TNF: Ravens vs. Chiefs - Regular season is almost here!

[Smellyman]

I would like to think that drive was so easy because the brilliance of Macdonald was missing

 

[Smellyman]

The Chiefs lack the snobbery of the Brady-led Patriots. They are just not as hatable. No controversy—a goofy, borderline-aloof QB and a likable head coach. They are the most vanilla dynasty in any major sport, and the most newsworthy thing about them is that their tight end is dating a singer whose prime demographic is twelve-year-old girls.

That said, I'd like to see the Chiefs get annihilated. The NFL needs parity to be interesting in the regular season, and the Chiefs look peerless in the AFC. Mahomes needs a foil—a Manning to his Brady. The NFL certainly wants that guy to be Jackson, so hopefully, Jackson can actually make things interesting tonight.

Give it time. NE did it much longer and have the added anger of a particular super bowl.

That said I really hate the Chiefs, just a lot less than the Pats.

 

[Threedee]

My contribution at work was to label this game Team Swift vs. Team Rice.

 

[GemCity]

Damn I missed Collingsworth’s nasally voice and Mahomes Payness riding.

What a start.

 

[DarkVictory23]

So, my thoughts on the three points I brought up earlier now that the game is over:

1.) I don't 100% know if Mahomes is 'back' (he rarely challenged defenses deep downfield last year and one of his few long shots tonight was an underthrown ball to Worthy that still became a touchdown because the Ravens defense was pretty much nowhere to be seen), but if weapons at WR were the problem, drafting Worthy may have in fact been a solution. Dude is a speed demon.

Rice looked good too, so Chiefs are probably hoping he doesn't go to jail.

2.) There definitely appeared to be some growing pains in the Ravens defense. Some big plays as well, though. Whether it was just game 1 rust or they're going to be missing Macdonald all season long remains to be seen, though.

3.) Very exciting finish to this game but... no, I don't think this will be the AFC Championship game. (Of course, I'm saying this 1 game into Week 1, so I'll probably prove to be an idiot.) Lamar Jackson had basically no touch on any deep shot he took and the Ravens OL needs help. No strong opinion on how the Chiefs are going to do coming out of this one, though.


It was a fun enough game given that it was between two teams that I can barely work up the energy to be ambivalent about, glad real football is back and I'll just hope that I'll be able to watch a bit of the 'Hawks game on my phone.

 

[Threedee]

I did like how they showed a clip of highlights from one of the Chiefs O-Linemen, and, he was holding on nearly all of them.

 

[DarkVictory23]

I did like how they showed a clip of highlights from one of the Chiefs O-Linemen, and, he was holding on nearly all of them.

Yeah, and there was an earlier replay on one of the Ravens guys who got called for a hold and the replay showed no hold occurred not even anything that kind of looked like a hold.

Speaking of the officials, they were all over the alignment penalties tonight.

 

[Torc]

I did like how they showed a clip of highlights from one of the Chiefs O-Linemen, and, he was holding on nearly all of them.

And of course on the long ball near the end of the game, the Ravens line had several KC D-linemen pinned to the ground.

 

[AROS]

I’m glad it wasn’t a blowout. That’s all my girl and I wanted. A game that was exciting and close to the finish. Talk about a game of inches. More like half a toe. Wow. I loved how Harbaugh was prepared to go for the win instead of a tie. No risk it no biscuit.

Ravens gonna miss our boy Mike. Lamar can’t be a one man show and expect to win 12+ games. He’s still fun to watch even though he is still clearly not a very accurate passer. Geno wins or at least ties that game tonight.

Overall, good start to the season!

 

[Threedee]

I still want to know what changed from a decade ago when Thursday games (except opening night) were completely unwatchable. Is it just the officials keeping things close?

 

[AROS]

All I know is if the refs are going to call all these procedural penalties all year long we are in for a long season. Sometimes the NFL flat out overdoes it with too much emphasis on certain penalties. Ruins the flow of the game. I’m all for throwing the flag for egregious offenses. These ticky-tack flags are laborious and simply stupid.

 

[FPD]

All I know is if the refs are going to call all these procedural penalties all year long we are in for a long season. Sometimes the NFL flat out overdoes it with too much emphasis on certain penalties. Ruins the flow of the game. I’m all for throwing the flag for egregious offenses. These ticky-tack flags are laborious and simply stupid.

This. One million percent this. Those penalties were all unnecessary. Sure seemed lopsided against Baltimore too IMO.

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

I just don't see Baltimore going very far this year. Lamar is not that great, just dangerous on the run. The defense seems to have regressed a bit with the coaching changes, and Baltimore's weapons, while not bad, aren't really seeming "elite".

Seems like Lamar and Zay Flowers are the only really "elite" talent they have and Lamar may be elite as a runner, but not as a passer...

I expect they'll be a 10 win team, but won't go far in the playoffs again.

 

[chris98251]

I know last year there were lots of coaches bitching about how far back Tackles were setting up, where the NFL likes to protect the QB to a fault, you have to be at least looking like you're a tackle and not a slot Wr, some of those tackles were almost lining up where a slot receiver would. Most likely this is a League statement being enforced by the officials to start the season. They will back off after a few weeks most likely as it becomes noted across the league.

 

[Ostatehawk]

I just don't see Baltimore going very far this year. Lamar is not that great, just dangerous on the run. The defense seems to have regressed a bit with the coaching changes, and Baltimore's weapons, while not bad, aren't really seeming "elite".

Seems like Lamar and Zay Flowers are the only really "elite" talent they have and Lamar may be elite as a runner, but not as a passer...

I expect they'll be a 10 win team, but won't go far in the playoffs again.

If the new lighter Lamar is going to try and run it that often - he won't last 8 games. He looked visibly thinner to me.

 

[Appyhawk]

KC was really, really fortunate to escape that game with a w. Were it not for the abundance of penalties assessed against Ravens I would have been surprised to see the score within two TDs. I also thought the Ravens offense overall looked significantly more dangerous than the Chiefs. Without Rice the Chiefs would have been dead in the water. However, the Raven's O line didn't do much to help Henry.

 

[projectorfreak]

Worthy looked like a good draft pic , i was impressed
I thought kcs offense looked quick , seemed like the ravens had lotsa holes open in zone coverage , more than usual but lamar just seemed to have no downfield touch , missed his guy way too much to be a real threat deep

 

[JayhawkMike]

KC was really, really fortunate to escape that game with a w. Were it not for the abundance of penalties assessed against Ravens I would have been surprised to see the score within two TDs. I also thought the Ravens offense overall looked significantly more dangerous than the Chiefs. Without Rice the Chiefs would have been dead in the water. However, the Raven's O line didn't do much to help Henry.

Without Likely the Ravens would have been dead in the water.

Ravens didn't exploit the Jackson/Henry combo enough in my opinion.

Mahomes didn't seem to go throw long enough. Of course the Ravens were playing for that so they went underneath.

The Accepted penalties were 7 on the Ravens to 6 on the Chiefs. One of those was not an obvious late hit out of bounds on Mahomes that even Ravens fans concede should have been called. The early procedure calls on the Ravens had no impact as the Ravens made their first downs that drive and scored.

Two of the best teams that played a heavyweight match and when they play the welterweights will kill them.

 

[calinator]

I think the Ravens are still a 12-13 win team. The thing missing is Mike Mcdonald. The Chiefs have a great offense but the Ravens looked noticeably worse than last year on defense, lots of wide open guys and guys out of position. They will have struggles on defense possibly but Lamar and Henry cook and smoke worse defenses.

The Chiefs defense is damn overlooked. All anyone wants to talk about is sexy offense with Mahomes, Kelce, and Reid but their defense with Chris Jones is such an underrated game wrecker. The defense all of last year is what kept them afloat. They shutdown Lamar in the AFC championship game and in the superbowl held the 49'ers offense to 6 points in the first half giving Pat enough cushion to work his magic late.

 

[Hawkinaz]

All I know is if the refs are going to call all these procedural penalties all year long we are in for a long season. Sometimes the NFL flat out overdoes it with too much emphasis on certain penalties. Ruins the flow of the game. I’m all for throwing the flag for egregious offenses. These ticky-tack flags are laborious and simply stupid.

Last year the Chiefs Jawaan Taylor was constantly lining up a lot worse than the Ravens OT Ronnie Stanley did last night. I just want consistent officiating last night we didn’t get it. Let’s be honest the NFL ( Goodell) wants the Chiefs to win the Superbowl