It was supposed to be the Ravens' year. They were historically good all season, putting together one of the more dominant and impressive season in recent NFL history. They had the presumptive MVP in QB Lamar Jackson, a first round bye, and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. And heading into Sunday's AFC Championship game, there was a fairly-widespread belief that, even with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, the Chiefs were still an inferior team. And yet, after Sunday's 17-10 loss, the Ravens are headed home early and will watch the Chiefs make their fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years. So who's to blame for Sunday's loss?
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1. WR Zay Flowers
Flowers' performance on Sunday afternoon is going to be feed sports talk radio for, at a minimum, the next two weeks alone. The box score stats look good: the rookie wide receiver had five catches on eight targets for 115 yards and the Ravens' only touchdown. But Flowers' day will be remembered for the handful of crucial mistakes he made in the final quarter that caused the game to slip away from Baltimore: mainly, the taunting penalty on a 54-yard completion, and the goal line fumble out of the end zone. He also then reportedly cut his hand on the sideline in a moment of frustration immediately after. According to NFL's Next Gen Stats, that fumble cut the Ravens' win probability in half, dropping from 28% to 13%. Flowers has a bright future ahead of him – he led the team in receiving yards this season (858) – but there's no doubt he had a rough day at the wrong time.
2. OC Todd Monken
Monken was noticeably out-coached by Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo on Sunday afternoon. The Ravens came into the Championship Game as one of the best running offenses in the NFL, leading the league in total yards (2661), and yards per game (156.5); only Miami, San Francisco, and Detroit had more rushing touchdowns (27) this year than the Ravens (26). On top of that, the Chiefs had a pedestrian run defense this year (18th in yards allowed, 24th in yards per attempt) and allowed over 180 yards on the ground to the Bills in last week's Divisional Round. After averaging over 30 rushes a game during the regular season, the Ravens only ran the ball 16 times – for 81 yards – on Sunday. It was a curious decision considering Baltimore was always within two scores, and not one he'll live down any time soon. The offense felt disjointed and mistake-prone all afternoon, and that falls on Monken.
3. QB Lamar Jackson
It's hard to put a ton of blame on Jackson considering the types of plays he was making in the first half, but he missed on a couple deep shots throughout the final two quarters that could have given the Ravens new life. His 4th quarter interception was probably the worst decision he made all day, throwing into the end zone in triple coverage with only six minutes left. Jackson finished the day going 20/37 with 272 yards, one touchdown and one interception, but finished with -0.27 EPA/play. It wasn't the worst performance of his career by any mean, but like he admitted after the game, they missed a ton of opportunities.