Laddie Morse
It comes down to this game, to make it to Super Bowl LVIII… the Kansas City Chiefs go on the road today and play the Ravens in Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium, at 2:00 PM CST. This is the AFC Conference Championship Game, and although the rest of the AFC teams and their players are at home — or in Cancun — watching, the two best teams duke it out, a great deal will be determined today.
The first order of business is the injury report so we can determine who will be playing in this game.
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Injury Reports
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An amendment to this Injury listing was reported by Ian Rapoport:
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There are a lot of fans who might say they are done with Kadarius Toney. After all, Toney has a total of 169 yards receiving this season and the last time he appeared in a game was against the New England Patriots on December 17… and oh yea… he had 5 receiving yards in that game. However, I don’t think the Chiefs will be counting on him today or at any point in these playoffs. Toney may have stepped up in last year’s Super Bowl win, and he may have been a big reason for that victory, but his 2023 season has been awful, stat-wise.
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The above tweet was deleted late last night and I’m wondering if Daniel Harms deleted his own tweet once he found out the reason for Kadarius Toney’s “personal” reason (see below).
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Congratulations on helping to bring a new child into the world Kadarius!
In an article called, “Baltimore Ravens have this major game day advantage over the Kansas City Chiefs” Parker Hurley says:
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“Baltimore Ravens are much healthier than the Kansas City Chiefs: That means players like Kevin Zeitler, Mark Andrews, and Zay Flowers, who have been working back from injuries, are completely healthy with no signs of set backs right now. The team has depth at all positions, and they are ready to go. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are limping in a bit. Joe Thuney, their starting left guard, is out, which is major.”
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Here’s the Ravens Injury Report for today.
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Baltimore is getting Mark Andrews and Marlon Humphrey back tomorrow, so reports Ravens Nation LIVE. While it may be true that K.C. will be without their starting star Left Guard Joe Thuney, his replacement is Nick Allegretti — who would be starting for most teams — but I don’t think there will be much of a fall off in performance.
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M&T Bank Weather
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The weather is important for today’s game because M&T Bank Stadium, where the game is being played today in Baltimore, is an open air stadium like Arrowhead. It looks like there will be rain throughout the game today, which may make it difficult to throw the ball or run it. Either way, it will be all about how the players adapt to the conditions. We know that Mahomes and crew can make the necessary changes when it’s frigid outside, so it will be interesting to see how each team adapts to this wet weather. The weather forecast includes:
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“Cold and rainy with temperatures in the low-to mid-40s. Chance of rain about 80 percent, and almost a certainty at some point in the game. Winds from the north at 10 to 15 mph.”
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Referee Assignment
In an article by Jim Derry called: “Chiefs at Ravens: AFC championship game series history, TV info, line, trends, referees” he says the referee for this game will be Shawn Smith. No, not the Shawn Smith who played for the Chiefs before grabbing someone by the balls… the Shawn Smith who is a referee. Jim Derry says:
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“Shawn Smith will wear the white cap, and lead
all officials. He is in his ninth season overall in the
NFL and sixth as a head referee. This will be his
eighth postseason assignment, according to Football
Zebras, and his third conference championship game.”
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The Referee, Shawn Smith, is known as a “Road Team Ref” which plays out well for K.C.. From the PoeZone Podcast, a Ravens centric Podcast (0:57):
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Jim Derry also says of this game:
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“I had to choose [last weekend] between the trend
that says the top seeds are 12-3 the past 10 years
in conference championship games or the mantra I
went by last week:
“Bet against Mahomes in the playoffs at your own peril.”
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I’ll stick with Jim Derry and predict a score of:
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Chiefs 31, Ravens 24
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If this game indeed works out to be a heavyweight battle — like Lamar Jackson thinks it will be — then the Chiefs will be like Muhammad Ali and spring the rope-a-dope on the Ravens.
Let’s go Chiefs.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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