Baltimore Ravens vs. Kansas City Chiefs Preview & Prediction | PFF

Baltimore Ravens vs. Kansas City Chiefs Preview & Prediction | PFF

the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Baltimore Ravens. Wildly enough, one of these teams is going to be one and three after this game. Uh, which is kind of hard to believe. I I suppose that it is possible for them to be 2-1 and one, but that would just piss everybody off. Uh, where are you starting with this one? You want to talk about the Ravens or the Chiefs? I’m going to go with the Ravens. And you know this kind it’s weird because one of the games the first the Buffalo game was really more so on their defense obviously and Derrick Henry had a huge day but the last two weeks this has not been the same rushing offense we’re used to seeing with Derrick Henry in the back field. Obviously the fumbles he’s fumbled in all three games. It was a huge one against the Bills and then a huge one against the Lions that you could argue cost him the game. But 43.1 rushing grade the last two weeks for Derrick Henry. 23 carries for 73 yards and that includes a 28-yd touchdown against the Lions. So his other 22 carries, he’s sitting at about 2 yards a carry flat. Only one missed tackle force and that touchdown was the one explosive run. But you see that bottom number there, I think teams are just so committed now to saying, you know what, we cannot let Derrick Henry beat us. You know, last year they were 11-0 when he ran for at least 90 yards. They’re of course uh 0 and one this year when he runs for 90 yards in that Bills game, but that’s obviously not his fault. Teams are just committing to loading the box and saying, “Nope, nope, not at all. We’re just going to make Lamar beat us with his arm and with the receivers because we are still more afraid of Derrick Henry and getting whacked on the ground by these two guys than we are of the passing game. We will take if Lamar’s going to beat us with his arm, then so be it. But they have to find a way to either break through in the passing game and get all these defenders out of the box. 17 of his last 23 carries or with at least eight guys in the box. And you could see, you know, Dan Campbell against the Lions even with the Lions, I should say, against the Ravens even talked about, we took a little bit of the Steelers mentality of getting physical and this and that. I think the other thing they took was putting more defensive linemen flatter across the line of scrimmage. When the Steelers play the Ravens, they’re in that classic three, four front a lot with five and sometimes even six defensive linemen across the ball, just not allowing Derrick Henry to break through that first level at all costs. So, the Ravens again, they either have to loosen the boxes up and Lamar’s got to throw on early downs to loosen it up or Derrick Henry is going to have to power through better than he has the last couple of games. Obviously, the fumbling is in the spotlight, but overall, the Ravens just haven’t been all that efficient in the run game the last two weeks. On the other side of things, I think that Kyle Hamilton is is playing really well. Rocoan Smith has has played well at times. Um I I don’t know many other Chiefs defenders that are really playing that well. Not they don’t have Nambdi Mabou last week neck injury and so neck injuries are kind of tricky like yeah he could be back out there this week or it could be something where he’s missing a significant amount of time. When you look at the Baltimore Ravens right now and I was shocked to see this 41.8 8 run defense grade. It’s dead last in the NFL after 3 weeks. 0.123 EPA per rush allowed. That is once again dead last in the NFL. This team is not nearly as as stout up front as they have been in the past or what a lot of people just might think that the Ravens uh have the potential to be, especially with Mabik not out there last week. It was a struggle for them. We have talked about how the Chiefs, specifically when it comes to their running backs, so if you exclude Patrick Mahomes and what he does as a rusher, their running backs have not been effective at all this year. 62.4 rushing grade with just their running backs this year. Now, last week I talked about, okay, Pacheo had some efficient numbers, but they weren’t really leaning on him. They haven’t really made that part of their identity. This is a game where you maybe would not think that this is the case, but if you look at the numbers, this is a game where the Chiefs could actually have their best rushing output for how poorly the Ravens have played defending the run over the first three weeks of the season. This one’s in KC as well. I think the Chiefs have an opportunity to be more balanced uh on uh on offense. And because of that, I I’m going with Kansas City here. I think that Kansas City wins this game 27 to 24. I think it’ll be close. Obviously, anytime that these teams match up, I think that it will be, but I I just I I have my doubts about how the Ravens are playing on the defensive side of the ball, specifically defending the run. And if you open things up to not make them one-dimensional, as they have been through the first couple of weeks, then I think that’s where you really get in trouble with this team. So, I think the Chiefs win this one at home. And shocking as it is, I I think that the Ravens dropped to one and three. Yeah, it’s this is a tough game to read, too, because I think you’re going to have two teams incredibly desperate. And to your point about the run game. I mean, the Ravens, they just don’t have a lot of guys playing very well on the inside. Inside inside at defensive tackle, they have benched Trenton Simpson at linebacker for Teddy Buchanan, which is an interesting decision considering Simpson’s their highest graded run defender. Um, and it’s just not been going well at any level of the defense in the run game. But I I still I’m in between on this. It’s so dangerous to pick against the Chiefs at Arrowhead, obviously, but I I I still think that Chief’s game against the Giants told us a lot more about the Giants than Kansas City. Kansas City, for the most part, to me, Patrick Mahomes made four or five plays that made the difference in the game, but for the most part, I I do like the way their secondaries play in the last couple weeks. They’ve gotten it together, but for the most part, they look like the same team we saw the first two weeks that went 0 and2. It’s just the Giants are worse and their quarterback situation’s dysfunctional. I’m taking the Ravens 23 to 20. I think it’s a very hard game to read. I know the Ravens a lot of times in these big spots have not come through late in games, but I still don’t trust this Chiefs offense. I I don’t and I don’t know that I trust their pass rush to do the same things that the Lions did this past Monday. I’m taking Baltimore 23 to 20, get a big road win. I don’t disagree with the points that you’re making. Although I will say there’s probably no place I would want to go least, hopefully that made sense, than Arrowhead is a get-Right game. You know, like I just the very last stadium that I would want to go to to have a get-right game, especially when the Chiefs are sitting here at one and two and staring down the barrel of going one and three while the rest of their division looks a lot better and a lot more competitive. So, um, this is one that just because of how much the Ravens defense is struggling overall, I got to take Patrick Mahomes in this one with with him being at home. It it would be quite surprising if this game didn’t just come down to a last second field goal one way or the other. It’s going to the wire. It really This is a tough game to get a read on right now.

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Baltimore Ravens and The Kansas City Chiefs.

Get 25% off your PFF Subscription!:
Code: PFFNFLSHOW25
Link: https://go.pff.com/nflshow25

Dominate your fantasy league: http://fantasy.pff.com/
Download the PFF App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pff-fan…
Join our newsletter: https://forms.gle/maqTaBKcmdPR5Vma6
NFL/NCAA Player Grades: https://www.pff.com/grades

Thank you to our sponsors. If you’re interested in supporting our shows, please reach out to sales@pff.com