We crawled through the television desert to get here.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's almost time. It's Ravens
Chiefs. It's a massive match up to get this
season started, Peter. The way this thing went
down in the AFC title game last year, Ravens
fans would no sooner forget about it. Chiefs,
fans want to swim in it, but this is
a new season. What ultimately decides this game stopping
Travis Kelsey guy went for nine catches in 96 yards
in the first half last year and Mike mcdonald was
a defensive mastermind. He's no longer there. Insert
Zach or a 32 year old defensive coordinator for the
Baltimore Ravens first year coordinator and he's had all summer
to prepare for Kelsey Kelsey sliced them and diced them
last year. They have to find a way to
stop him and they have to know that, hey
, in the first half, he can't go for
100 yards. Then we have no shot. I
believe this Ravens defense is loaded. They've got so
much talent whether it be Roon and Kyle Hamilton,
I also think they did their job last year in
the second half. They held the Chiefs to 17
points in the FC champions game. The team didn't
win. They've got to do it again. You've
got to do it again. Find a way to
keep the Chiefs under 30 points. You got a
shot here. But if the Chiefs do what they
do and Mahomes gets hot and Kelsey does what he
does. Good night, Irene. We could be
talking the Ravens and 11 hole after this 10,
wow. You know, I, I think ultimately
this is going to come down to allowing, you
know, Lamar Jackson, being able to be Lamar
Jackson. I think the best way you do that
is really by dominating in the run game. And
of course, we've talked about this over and over
again about them running the ball six times in that
AFC championship game. But, you know, I
saw this interesting thing, especially when you look at
the way Derrick Henry's played throughout his career against the
Kansas City Chiefs. He dominates against them. Take
a look at this right here. You know,
when you look at giving him the ball, you
look at how powerful he is as a runner.
Look at this three and one against the Kansas City
Chiefs, the like points per game, 25 points
per game. This dude is, I mean,
and that loss was the title game. Does that
include the playoffs? I hope it, I mean
, I don't do stats that don't include the playoffs
. So, yeah. Right. But it's not
playoffs. I think in this game, you're setting
the tempo with a dominant run game. Utilizing Derrick
Henry. Lamar Jackson can be Lamar Jackson. He
doesn't have to worry about trying to be a part
of that run game. You can use it if
you need it. But I really do like,
you know, the, the strength and the power
of this young, young man, old man,
old, young man, Derek Henry there, there's
a huge intrigue about Henry because it was this big
splashy thing. And this is this one of the
most recognizable runners of the last decade changing to a
team, not only changing to a team and he
goes to some crappy team at the end of his
career. No, like a really important team and
it, it might be an overrated deal. It
might be that he's sluggish and he just, he's
hit the wall, but it might be that he
is the story of the year at running back.
You know, what's fun tonight? There's a whole
story that I'm actually really looking forward to. It
has to do with pregame warm ups. Can we
get into this? All right, if, if
you forgot or maybe you're just thinking the same thing
. There was heavy drama before the AFC title game
having to do with kickers. It's a little bit
hard to describe, but Justin Tucker during warm up
who is a made guy and a real, like
one of the few famous kickers. Probably both of
them are on this, in this game, set
up his little kicking t to warm up. And
in the, the Chiefs area, at least as
the Chiefs play, Travis Kelley came up and literally
threw his stuff as to say, get the hell
out of here, Tucker, set it up again
. It was thrown again and there was huge bizarre
drama between Travis Kelsey and Justin Tucker and Mahomes was
involved. So I honestly think because Justin Tucker in
addition to all his talents is a pretty cheeky guy
. And I think he's a for funny guy.
I wonder if there's any sort of territorial thing going
on before the game, if Tucker goes right over
and sets up his tee again, forcing Kelsey or
someone to go right over and toss it. I
almost feel Kelsey or the Tucker will and I almost
feel like he should. And there's a little bit
of a territorial thing going on here. I know
we're talking kickers in pre but for context for context
, we, I was there and in real time
, I'm watching this happen. Palmer was video,
the video and I'm watching it and I'm like,
oh, these, these guys played in the pro
bowl a million times together. They're all boys like
Kelsey is doing that because he's busting shops with Tucker
messing around. It wasn't that it was real.
Kelsey was like, get the heck out of our
, our area here. This is where we warm
up and Tucker is like, no, this is
what I do. I'm in my home field.
I work out right here. It was a territory
like a territorial battle here. Tucker in the upper
right. He's about to kick now, bottom left
and Kelsey just tosses it and it wasn't fun in
games. Kelsey was piss and the helmet too.
I mean, not the man's helmet, no doubt
. You know what I see is Travis Kelsey's got
his guy back. He, he's like, Mahomes
, you just keep operating. I'll clear the stuff
up the club for you. Justin Tucker. I
want someone to have Lamar Jackson's back like this,
whether it be in pregame or I want to see
this confident version that people are standing up side by
side with Lamar Jackson because if I'm Patrick Maholmes,
I'm like, this is my guy now. I
feel great about myself like you have a shirt,
an air about you when someone has your back the
way that Travis Kelsey does in a situation like that
these games typically and Peter showed a lot of the
games the last 10 years. A lot of times
they're a little sloppy, a little out of the
game. Scoring teams are rusty. Yeah, I
mean, I have always said that week one is
the weirdest week and if one of these teams gets
destroyed tonight, don't think their season will be over
. Case in point. The Chiefs lost last year
to Detroit and they won the Super Bowl. So
you don't take a lot away. But I feel
like honestly, this will probably come down to a
last second kick and it will be the two best
kickers in the league. It will be good game
. Probably a little scoring though. I hope Lamar's
boys come back and get his back. They have
, I mean, yeah, he's, he's one
in four against, you know, uh Patrick Mahomes
. So I'm sure he wants this uh for not
only for himself but obviously for the Ravens. Well
, I mean, we have a new category for
Prediction Week. Now, it's whether or not Justin
Tucker should set up his kicking. You think he
should, he should go on the, on the
Chiefs bus in the locker room and set it up
here. You think he should do it? I
think it'll be fun. I will say this.
All right enough of Tucker. I'm good. I
would say this. Uh the NFL could have chosen
any opponent for the Chiefs. They have a loaded
schedule. Harbaugh was coming in and of course Sean
Payton is there and then you have all the NFC
East and you've got the Cowboys like the Chiefs could
have played against it. They chose the Ravens that
tells you that the league office believes in this Ravens
team and that they think they are a prime time
team. I don't wanna see the Ravens fall in
their face tonight against Kansas City because I think that
place is gonna be maniacal in that building as they
kick off this Chiefs pe attempt.