's one of the best defensive coaches in football every single year, and he's been there for so long and and they just he makes the right calls in the right situations. And Chris Jones, like I talk about the trifecta with Mahomes, Kelsey and Andy Reid, Like Chris Jones is kind of in that mix too.

That guy is a Hall of Fame caliber player, so.

Disruptive, and he's a huge part of the reason that they've they've been to three straight now.

Yeah, I mean, I mean what this is for the Ravens and for Lamar Jackson since of course the conversation always centers around Lamar is this is a Michael Jordan's situation. You know, Michael Jordan denied a lot of very good basketball players. They're the Nbahampionship, Patrick Ewing, Karl Loan, Charles Barkley, you know, John Stockton. Those guys never got a title because they played in the Jordan era, right, And the Ravens have to and Lamar Jackson have to slay that, right. But that's what they're looking at, that's what they're facing right now. And does that mean Lamar and co can't do it. No, they have to be that much better than the Chiefs. Because the Chiefs are going to keep playing the Chiefs football, which is generally mistake free football. They're gonna be good in these tight spots, Like you have to be that much better to get past them. And can the Ravens do it? Like, yeah, I think they can do.

It, but obviously it's very hard.

The Ravens have to first and foremost to beat the Chiefs, you have to play a clean football game like the Bills did. Right. The Bills had a chance to win because they played a clean football game. They had no turnovers, so they gave themselves a chance at the end. They didn't make the last play, but they were right there. So that's where it starts for the Ravens to have to get past the Chiefs. Then you have to you have to make some spectacular plays. The Bills, you know, they had the Dalton Kink drop. If they catch that ball, do they win that game?

Maybe?

Or you got to make some spectacular plays. I have no doubt that Lamar Jackson Company can do that. Right, And like when you when you boil it down, you just have to be that much better.

I think.

You know, the Chiefs like won a ton of close games this year that were not pretty. They they were not like and this is the chip on their shoulder this year. Is like, oh, everybody thought this. The Chiefs are down this year. Chiefs are down this year despite the fact they only lost two games, right, Like, they had a bunch of ugly wins, blocking field goals and all kinds of ugly late scorer wins. But hey, it doesn't matter. Like maybe they don't have this juggernaut of a team, but you have to you have to be the juggernaut if you're gonna knock them off, you know what I mean. Like, you have to play clean football, you have to make plays in clutch situations, and you have to you have to be that much better because you know that the Chiefs are not gonna they know how to win, They're not gonna shoot themselves on the foot, So you have to be that much better.

Yeah, and we're talking about getting past Chiefs like the other elephant in the room, I guess is you got to get there. Like it's not just the Chiefs. Of course, the Chiefs are the champs. They are the ranning champs of the AFC. Champs, and they've been to all these AFC championship games and now they're going for the three p on the Super Bowl. But obviously the Bills beat the Ravens a week ago, and so the part of the challenge year in the AFC is that it's just loaded.

It's loaded, and the Bills.

Aren't going away. I think that the Bengals are only going to get stronger. They had a down year this year, but they came on strong late in the year. And the Texans have been to two straight Divisional round games, and so you have this AFC that is loaded with talent, and it's basically been the Chiefs and everybody else trying to get to their point, get to that point.

But like the road to get there is not going to be easy.

Like we spent a lot of time in the last month of the season this year talking about the road and the playoff map and all that stuff, and like, it's just not going to be an easy path. I don't think. I don't as I look as I forecast this out over the course of the next few years, I don't see the path getting any easier because the Bills and the Ravens are chasing the same thing, and they're only going to get more motivated and hardened by these experiences. And I think that other teams are going to come into the mix too, and I think it's only going to make things challenging. And so it's like you have everybody's chasing the Chiefs and you can talk about them and trying to get past them and all that, and like, I totally get why we're having that conversation, but then like it's not just them, it's just there's like as the Ravens know, and so you have these other teams that are also in that mix that it's going to be. So that's why they I think that's what makes things so hard right now is that the AFC is loaded with talent and you have these premier quarterbacks, hall of Fame level quarterbacks who are who are all jocking for that spot and you're looking for a chance.

To knock them off.

Now, you go back into like the nineties in the early two thousands, and there was this kind of going on and with Peyton Manning and he was he was a great quarterback, was building a Hall of Fame resume but hadn't made it yet and was knocking on the door and that was part of his early legacy, and then of course he made it and went and then won.

Two Super Bowls.

I think that I still think that's going to happen. The question is is that with the Ravens, you know? Is that with the Bills? Is it with both of them? I think that that's part of the challenge here, and both those teams are trying to kind of both teams and both quarterbacks are kind of trying to write that Peyton Manning esque story in this conversation.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And Lamar Jackson is obviously talented enough, and I thought, you know, obviously the true turnovers are really really upsetting. That was another point, by the way, could we not have had that weather? If the Ravens had that weather that was yesterday? Both these games like no precipitation, no snow, all that stuff, Like does the ball not slip out Lamar Jackson's hands?

I mean yeah, or.

It looks like I was like, is this game being played September tenth?

What's going on here?

Could we not have gotten that weather?

Was that a Doman, Kansas City?

Yeah? Seriously?

Like, yeah, I think I think the Ravens would have had a better chance of beating the Bills, certainly if there was not precipitation.

But I digress.

Yeah, you know, like Lamar Jackson is is absolutely talented enough to do so, but so is like you're saying, Josh Allen is talented enough to get over that hump.

Like these they.

Are in we're right now in a golden era. It feels like of quarterbacking in the AFC. And you know, I part of me, part of me almost feels like, let like the if the Chiefs three p I kind of want to slay the dragon.

I kind of want to slay the dragon, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, no, I get that.

Or maybe you're just hoping for the three peat and they all just decide Kelsey decides to hang it up, and he redecides hanging up.

I'm cool with that too. I'm find with that.

I don't think Andy's hanging it up, but maybe maybe Kelsey, I don't know, but uh, but that's like, of course, while I'm watching, I'm I don't want the Chiefs to win, you know, like because I'm just tired of seeing them win. And but like another part of me and out there in the Super Bowl and and I probably.

Still won't want them to win.

I will probably still be rooting for the Eagles, but like another part of me, and that I'll talk myself into if they do, is like all right, like they're gonna make history. I want to I want to slay the dragon. I want to be the one that beats the first team that ever repeted, you know what I mean. Like, and that's the mentality the Ravens are gonna have to have. And uh yeah, I'll tell you. Watching the Eagles play, that's that made me think, man, like, you know, with that run game and how dangerous it is, and then you have your quarterback making plays and and scoreding touchdowns, you know, run the ball like, man.

Could that have been the Ravens?

You know what I mean?

Uh yeah, that was the recipe.

Yeah.

Now, of course we'll see how it plays out in the super Bowl. That's that's kind of the next the next question there.

So it would have it would have been a tough I will say, Ravens Eagles in the Super Bowl would have been awesome.

The Eagles. Of probably all the.

Games the Ravens played this year, the Eagles I think were the toughest game for the Ravens over the whole the course of the year.

Yeah, they were great. They were a great team. They're really good defense, dominant running game, big receivers.

I mean, that was a twenty four to twelve game the Ravens and John Harball brought this up in the season ending press cors like you never really see us get beat beat you know, we lose games sometimes, but but and that's like whatever loss is a loss, but like you got to be proud, Like the Ravens always fight tough, they play hard, and they play well and they you never see the Ravens get blown out. The Eagles game was probably the closest. I mean that was a twelve point game with a minute left. The Ravens got touchdown late in that game. But the Eagles are good.

Yeah they are.

It'll it'll be a h it'll be an interesting super Bowl if you can just be objective about it, which is sorry for Ravens fans, certainly.

It'll be it'll be a really I think it'll be good game. It'll be a good game.

Let's a quick break and then when we come back, have an email to read and we'll put some closing thoughts on this conversation you're listening to the Lage podcast. We're coming to you from the Sea Keek studio. We also want to mention our partners at Draft Kings Sportsbook. They are an official sports betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens Draftking Sportsbook. The Crown is yours. So I have an email here. It is from Matt Siegelstein, and this is kind of to the whole conversation that we're having here. It was a long email, but this is the part I want to read. A set of reason for optimism. I've never felt better about a Ravens roster after a playoff loss. We need to keep adding pieces at key positions like receiver, O line edge. But this team is talented, complete, and as deep as any in football. We'll be right back in this position next year, and they need to simply cut down on the mistakes. His point is the focus of next year needs to be playing a clean brand of football, clean up penalties, turnovers and drops, and this team will be nearly impossible to beat. I'm hoping to see that version of the Ravens at twenty twenty five, So we like spend all this time talking about how you beat the Chiefs and how they're play mistake free football, and the self fulfilling prophecy is like, what is your take? Do you? Like, how do you play clean football? Because everyone's aiming to do that, Like if you're if there's a coach who's coaching like seventh grade football, he's going to say, don't turn the ball over this week, and that's what everybody says, And so how do you do that in these types of really hard, high pressure situations.

I mean, I think that is going to be a focus. That is going to be a focus and priority all summer.

You know.

One I noticed one play that Travis Kelsey made where he does that thing where he catches and he loops.

He kind of does this long loop and.

Gets back it gets upfield right like he kind of cuts back a little bit and loops around. And that's to a degree similar to what Mark Andrews did when he fumbled in the fourth quarter. But I noticed that Kelsey, it's two hands up right on his chest that whole time that he's running, that ball is locked up right there against his chest and that's the way he's running. And like, I think that that will be something Ravens coaches are it has it has to be consistent. This has to just be part of your DNA over the summer of like it is ball security, and I think they already stressed that can you do it more? I don't know remember when Todd Monkin ran over during Steelers week to the drill and said, now we're not doing the drill like that, We're doing it like this, Like we are taking that ball security drill that much more, you know, putting that much more empass on it and taking it that much more seriously. I think that that will be a big focus this offseason and and throughout the training camp throughout the season, Like because I agree with the email, like I look at this roster and how much talent the Ravens have coming back, and by the way, it looks like Todd Munkin has a very good chance of coming back, which I think is huge. There's only one vacancy still left open, which is the New Orleans Saints, which there's been no connections with Todd and the Saints in terms of interviews and requested interviews and all that. So it's looking really good on that front. Not official knock on wood, but with Monkin coming back. With the talent that the Ravens have, they'll improve the roster. Again, they're in not in bad salary cap shape, and we'll review that later this week in our kind of off season blueprint looking ahead to what we think the Ravens can do. But I agree with the email, like this team on paper, and they're gonna face a lot of good competition this year, so let's not forget that. But like they're gonna be really really good. The Ravens are, and if they can take care of the football, that's kind of my point of like, you have to be that much better than the Chiefs. Can the Ravens be that much better than the Chiefs? I think they can?

Mm hmm, yeah.

I think this team. I think this team will absolutely be a real contender in the AFC again in twenty twenty five. They're gonna be right there. I think they're gonna be one of the best teams. I think they have one of the best quarterbacks and there's no reason in my mind to believe that there's gonna be any real drop off with the Ravens. And I think but like I said earlier, the challenge is that, like I'm not looking at a big drop off from the Bills. I'm not looking off at a big drop off from the Bengals necessarily. I'm not looking at We'll see what happens with the Chiefs. But like everyone, Bengals are gonna lose a wide receiver.

That's a question.

Yeah, But like so so yeah, Like there's all these teams, Like I think the Ravens is gonna be right there, and I think the Ravens is gonna be in a thick of that competition, But the competition isn't going away, and it's not like the path is completely clear for them. They're gonna have this wrong road. And obviously there's like a lot there will be a lot of discussion between now and at this point and again next year. But I absolutely agree that the Ravens are gonna be one of the best teams again in the AFC next year and and they're gonna have a chance.

And sometimes sometimes you also just need the breaks to go your way, Like I I genuinely there's a ton of factors that go into who wins a football game, and like there is an element of luck and just bad bounces going against you, and the Ravens have. I think they've been unlucky, right, Like, how many times does that say flowers play happened in the AFC Championship game, guys literally an inch from the end zone.

Yeah, Like I thought about that with James Cook yesterday.

I was like James Cook when he reaches out over the goal, that gives me flashbacks.

Oh yeah, I thought the same exact thing, you know, And like, uh, obviously Mark and his drops and the fumble, yeah, and fumbles. This went like I think the Ravens have had bad luck. I just do, And like maybe that means they're due. Maybe that means their luck is about to change, you know. But you have to do all the things in your control right to try to like the Chiefs right, like they they put themselves in the right situation enough times that even if things don't go their way, which they almost always do, like the spot on fourth down of course that you know, of course it looks like Josh Allen's over the line, but there's spot spot him short. But you put yourself in the right position enough times, you kind of make your own luck to a degree. Right, It's not lucky if you're lucky all the time.

Yeah, totally so we always appreciate the emails. You can email us the lounge at Ravens dot NFL dot net. As Ryan mentioned, we're gonna do our full off season blueprint later this week, so, uh, how does your emails let us know what you want to see take place over the course of this offseason. We always appreciate hearing from you, so thank you so much for listening. We'll be back with you again later this week.

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