Ravens defense focused on keeping composure ahead of season opener

After retaliation to instigation led to costly penalties in the AFC title game, not beating themselves again will be paramount in the rematch.

In more ways than one, the Baltimore Ravens outplayed the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2023 AFC Championship game just over eight months ago. On offense, they outgained them and had one fewer first downs as as a result of an actual play and on defense, they pitched a shutout in the second half.

Unfortunately, one area where the Ravens lost was beating themselves with penalties due to a lack of composure. The Chiefs’ offense was given five first downs as a result of penalty to the Ravens’ none. Two were unnecessary roughness, one was a defensive hold, another for too many men on the field and the other two were questionable roughing the passer calls.

By the end of the game, the Ravens had amassed 95 yards on eight penalties while the Chiefs only had three for 30 yards—all of which were a result of holds committed by offensive linemen in the first three quarters.

Unlike other professional sports league where advancing in the postseason is decided in a best of series, NFL playoff games are winner-take-all single elimination contests. In a game that is often decided by inches and who can win within the margins, not giving up completely avoidable free yardage on uncharacteristic actions is an emphasis for the Ravens heading into Thursday’s season opening rematch against the two-time defending champions.

“That goes into every week in what we talk about,” defensive coordinator Zach Orr. “In the National Football League, everybody is a great team, in my opinion, but you can’t beat yourself. It’s already tough to beat a team in this league, but you can’t beat yourself by getting penalties and getting uncharacteristic, so that’s definitely a focus for us this week.”

One of the defenders who got penalized in the AFC title game was two-time First Team All-Pro inside linebacker Roquan Smith. He echoed similar sentiments to Orr and doesn’t want to give the Chiefs any sort of an edge or yield a single unearned inch. Keeping their collective composure throughout the game will be “critical” to leaving Kansas City victorious and returning to Baltimore 1-0.

“There were different calls [from the AFC Championship] that probably should have [gone] the other way, but hey, we can’t ask refs for anything at any point throughout the game,” Smith said. “We know how to line up and kick the man’s tail across from you, and I think once you do that, that’s all what it boils down to – beat the man between the whistle – so [if] guys want to do cheap shots, ‘Hey, I’ll see you next play.’ That’s what truly matters, and that reveals who you are as a person and as a football player. So, we stand on that, and we stand on business. We have a great veteran presence on the team, so I’m not worried about any of the guys buying into that stuff. So, we’ll see them when we see them.”

The entire Ravens defense is excited to go up against the last team to beat them to open the season in primetime. They feel it couldn’t be a better litmus test to begin what they hope will be their own championship-winning campaign.

“You get a great test out of the gate,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “Obviously, [they were the] Super Bowl Champs last year, so you really can see really where you stand as a team against a team you know is really good.”