Game of Inches!
- Arjun Peroor
- Sep 7, 2024
- 3 min read
The Chiefs beat the Ravens 27-20 in an exciting finish! With the clock expired, Lamar threw a pass in the endzone to Isaiah Likely to the back of the endzone and it looked like at first glance the Ravens had scored with a chance to tie 27-27 or win 28-27 had they decided to go for 2. Upon further review, his toe was on the white boundary and the Chiefs held on to the victory. Here are some of my rapid-fire takeaways:
Ravens O Line Struggles
They only allowed one sack but watching the game it seemed like Lamar was under duress a lot of the time
The Ravens ran for 185 yards but a lot of it was due to Lamar's improvisation as the normal run game was held in check for most of the night
Ronnie Stanley was called for illegal formation 4 times on the night so he will need to clean it up moving forward
It is a new group so it will take some time to play at a high level but this opening game was not very encouraging
Where is Henry?
Ravens fans were excited to see the backfield duo of Jackson and Henry but it felt like Henry wasn't on the field much
Henry had 5 carries for 17 yards and a touchdown in their opening but for the rest of the game, he had 8 carries for 29 yards.
I think the Ravens need to feed him the ball at least 20 times and limit Lamar's rush attempts
Lamar had 16 rushes for 122 yards which is good but you wonder how sustainable it is and you want him fresh down the stretch
Henry needs to be utilized more
Xavier Worthy is Fast
Xavier Worthy is so exciting to watch
With his first touch in the NFL, he was able to score a 21 yard TD off an end-around and he went untouched in the endzone
Worthy also had a 35-yard receiving TD as he finished the game with 68 total yards and 2 TDs in his NFL debut
The Chiefs offense looks poised to do what they have done before 2023: running teams out of the building with their speed.
Those were my quick takeaways from last night's game and here are my overall thoughts: The Chiefs did not look very sharp for large stretches of the game. Mahomes had an ill-advised pick, Kelce was not his usual self, the Chiefs couldn't run the ball much, and the Ravens still lost to them. Don't get me wrong, the Ravens could have also played much better but when you keep losing to the same team especially when they don't bring their A-game, it can mess with the losing team mentally and I think they desperately needed a win last night to prove to themselves that they can beat the Chiefs. The players of the Ravens will continue to say the right things but they are all human and they know in the back of their minds that they will need someone else to beat these guys for them to make a Super Bowl run because it feels like the Chiefs have their number and they haven't needed to play their best to do it.
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