These teams last played to kick off the 2009 season. The Ravens hosted the Chiefs, and put up an excellent team performance to win 38-24. The Ravens did not have a single player on offense with a rating in the red (below -1.0), and only two players on defense.
The Chiefs offense looked very different from what it does now. At quarterback was Brodie Croyle (+3.6) who got his only start of the season, and put up respectable numbers with 7.4 yards per attempt. Running the ball was Larry Johnson (-1.4) who didn’t help much, rushing 11 times for 20 yards. The leading receiver was Mark Bradley (-0.5) who had four catches for 73 yards.
RAVENS OFFENSE
The Ravens have a large, powerful set of linemen, so it follows that they run a man-blocking scheme. They like to pull their guards and lead through the hole, especially left guard Ben Grubbs, and they are at their best when they can double team defenders at the line and open up holes for the running backs. The Ravens run with just two receivers the majority of the time, lining up with a full back and tight end and attempting to just overpower opponents. They’re good at it, which goes some way to explaining why they have been able to win on the road in the postseason in recent years. They are set up to win games ugly, and Joe Flacco has the arm that can take advantage of play-action opportunities downfield.
RAVENS DEFENSE
Baltimore has changed defensive schemes more than any team in the past few years. They have transformed themselves from a base 3-4 team, to a Rex Ryan hybrid scheme that would change up between 3-4 and 4-3 throughout the game, to a base 4-3 scheme which they currently operate. A little like the Seahawks, the Ravens will shift their linebackers, primarily Jarrett Johnson to give almost a 5-2 look at times, allowing them to stack the line of scrimmage whilst still playing in base 4-3 personnel packages. The Ravens have a lot of flexibility with their defensive front because most of the players along it have played in both the 3-4 and 4-3, and that allows them to still tinker their scheme to match up against the offense when they want to, instead of being stuck in a rigid 4-3 front the way lots of teams are.
The range of Ed Reed gives the Ravens the ability to play single high safety as much as any team in the league and be successful with it on the back end. With Dawan Landry moving down into the box they can play a lot of Cover-1 with man coverage across the rest of the D, relying on winning individual matchups, and Reed daring people to throw it deep into his area.
CHIEFS OFFENSE
The Chiefs were the only team in the NFL in 2010 to run the ball more than they passed it. With a HB like Jamaal Charles averaging 6.38 yards per carry over the season, you can see why they kept running it, but for a league once known for “three yards and a cloud of dust” on offense, that only one team ran more than it passed is a truly amazing statistic.
The Chiefs run a pretty conventional offense, with a simple man-up blocking scheme. They will use pulling guards to lead through designed holes but they will also run some plays with a zone blocking scheme, and run play action off both types. They will roll Matt Cassel out of the pocket on play-action passes and let him hit receivers out in space. Kansas City runs a lot of two-tight end sets with their rookie Tony Moeaki the main receiving weapon from in tight. They don’t run with a lot of multiple receiver sets but will use slot receiver Dexter McCluster creatively and on a lot of end arounds and fake reverses to try to misdirect the defense.
CHIEFS DEFENSE
On D they run a simple 3-4 scheme, as you might expect from a defense run by Romeo Crennel. Their D relies heavily on one stud rush linebacker (Tamba Hali), with Mike Vrabel acting as the steady influence on the other side. Their defensive linemen are set up to stop the run, with two large bodied linemen and Glenn Dorsey, who still seems out-of-place in the scheme that really doesn’t play to his strengths of shooting gaps and disrupting plays in the backfield. They will substitute linemen for smaller pass-rushers in obvious passing situations, but otherwise their defensive front remains very basic, they just rely on execution to stop teams.
On the back end the Chiefs run a lot of man-coverage, relying on their young but talented corners to stick to their receivers deep down field. They will run a lot of Cover-2 and Cover-3 man schemes, with either Eric Berry or Jon McGraw when he plays coming down into the box to help out against the run game, something which they are likely to have to do to try to contain the Ravens’ run game.
WHO'S HOT, WHO'S NOT
Ravens corner Lardarius Webb was +7.0 over his last five games, –5.6 over his first 11. …Right tackle Marshall Yanda had two of his three best grades of the year in Week 15 and 16. … T.J. Houshmandzadeh isn't really hot, just solid since Week 11 after some early struggles. … Matt Cassel played poorly along with nearly the entire Chiefs team in Week 17, but his three standout games were in Weeks 11, 12 and 16. … Jamaal Charles is hot, but then he's never been cold. Same goes for Tamba Hali — few teams can boast two such reliably great players.
On the cold side, Terrell Suggs was unstoppable for 12 weeks but subpar the last four — not a big concern, unless he's nursing a silent injury. … Ray Lewis played well in Week 17, but was not his usual self over the second half with four very poor games in his last nine. … Chiefs tackle Branden Albert was looking like a comer until three terrible games in his last four. … Dwayne Bowe has proven again to be as mercurial as anyone with four really bad games in his last five. … Safety Jon McGraw has looked like a liability.
NOTES
The Ravens actually graded fifth in our passing rankings, with their pass-catchers at +34.9 and only rookie TE Ed Dickson showing up negative among regulars. … Billy Cundiff's average kickoff wound up 2.4 yards deep in the end zone, although he did tail off a bit over the last six weeks or so. … Dwayne Bowe averaged 9.3 yards per target for the Chiefs on 125 passes thrown his way with 15 touchdowns; their other wideouts averaged 5.8 on their 120 targets with three touchdowns. … The Ravens graded first in pass coverage and the Chiefs second.
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