When the NFL originally scheduled Sunday’s Week 4 clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, few anticipated an early-season contest between two teams with 1-2 records. But that is where the teams that played in 2023’s AFC Championship game now stand.
Both teams will walk onto GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium ready to make a statement.
“They’re a tough football team,” Kansas City head coach Andy Reid said before Wednesday’s practice. “It should be a good, tough football game. That’s
the way you prepare yourself.”
Though the Ravens may be playing without some key defensive pieces — including star defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, whom Ravens head coach John Harbaugh has already ruled out for Sunday with a neck injury — Reid expects Baltimore defensive coordinator Zach Orr to have his squad ready.
“He brings guys from all over when needed,” Reid noted, “and at the same time, they play good sound defense on top of that. They’ve got good players. I’m sure he will have some change-ups from what he did with us last time; we’ll just have to adjust to it. But he does a nice job with that defense — [and] he has a lot of flexibility there [with] what he can do and with the players.”
By the eye test, Baltimore has looked like the better 1-2 team, having scored 30 and 40 points in their two losses. In contrast, the Chiefs’ offense has seemed to be stuck in neutral through much of their 12 quarters of football. In each game, however, the offensive line has steadily seemed to find more time for quarterback Patrick Mahomes to make big plays.
“I think that’s been huge,” said the quarterback on Wednesday. “This last defensive line that we played had all types of first-rounders [and] all types of talent — and our offensive line did a great job at giving me time to throw the ball down the field.
“My feet, you can tell, are a little more calm because I understand that these guys can protect and they can get me time to make these throws. I’ll continue to get better and better at that, and try and make some of these throws more accurate down the field — instead of hitting one to two a game.
“Making that three to four — and then five to six — then defenses will back up. [That] will help us out with other stuff within the offense.
“I’m just excited for where this offense is going, I know it hasn’t been a perfect product that we put out there so far — but there’s a lot of good, too.”
Mahomes also knows efficiency on offense will give Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo more freedom to be creative.
“We’ve got to start faster,” he admitted. “Every game, we’ve said that — and we haven’t really gotten to do that. We were moving the ball early in the game last week, but we were settling [for] field goals. When you play teams that are really good and have dynamic quarterbacks — like the Ravens do — you’ve got to turn those into touchdowns.
“That will not only put pressure on them, but [also] unleashes Spags to be able to do what he wants to do. You always see when we get leads, he’s a great finisher. He’s a great closer of being able to give you different looks and stuff like that. We’ve got to take pressure off our defense — and put pressure onto them by starting faster. We can be better at that this week.”
The Ravens, of course, strike fear into their opponents with the league’s best running tandem: quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Derrick Henry.
Although Henry’s untimely fumbles have directly led to both of Baltimore’s losses, Kansas City defensive end George Karlaftis is still more concerned about making mistakes while trying to bring down the two-time NFL rushing champion.
“If [that] one guy [gets] out of your gap,” said Karlaftis, “he’s gone. It’s all about being detailed in the run game, executing your assignment [and] trusting the scheme of the coach.”
Sunday will be the fourth time Karlaftis has faced Henry.
“He’s a beast,” he declared. “He can make all the plays. He can make everything happen — [including] big runs. We want to avoid that, obviously, [by] executing our scheme and playing to the best of our abilities.”
Every defensive player must play their part.
“It takes all 11, I can tell you that,” said Karlaftis. “We’ve got so much respect for the dude — not just him, but their whole offense [and] really, their whole team. They’re tough; they do stuff the right way.
“Lamar — specifically — is so athletic, but he’s [also] such an accurate quarterback; I don’t think he gets enough respect for that. He really can do it all.”
For Karlaftis and his defensive teammates, it adds up to one thing.
“It’s going to take everything we’ve got to stop him.”
