Key Stats and Turning Point Play from Chiefs' Win Over Ravens

The Chiefs got it done again

The Kansas City Chiefs are going back to the Super Bowl after their 17-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night.

It’ll be their fourth appearance in the big game in five years, and this one was led by the defense. The Chiefs just cleared the AFC playoff gauntlet that pinned them against the Top 3 offenses in the AFC over the regular season - both in terms of yards AND points.

The Dolphins, Bills and Ravens averaged a little more than 28 points per game this season, and then they averaged just 13 points per game against Steve Spagnuolo’s defense in the playoffs.

For more impressive numbers on the Chiefs’ performance, here’s what stood out to KCSN’s Craig Stout.

156 - Postseason Receptions for Travis Kelce

Going into this game, Travis Kelce was just 6 receptions away from Jerry Rice’s postseason receptions record of 151. This was one of the multitude of Rice’s “untouchable” records that many didn’t think would ever be broken – or certainly not broken anytime soon.

Kelce entered the day six receptions shy of the record, and it didn’t take long to reach the mark in the AFC Championship game. Midway through the second quarter, Kelce landed his seventh catch of the game, passing Rice – and he didn’t stop there. He added another four, bringing his total to 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown on the day, further cementing himself as the greatest tight end of all time.

The Chiefs offense has gone as Kelce has gone throughout the season, with the dip in productivity coming as defenses focused on stopping the all-world tight end. While the team had changed up their offensive concepts as the postseason approached, the focus was still on Isiah Pacheco, rookie Rashee Rice, and Kelce.

In the biggest moment of the season (to date), those three players accounted for 75% of the offensive touches and targets of the day, with Kelce getting 11 of Mahomes’ 36 pass attempts.

The offense once again went as Kelce did, and they were the better for it. We are witnessing greatness at the tight end position.

Luckily, we’re fortunate enough to realize it through records broken and constant reminders of Kelce helping haul this offense to postseason wins and multiple trophies. This AFC Championship is yet another example of why Kelce is a first ballot Hall of Famer, and will continue to have his name mentioned as one of the greatest players of all time moving forward.

In two weeks, Kelce can add another ring to his resume, but he won’t need it – he’s already one of the greatest postseason players of all time.

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1 - Points per drive allowed by the Chiefs defense

The Baltimore Ravens were a top five offense in points per drive during the regular season, scoring 2.37 points on average. They extended that in the postseason with a 34 point outburst against the Houston Texans.

By almost every metric, the Ravens offense – and defense – were one of the league’s best, but they were coming up against Steve Spagnuolo and an elite postseason game plan. It really was an “immovable force against an unstoppable object” narrative heading into the matchup. Unfortunately for the Ravens, the Chiefs defense proved once again that they are for real.

Lamar Jackson’s statline looks good on the surface – 272 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception and 54 yards rushing on 8 attempts – but it wasn’t nearly as easy as it seems.

At one point, Jackson had 5 completions on 11 attempts (including one to himself on a swatted Justin Reid pass) and had only made a couple of plays by avoiding sacks or on busted coverages. Jackson’s day was encapsulated by a red zone interception to Deon Bush that was poor pass in a clutch moment. Jackson was worthy of the MVP in the regular season, but Spagnuolo’s defense made him look like a league average quarterback on the day.

The Chiefs defense has allowed 13.6 points per game in the postseason to the three best offenses in the AFC during the regular season.

Some of the most explosive and in-sync systems in the conference were unable to get past “postseason Spags”, and even the Chiefs defenders knew it – wearing “In Spags We Trust” shirts on the field pregame. Spagnuolo is truly one of the league greatest postseason minds, and the Chiefs get to feature it each year.

With a fourth Super Bowl ring as a defensive coordinator, he could be one of the few coordinators to enter Canton at the end of his career.

The Chiefs are going back to the Super Bowl once again following their 4th AFC Championship victory in the past 5 seasons. They were able to go on the road and beat the Ravens 17-10 thanks to a hot start from the Chiefs’ offense and stellar defense play all game long. The Chiefs jumped out to a 14-7 lead and were able to hold off the Ravens for the rest of the game.

Travis Kelce had a handful of plays that could qualify for this award while going for 11 receptions, 116 yards, and a Touchdown. Patrick Mahomes had plenty of plays that would also be justifiable in this slot, none more so than his final 3rd down pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. The defense made plays all game long on every single level as well.

Narrowing down the biggest play of the game became incredibly difficult and it really came down to these final two contenders. L’Jarius Sneed forcing a fumble from Zay Jones as he was driving into the endzone just plays after giving up a massive chunk play to him, or Deon Bush picking off Lamar Jackson in the endzone with just under 7 minutes left. 

Ultimately, I’m going with Bush’s interception as the play of this game because the Ravens had just driven down the field on back to back drives. Sure, they turned the ball over on the prior drive but the Chiefs were unable to do anything with. Upon getting the ball back, the Ravens began moving the ball back down the field.

Then everything changed. Isaiah Likely - TE for the Ravens - got a half-step on Chamarri Conner and threw his hand up like he was open. It looked like Lamar Jackson anticipated some kind of pressure by the Chiefs because he immediately just launched the football up to Likely despite 2 extra defenders in position to converge at the catch point.

Even worse, the ball was well underthrown and off-target for Likely. This allowed Bush to undercut the catch point and pick the football off in the endzone. This was the Chiefs’ third turnover of the game and all but put the game away for the defending Super Bowl Champions.

The Ravens’ offense had struggled and looked off-rhythm all game and this was just another example. None more evident than this final Interception in which Jackson had plenty of time and space to make a different read but just launched the ball trying to chase points.

For the third time in this game, the Chiefs caught the Ravens trying to do too much chasing points and mad them pay the ultimate price.