Baltimore Ravens are Super Bowl-bound for 3 reasons

Lamar Jackson has led the Baltimore Ravens to the NFL playoffs five times in six seasons since the Ravens selected him with the 32nd pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Jackson was named NFL MVP in 2019 and is expected to win the award for the second time this year.

At this point, no one is denying that Jackson is an elite QB, and with two more wins he has a chance to go down as one of the greatest of all time.

Jackson finally has better pass-catching weapons this year, and he also has perhaps the most dependable defense in the NFL. The problem is he only has one. Standing on the other side of the AFC Championship Game is Patrick Mahomes and his defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. If this is the year Jackson and the Ravens finally break out, they'll need the best in the NFL to make it happen.

Here are three reasons why the Ravens should be in the Super Bowl.

lamar jackson

Did you see what Josh Allen did last week? The Chiefs' defense has been amazing this season, but they haven't really had an answer for a mobile quarterback, allowing 72 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Jackson's ability to run outside the mark magnifies this problem exponentially, as it takes away Kansas City's defensive line's biggest defensive weapon.

With Jackson's ever-present foot threat, the Chiefs will have to take on the responsibility of either safety support or a dedicated linebacker spy to allow for deep passes — something Baltimore has been looking forward to all season. That's what I've been doing.

At this point, it's unclear whether the Chiefs have the ability to handle an instant threat like Jackson, and if they don't, he's going to have a huge game.

Photo credit: Todd Olszewski/Getty Images

mike mcdonald

Mike McDonald has done a great job with Baltimore's defense this season and parlayed that success into a potential head coaching position next season. But on Sunday, he will face his toughest test yet as he competes against Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.

But with what McDonald has built this year, he and this Ravens defense are in a very good position to come out on top.Baltimore is in first place in the regular season. As a team, they recorded 60 sacks, but the rate was only 21.9%., the eighth-lowest percentage in the regular season. Using simulated pressures up front and different packages gives the Ravens a chance to confuse both the offensive line and quarterback while maintaining numerical superiority in the secondary.

This gives the Ravens a chance to put pressure on Mahomes on Sunday without sacrificing numbers in the secondary. That could be big for Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game.

Crowd at M&T Bank Stadium

There was probably an underappreciated element to last week's divisional round Ravens-Ravens game. houston texans?

Crowd at M&T Bank Stadium.

Ravens fans cheered from the start of the game, making an impact. The Texans committed 11 penalties in the loss, most of which were taken before the game. Houston committed six false start penalties alone, a fact that head coach John Harbaugh noted in his postgame comments.

That same fanbase will be able to do things they've never done before. That means cheering on the Ravens at home in the AFC Championship Game. This Sunday could be even louder than last Saturday, which could make things even tougher for Mahomes and the Chiefs offense.

In fact, Mahomes is probably counting on this. When I appeared in manning cast Earlier this season, the Kansas City quarterback cited M&T Bank as one of the two loudest stadiums he's ever played in in the NFL. “I'm mostly verbal.” mahomes said To Peyton and Eli Manning. “The only places I was silent were in Baltimore and Seattle. …It was so loud in those stadiums, [the] Tackle couldn't hear me. ”