Execs Unfiltered: How do Lamar Jackson, Ravens close the gap with the Chiefs? (2024)

For the Baltimore Ravens, there can be no ignoring the canyon between their 0-3 record against the Kansas City Chiefs and their 21-1 mark against everyone else during the Lamar Jackson era as starting quarterback. The Ravens’ championship hopes while Jackson remains on his affordable rookie contract likely hinge on their ability to conquer a Kansas City team that recently locked in its future by signing quarterback Patrick Mahomes, coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach to long-term extensions.

Anyone watching the Chiefs’ 34-20 victory over the Ravens on Monday night might conclude Baltimore is losing ground in this AFC race. The Ravens trailed 27-10 at halftime despite scoring on a kickoff return, and despite the Chiefs missing a field-goal try. As the Monday Night Football broadcast wound down, ESPN flashed a graphic showing passing yardage totals for the respective quarterbacks: Mahomes 385, Jackson 97.

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Michael Lombardi wrote on Monday about what the Ravens need to do to stop the Chiefs in the future. In this edition of the “Execs Unfiltered” column, we dive more into that topic, as veteran coaches reveal what they think Baltimore should do to close the gap.

1. Employ a less risky brand of defense against Kansas City

The Ravens rank second in points allowed and fourth in defensive expected points added since Don Martindale became defensive coordinator for the 2018 season. They rank fifth in fewest explosive plays allowed, defined as rushes gaining at least 12 yards and passes gaining at least 16. The bold, gambling style of defense Martindale learned partly through his associations with Rex Ryan at Oklahoma State in the 1990s and Rob Ryan at the Oakland Raiders in the 2000s has, by any statistical reckoning, served Baltimore very well. But that style of defense has not been most effective against Kansas City. Zone defenses such as the one Gus Bradley deploys with the Los Angeles Chargers have generally been more effective.

“They gotta eliminate big plays, whether that is sounder on defense, whether that is better coverage when they are pressuring,” an offensive coach said. “Everyone says Kansas City is going to get big plays regardless. Well, they didn’t against the Chargers, who know how to play them. They have to look at what other people are doing to slow them down.”

The Ravens and nine other teams have faced the Chiefs more than once in games when Mahomes was the starting quarterback. Of those 10 teams, the Ravens have allowed the most explosive plays per game. They twice allowed 11 explosives, including Monday night, and they allowed nine in their other matchup against Mahomes. The table ranks these 10 opponents by most to fewest explosive plays allowed per game against the Chiefs.

The Chiefs are 31-8 in the regular season and playoffs when Mahomes has started for them. Everybody loses to Kansas City, not just the Ravens. The Chiefs have averaged 32.7 points per game in those 31 victories and 31.3 in the eight defeats. They are going to stress the scoreboard pretty much no matter what you do on defense, but in six of the 10 Mahomes starts when Kansas City failed to reach 25 points on offense, the opponent was either the Chargers (three times) or the Denver Broncos (also three times). Those AFC West rivals of Kansas City allowed 6.3 explosive plays per game in those six performances. For Baltimore, reducing the explosive gains logically should be part of any strategy for closing the gap between the teams.

“It is easy to be critical of Lamar when he throws for 97 yards, but they are built on running the ball, play-action and playing good defense,” the coach said. “And then all of a sudden they give up 11 explosives to Kansas City. If they play defense like the Chargers, they are in their game plan the whole game. I mean, first play of the game (for Kansas City’s offense), you can say it’s a great call by Andy Reid, but they run a reverse and Tyreek Hill gets 30 yards (actually 22). You know who you start games with reverses against? Defenses that over-pursue, that don’t always play sound.”

Skilled offensive play-callers sometimes prefer facing high-risk defenses for the big-play opportunities.

“With sounder defenses, I know what they are going to do and there are a few ways we can get big plays, but not many,” a different coach said. “A very sound three-deep, four-under — not a lot of holes in it. It is hard to scheme up. You can get a real good quarterback and good players, but it is not like, ‘Hey, if I put No. 1 here and No. 3 here, we are going to get No. 2 wide open.’ ”

Patrick Mahomes' 49-yard TD to Mecole Hardman traveled 58.1 yards in the air, the 2nd-longest completion by air distance this season.

Hardman had 5.2 yards of separation when the pass arrived.#KCvsBAL | #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/ZHTJEOdsz1

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 29, 2020

The Chiefs’ special knowledge of gambling Ravens cornerback Marcus Peters, who spent the 2015-2017 seasons with Kansas City, seemed helpful Monday night. Mahomes caught Peters creeping toward Hill’s shorter route when he threw over the top to Mecole Hardman for a 49-yard touchdown. Peters is No. 24 in the Next Gen Stats rendering above.

“Go look at the first touchdown on the run by Mahomes,” the first coach said. “They run a man-beater play and Baltimore cooperates and plays man, but they run their defensive linemen hard down inside, so you are in man and have no one outside, and no one who can come off and tackle Mahomes because everyone is running with their guy. And Mahomes just jogs to the pylon for a touchdown. If you are playing Mahomes and you don’t have someone spying or someone up the field to make him stay inside, you are not sound.”

The Ravens have been very effective on defense overall, but there’s much room for improvement against Kansas City — not just in general, but relative to how other teams have played the Chiefs.

2. Grow the passing game and hope Jackson grows along with it

The Ravens are going to keep hearing about their inability to play from behind until they become better at playing from behind, which means developing a dropback passing game apart from their multi-faceted rushing attack. A different offensive coach credited Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo for devising an effective plan.

“This is what the NFL is — if you do something really well, eventually people figure it out,” this coach said. “You have to be able to adapt and when it comes down to the quarterback, can he adapt? Because the way to beat this is to throw the ball.”

Unanimous or near-unanimous Tier 1 quarterbacks such as Mahomes, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers can thrive in pure-pass situations. Most others struggle when their offenses become one-dimensional. Because Jackson and the Ravens are usually so dominant when their entire playbook is available to them, the contrast can seem especially jarring when key chapters suddenly become off-limits. The Chiefs were better than most against the Ravens’ rushes, too.

“On first-and-10, they were either playing man or they were playing single-high zone,” the coach said. “If they reached the defensive end, then instead of trying to fight the block, he would just go inside and the backers would fold over the top so they were trying to keep them from being able to create the vertical seams that they do so well hitting and exploiting. In other words, they were playing fast-flow over the top trying to get up the field, knowing they had the extra guy because they had 10 guys in the box essentially, trying to spill everything and then get outside and contain it. When they had second down and long, all two-high safety. They would give him a 10-man look and drop two guys back and play a lot of zone. They were forcing him to throw it and he didn’t make a lot of good throws.”

Jackson completed 1-of-4 passes for 5 yards on second-and-7 or longer against the Chiefs. That is not necessarily fatal in a game — Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger produced similarly in those situations while winning in Week 3 — but the Ravens needed maximum efficiency in their passing game to keep pace with Mahomes.

“What beats a two-high defense is a number of receivers and you pick the best zone to throw it to,” the coach said. “They were running play-action and only had two guys and they cover those guys up, didn’t give him places to throw it.”

Most weeks, none of this will matter for the Ravens. They’ll overwhelm opponents with the NFL’s most diverse ground attack, parlaying that potency into play-action passes to receivers and tight ends running open. Then, every so often and especially in the playoffs, Baltimore will find itself trailing on the scoreboard.

“It comes back to the quarterback and his ability to stand in the pocket and get off throws and make throws to other receivers,” the coach said. “I do not think that is his forte. He makes some throws, but Monday night, he had a harder time when his No. 1 read was not there.”

One defeat to the Chiefs is not overly concerning. Three defeats to the Chiefs? That’s more problematic. Identifying what to change is easier than implementing those changes. Time is a factor for the Ravens as Jackson, the reigning MVP, becomes eligible for a new contract after the current season. Once he commands a deal near the top of the market, the Ravens will have fewer resources to use elsewhere on their roster. The Chiefs are a year ahead of Baltimore on that quarterback payment schedule, but they are ahead in other areas as well. That was clear again Monday night.

(Photo: Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Mike Sando joined The Athletic in 2019 as an NFL senior writer after 12 years with ESPN. He is a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, an officer for the Pro Football Writers of America and has covered every non-pandemic Super Bowl since the 1998 season. Follow Mike on Twitter @SandoNFL