Week three of the NFL season will see two potential championship matches, one on Sunday night (Packers vs. Saints) and one on Monday night (Chiefs vs. Ravens). While the Packers and Saints game is no doubt going to be a great game, the Chiefs and Ravens game is stealing the week and taking center stage doing so.
This will be the Chiefs second prime time game of the season (Thursday night opening week) and this will be the Ravens first prime time game of the season.
Both of these teams entered the seasons as unquestioned favorites in the AFC and so far, both of these teams have delivered. Going into this game there is a combined record of 4-0, the Ravens are coming off a dominant win in Houston in which they won 33-16, and the Chiefs are coming off a close win against division rivals Los Angeles Chargers 23-20 in overtime.
It is no shock to anybody that both of these teams started the season off 2-0 and the biggest question for both of these teams is if one of them can finish the season undefeated? Well, only one of them will have a chance to after this game, but the more important thing for both of these teams is reaching the Super Bowl. The Chiefs are looking to find their way back to a second consecutive Super Bowl and the Ravens are trying to fight off the recent playoff snide and make it back for the first time since the 2012 season.
The road to the Super Bowl for both of these teams starts right now. Yes, it is only week three of the NFL season, but this game could end up determining who will be the number one seed this season and with only one bye week this season it could have huge implications. The bye week turned out to hurt Baltimore last season, but there is no doubt that a bye entering the playoffs could be enormous.
As of right now since Patrick Mahomes has been the starter in Kansas City, the Chiefs are 2-0 against the Ravens in the regular season, now they are looking to make it 3-0. This game will be a little different as both of those games were in Arrowhead, now they travel to M&T Bank in Baltimore, if they can win their it will show their dominance.
It will not be an easy win for them though, since the 2018 regular season the Ravens are 14-3 at home and on top of that they are currently on 14-game regular season win streak, the longest in the NFL.
This game is more than just another game for these two teams, the Ravens are looking to prove that they should be the team to be feared in the AFC and in order to do that they need to defeat the defending champions. For the Chiefs they are proving that they are still the defending champions and they have to beat the best regular season team in the league.
This game is sure to have its number of memorable moments just like the first two meetings which include the now infamous “no-look” pass. With two of the best and electrifying quarterbacks in the game, it is sure to be a great game and no matter who wins this should be right up there for game of the year.
Kansas City at Baltimore
Kickoff: Monday, Sept. 28 at 8:15 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Spread: Baltimore -3.5
Chiefs: (2-0)
The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off an unusual game against the Chargers. While it may seem odd that the Chiefs were taken to overtime where they barely came away with a win against an inferior team, it was an in-division game and those games are never easy. Whatever happened in that game is in the past and now they are focused on Baltimore. Even though it may not have seemed like it, the Chiefs are still one of the best teams in the entire NFL. From having the best quarterback in the world to having the second-best kicker in the NFL, this is an all-around dangerous team that can out up points at will.
The biggest addition to this offense though may have been rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Edwards-Helaire only adds another layer to this offense and with his ability to change the pace from Mahomes and the passing game this offense becomes an even bigger threat than it was last season when they won the Super Bowl. While the offense may look great on paper, it showed that it had its weeknesses last week. Now, this is not saying that the Chargers did a great job at stopping the offense, Mahomes still had 302 YDS and the run game had 125 combined YDS, but the Chargers were able to slow down the offense which was the key to staying in the game.
Kicker Harrison Butker was perfect from the field kicking three successful field goals—even though he missed his only extra point opportunity— but when the kicker has more made attempts than the offense has touchdowns then it is stagnant somewhere. Mahomes still had two touchdown passes on the day, but against Baltimore this is not going to work. Since Marcus Peters joined the team midway through last season, they have been easily a top-five defense in the NFL. Working against a top-five defense this Chiefs offense will need to score anyway they can, but touchdowns are a must when looking at the opposing offense.
There are certain weaknesses in this Baltimore defense and the Chiefs have to take advantage of it. The Ravens love to blitz even though they don’t get a ton of pressure, if Mahomes can capitalize on this with his speedy wide receivers then they will be in it all game long. That won’t be easy against theses corners in Peters, Humphrey, and Smith; their best opportunity will be to target Anthony Averett if they want to destroy the Ravens secondary.
When we discuss weak defenses, we have to mention the Chiefs. The Chiefs defense is not nearly as strong as the Ravens is and going against this offense will not be an easy task. They will be hard pressed to stop Lamar Jackson, but they can slow him down. Chris Jones has been playing like the best defensive lineman in the game and against this weaker interior line of the Ravens he could disrupt the rhythm. Jackson has improved as a passer so much but is still deadly on the ground and the Ravens run game is up there with the best of them. That is where the Ravens can take advantage, the Chiefs run defense is not that great and they will have a good amount of trouble keeping up with the run, if the Chiefs want to stay in it than Mahomes needs to be great and force a shootout.
Baltimore
(2-0)
Baltimore has gotten off to a great start to the season, dominating both the Browns and the Texans in their first two games. While they have easily gotten through their first two games, this will be their toughest test. The Chiefs have one of the most explosive offenses in the entire league and they are able to match any team when it comes to putting points on the board. If there is one weakness on the Chiefs compared to the Ravens, it is on the defensive side.
While the Chiefs defense is not bad it does not compare to their offense and it does not compare to the Ravens offense. They have allowed 28th most yards in the league, but yards don’t matter when you are holding teams on the scoreboard. Currently, the Chiefs are holding teams to only 20 points per game, however, that may not last for long as they are going up against one of the best offenses in the NFL. While the Chiefs may not allow that many points, one glaring weakness on the team is that they are not good at stopping the run.
The Ravens made history last season in setting a brand-new team rushing record and that became an even bigger threat this season after J.K. Dobbins was added through the draft. Mark Ingram, Gus Edwards, J.K. Dobbins, and Lamar Jackson are as big of a threat as a tandem as any team in the league. While the rushing attack is ferocious, defenses cannot go all in on the run otherwise Lamar Jackson is going to torch them through the air. Jackson was unanimous MVP last season, but he knew there were areas for improvement, and he did over the offseason. Early in the season he is looking like one of the most polished passers in the game and with a healthy Marquise “Hollywood” Brown he now has his favorite weapon to help out.
The key for this offense though is the offensive line against this defensive line. The Chiefs d-line has looked good and the Ravens losing Marshal Yanda has shown tough so far even if the Ravens are winning dominantly. The line has not been great, but it has been good enough, if this line gives enough room for the run and time for Jackson then the offense should roll all game long.
Over to the defense and the Ravens have only allowed 11 points per game this season, that is most likely not going to last but the Ravens have weapons to do it. The Chiefs wide receivers are great, but their biggest threat is over the middle in tight end Travis Kelce. The Ravens are running a rookie MLB in Patrick Queen and Mahomes is going to attempt to target him. If Queen can at least contain Kelce then Mahomes will be forced to go deep, this is not a bad thing for him. Mahomes has one of the best deep balls in the game, but with the Ravens secondary they should be able to limit any big plays. The key for the defense though is to stop the outside run from Edwards-Helaire. The outside run is their weakness and although they shut down David Johnson last week it could always come back to hurt. Combined with Mahomes’s ability if the run game is working then the offense could be too much to handle.
Final Analysis
This has all the makings to be an instant classic as both of these teams are a full complete team. The big headline is going to be Lamar vs. Mahomes, but an underrated matchup is going to be kicker vs. kicker. These are the two best kickers in the league in Justin Tucker and Harrison Butker and with the shootout that is about to take place, this game could come down to either of these two.
While the kicking game will be important it will also come down to which defense can create more stops. Both of these offenses are great, but we saw that the Chiefs offense could be slowed down last week, not so much with the Ravens so that says that the Ravens defense has a better chance to stop the Chiefs than vice-versa. With all of that being said I think this game will come down to the final drive and the Ravens will pull out the victory in a close one.
Prediction: Ravens 30, Chiefs 28