I don’t know about you, but I needed ten days before penning this ugly post-mortem. I’m unable to shed any light on Todd Monken’s bizarre avoidance of the run game. It’s as puzzling to me as it is to every other observer, including you. Did it cost the Ravens the game? Mostly likely, yes. But no need to dwell on that further.
This was the type of year that team dreams of. Virtually every one of Eric DeCosta’s late pre-season free agent signings were not just hits, but homers (I hate baseball analogies, but its apropos here). Furthermore, key young players blossomed to their full potential (Justin Madubuike), and some became major stars (Kyle Hamilton) while others came out of nowhere (Brandon Stephens). The quarterback was the league’s most valuable player. The defensive structuring and coordination was spectacular. The Ravens played in arguably the toughest division in football, yet smashed virtually every top end team they played and wound up with the number one seed.
This is very hard stuff to follow. One is left to ruminate that it doesn’t get any better than that, yet the Ravens still failed to get to the Super Bowl. Next year’s team will be much different, and in future posts (up through the draft and its aftermath) I’ll address a lot of what we hope is to come. For now, let’s take a brief though painful review of key points from the Chiefs debacle.
The Ugly Post-Mortem: A Tale of Two Halves
The Chiefs first half offensive attack was as good of an example of “take what they give you” as one will ever see. On defense, the Ravens structure typically invites teams to attack the flat area of the field. The Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes did just that on their two first half touchdown drives. Most teams are unable to consistently execute play after play of four to eight yard gains over long drives, yet the Chiefs did. The Chiefs first touchdown drive went ten plays, the second went 16 plays.
The First Chiefs Touchdown Drive
The first drive was mightily aided by a holding call on Arthur Maulet at the Ravens 24 on a second down and six. But the referees completely missed just a brutal head-lock holding penalty by right tackle Jawaan Taylor on Kyle Van Noy. Replays show that the referee was looking solely at Mahomes on the play. Yet his responsibility is to watch the right guard and tackle before the play gets to the quarterback, which he failed to do. The hold on Van Noy was obvious and directly prevented Van Noy from getting to Mahomes. It should have negated the hold on Maulet.
In the end, the touchdown pass to Travis Kelce (who was blanketed by Kyle Hamilton) was a thing of beauty. It was indefensible.
The Chiefs Second Touchdown Drive
This was a dink and dunk drive at its finest. Here’s the complete drive.
- Pass to Pacheco in the flat for three yards
- Pass in the short middle to Rice for 10 yards
- Pacheco run for a loss of two yards.
- Scramble for 11 yards
- Pass to Kelce for six yards
- Pacheco run for five yards
- Pass to Edwards-Helaire for one yard
- Pass in short flat to Rice for nine yards.
- Pass in short flat to Rice for five yards.
- Incomplete pass to short left
- Short middle pass to Kelce for ten yards
- Short right pass to Gray for five yards
- Pacheo run for two yards
- Mahomes scramble for four yards
- Pacheco run for four yards
- Pacheco run for two yards, touchdown.
This was nothing like Mahomes destroying the Ravens (as he had in the past) on big, or even intermediate, pass plays. There was no pass play for more than ten yards (and only one of those). The short area of the field was open, and Mahomes fully exploited it.
Indeed, for the balance of the first half, the Chiefs had only one play for more than eight yards (a 21 yard completion to Kelce).
The Chiefs’ Second Half
The Ravens generated a lot more pressure in the second half, forcing numerous throwaways and passes on the run by Mahomes. The Chiefs’ offense was completely interrupted. Mahomes was unable to generate anything down the field, but because the Ravens brought more pressure and tightened up the flats, there was also little available for Mahomes underneath. This was a complete beatdown by the Ravens defense; that is until the final meaningful play of the game.
For those who care, here’s the entire second half offense for Kansas City, in order:
- Pacheco run for one yard
- Pass to Kelce for six yards
- Incomplete pass to a completely covered Justin Watson
- Punt
- Pass to short left for one yard loss
- Pacheco run for six
- Short pass and run to Watson for 16
- Pass to short left for six
- Kelce run for five
- Incomplete pass (with offensive holding call)
- Pass to short right for two yards
- Pass to short right for a loss of four yards
- Punt
- Pacheco run for three yards
- Pacheco run for one yard
- Incomplete pass to short right
- Punt
- Pacheco run for three yards
- Incomplete pass to short right
- Pass to short right and run for 14 yards (see below for a further discussion of this play)
- Pacheco run for three yards
- Roughing the passer (Clowney)
- Sack (Clowney), loss of nine yards
- Pass to short right for six yards
- Incomplete pass to short left
- Punt
- Pacheco run for four yards
- Sack (Pierce, Madubuike), loss of two yards
- Pacheco run for five yards
- Punt
- Ravens penalty, five yards
- Ravens penalty, 15 yards
- Pacheo run for one yard
- Pacheco run for two yards
- Mahomes pass to deep middle for 32 yards. Game.
Thus, until the very last play, Kansas City completed zero passes beyond the short areas. Nothing intermediate or down the field. And because the Ravens dialed up more pressure in the second half and tightened up, the Chiefs offense was completely shut down. Notice, by the way, that the Chiefs offensive strategy in the second half was the same as the approach they used in the first. This was the Chiefs game plan, pure and simple. Mike Macdonald and the Ravens defenders took it away in the second half.
The Chiefs’ Last Pass of the Game
The last pass for 32 yards iced the game. On that play Marcus Williams inexplicably vacated his single-deep zone, allowing Valdez-Scantling to run right by him. Williams watched Rashee Rice cross in front of his face and head to the outside, as Ron Darby covered Rice. As Williams remained frozen in his tracks, Valdez-Scantling ran right by him (Williams was the deep safety at the snap), with Williams looking towards the line of scrimmage. There, Kelce ran a delayed cross towards the middle of the field, where Patrick Queen was waiting and ready. Williams moved towards Kelce (ignoring the wide receivers and Valdez-Scantling) which is even more puzzling as Kelce’s underneath route was a solid ten yards short of the first down. And that was Queen’s responsibility.
Just a terrible, horrible play by Williams. This was the only total breakdown of the entire game by the Ravens secondary. But, at the time it occurred, it cost them the game. This was a big-time gamble, and kudos to the Chiefs for calling such a route. It shouldn’t have worked, but perhaps the element of surprise fooled Williams. We’ll never know.
The Ugly Post-Mortem: The Ravens’ Offense – A Very Poor Performance by Lamar Jackson
Howard Cosell was as good as anyone. His “tell it like it is” is one of life’s best prescriptions. In the Chiefs game, the inescapable conclusion is that Lamar was, well, not very good.
Jackson missed a plethora of open wide receivers. He looked in the wrong place, locked on too long, was slow to recognize what he saw, and slow to release the ball. On other occasions he was impatient. There were plays where he should have exploded on the run, yet seemed reluctant to hit maximum warp speed. He was a tick slow here, a tick slow there. And, naturally, he added in a few terrible tosses.
Furthermore, Jackson made numerous poor decisions on run-pass option plays. He failed to hand-off the ball when he should have on some easy defensive front reads, thereby losing out on some good running yardage, and likely a few big gainers.
We saw a little of this from time to time during the season, but never a prolonged period in any one game. Was he not as prepared mentally as he should have been? I can’t draw that conclusion, as the Chiefs defensive presentation in this game was generally not unexpected. Rather, I believe Lamar lacked confidence. Fundamentally, he didn’t trust what he saw.
Lack of Confidence – A Few Examples
There were so many examples of this during the game. For one, on the Ravens second drive, Mark Andrews ran a typical Andrews route – roughly fifteen yards down the middle, hooking back to Jackson. Andrews was uncovered at the snap, and was wide open in his route. But Jackson hesitated, didn’t release the football, and was sacked.
On the Ravens third drive, Jackson suffered a strip sack as he again held the ball too long. Yet, he had Odell Beckham wide open, and in time, but again didn’t release the ball. By the way, although Ronnie Stanley’s man made the strip sack, Stanley blocked him for a full three seconds; this sack was on Lamar.
On the very first drive of the second half, Jackson had Zay Flowers wide open on a crosser. Flowers easily beat Nick Bolton (who I highlighted was a liability in pass coverage). But Jackson was way too late recognizing what should have been an easy pre-snap read, throwing the ball so far behind Flowers that Bolton nearly picked it off. On the next drive, Rashod Bateman was wide open on a deeper crosser, but Jackson looked there way too late. I guess that’s no surprise as all season Bateman was generally an afterthought.
I could go on. The tape is chock full of plays just like these. And no Jackson effort is complete without wildly missing a wide open deep throw. Against the Chiefs, he missed one in the first half to Nelson Agholor. It was a no excuse miss. On the very next play, by the way, he had Isaiah Likely wide open from the snap, but Jackson never looked. Instead, he attempted a throw to Justice Hill in the flat but missed him on another bad throw.
Ugly Post-Mortem – Some Miscellany
Justice Hill
Justice Hill, who is usually very adept at picking up blitzes, offered his poorest performance of the year in that role. He was terrible (and I love Hill).
Chiefs Offensive Pass Interference
The Chiefs always get away with a lot of offensive pass interference. On the play immediately preceding Clowney’s helmet to helmet hit, Kyle Hamilton was assigned to Travis Kelce. Hamilton was hit hard roughly seven yards down the field by another Chiefs tight end, who simply ran into Hamilton. Naturally, this freed up Kelce for an easy catch and 14 yards (play number 20, above). The Chiefs also committed an uncalled offensive interference on their second touchdown drive at the goal line. There, they used one tight end to block several yards down field as Mahomes threw to Kelce behind the created wall.
The Great Madubuike
Justin Madubuike was virtually unblockable on the inside. This was an Aaron Donald-like performance. Madubuike is hitting his very high ceiling. Don’t worry, there’s no way the Ravens let him walk.
The Final Interception
Yes, if Lamar had timely released the ball (and he should have) he had Isaiah Likely open to the Chiefs five yard line on that fateful interception. Jackson was half of a second or so too slow, causing the pick. And yes, by the book that was defensive pass interference in the end zone.
Chiefs Defensive Game Plan
The Chiefs had five defensive backs on the field on 45% of the plays. Gus Edwards’ 15 yard run was against this defense, with John Simpson pulling and pulverizing a Chiefs back. At the very least, that five defensive back grouping should have prompted more tight bunch formations by the Ravens offense. This would have created more uncertainty by these backs regarding pass and run assignments. Not to mention, of course, that the obvious counterpunch is to run the ball down their throats.
The strength of the Chiefs defense is their secondary. Yet, the Ravens ran way too many eleven personnel groupings. I like the Ravens receiver group. But the Chiefs secondary matches or betters it. Their front seven isn’t terribly good. It’s just so hard to understand why the Ravens allowed the Chiefs to augment their defensive strength while not attacking their defensive weakness. There, I attacked Todd Monken (politely), even though I said I wouldn’t!
The Deep Ball
Todd Monken called a lot of long-developing deeper routes, much as he did in the first half of the Texans game. With Jackson under assault in that game, Monken adjusted with shorter throws directly in front of Lamar’s eyes. I find this works best for Lamar when he’s off or out-of-sync. Against the Chiefs, Monken started the second half with one shorter crosser to Flowers (noted above), but not nearly enough more. When Jackson is uncertain – as he was throughout this game – the antidote is short stuff directly in front of Lamar.
Ronnie Stanley
As readers are well aware, all year long I’ve tried to tell it like it is with Stanley. He was way below grade in pass protect. Yet Ronnie held up very well in the Chiefs game, albeit against lesser rushers. Was it the knee, the ankle or both that brought down Stanley this year? Fans will probably never know. But at this point, Stanley figures to be the starting left tackle next year. Perhaps that knee can improve. I don’t think the ankle can.
Many Blogs to Come!
The off-season is sadly here and there’s a lot more to talk about. Like it or not, I’ll have a bunch more coming your way.
Super Bowl
I’m rooting for the 49ers. Kelce and Mahomes piss me off!
