dave mcbride

The Ravens’ pass D has been lights out since week 11. In 7 out of 9 games they held opponents to under 200 yards passing. They also gave up 202 in one game and 251 vs the Steelers in the playoff game, but most of those yards were garbage time yards: 211 passing yards in the second half when the game was out of hand and not in doubt. At halftime, they were up 21-0 and had given up just 40 passing yards. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/rav/2024.htm

Allen because of the 2 rushing TDs. I mean, who else could they give it to? No one on D and no one else on O.

Texans also missed 7 points on kicks.

The Ravens defense is really good. It bears repeating that they were the best defense in the league by far over the final seven weeks of the season. And they dominated the Steelers in the playoff game too when it mattered (ie, before a very long garbage time session).

The Rams, Lions, Ravens, and Texans all had more yardage than their divisional round opponents and all of them lost. Has that ever happened?!? (A comment from @zow2 made me look this up.)

Andrews also dropped an easy first in the second quarter at the Bills 20, and Jackson took the sack/fumble on the next play.

The defense seemed to be scrambling to get aligned properly on almost every play of that final possession. Keystone cops-like.

Allen hit Shakir on a 34-yard deep throw two plays after the Hollins miss.

It’s worth noting that Andrews dropped a likely first down early in the second quarter at the Bills 20 yard line. It was a good enough throw and he just dropped it. The next play, on second and 10, Jackson was sacked and fumbled, resulting with the Bills in scoring position. Basically, three disastrous plays for Andrews.

I thought that was a pretty poor call and could easily have been called on Coleman. But it’s the NFL MO these days to punish pass defenders, so I’ll gladly take it.

Seems strange given that he stopped the previous 2 pt conversion, which was also a passing play.

It was a straight-up horrible drop on a safe, accurate throw. Full stop.

Thanks!

I didn’t see him on the field on the final 2 pt conversion attempt, although maybe i missed it. Did he get hurt at some point in the fourth?

Baltimore’s d is really good. They were the best d in the league by far over the last 7 weeks

That was not a hold. Happens every play.

See the addition to my post above.

Um … KC did nearly the EXACT SAME THING to the Bills six games later vs the Bills (in the next season). 2 plays for 28 yards and a 62 yard fg before the half in 12 seconds. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/202210160kan.htm But you are missing my larger point: the Bills could not stop the Chiefs AT ALL in the latter part of that game. KC had *552* - 552! - yards in that game.

Two six second plays. That is entirely normal. I have seen teams get off three non-incompletion plays with ten seconds to go PLENTY of times. That is exactly what the Chiefs did. Non-scramble pass plays for medium/medium deep yardage rarely take longer than 6 seconds.

I can’t believe they didn’t punt there. Punting was absolutely the right call given down, distance, and field position. Failure, the chance of which is high there, makes a KC field goal fairly likely - and a fg ends the game.

Meh. The odds of the Chiefs gaining 42 yards in two plays where they didn’t have to worry about the clock weren’t actually that low no matter what the Bills did given how the defense was playing at that point in the game. They got shredded before and after that in that game, so those two plays were basically par for the course.

Mixon is really good, as per the eyeball test. Put him on Philly, and he’s averaging 5+ yards a carry. He’s never played behind a good line.

Read that this morning in Kauai. Great way to start the day! (Sad thing is, my wife and I have to watch the Bills-Ravens game in the Honolulu airport.)

Yep!

I’d put the Rams in that tier too. They are 10-2 since they got over an early wave of injuries and factoring out the final game of the season, where they rested many starters.