As if watching the Kansas Chiefs hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy for the third time in the last five years after beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in the Super Bowl wasn’t painful enough, postgame comments made by some of their most prominent players made it even more excruciating for the Baltimore Ravens and their fans.
The Charm City franchise was widely believed to be the best team in the league this season by both advanced metrics and the eye test. During an interview with NFL Network’s Michael Robinson, Chiefs five-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Chris Jones admitted it too.
Chris Jones on the Chiefs’ journey: “I think we faced the best team in the league in [the] Baltimore Ravens”
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— Jonas Shaffer (@jonas_shaffer) February 12, 2024
“I think we faced the best team in the league in (the) Baltimore Ravens, hands down,” said Jones when asked what gave him and the defense so much confidence in their game plan.
The three-time Super Bowl champion went on to detail their journey through the postseason that led up to the Super Bowl citing the prolific offense of the Miami Dolphins they shutdown at home and the red-hot Buffalo Bills team that had been playing their best down the stretch and leading into the Divisional round. However, in his mind, no challenge was more daunting than having to come into M&T Bank Stadium and take on the No. 1 seeded Ravens who were led by a two-time MVP-winning quarterback and the top-ranked defense in the league in the AFC championship.
“It’s a tough environment. MVP Lamar Jackson and that defense, man. We [were] able to overcome them obstacles, we weren’t going to be defeated here,” Jones said.
According to FTN Fantasy’s Aaron Schatz, the Chiefs overcame the hardest postseason path to a Super Bowl in NFL history based on the regular season DVOA of their opponents. The Ravens were one of the best teams ever per that metric and the 49ers weren’t far behind yet both top seeds fell at the hands of Kansas City in the end.
Jones wasn’t the only premier Chiefs’ player who was retroactively giving the Ravens praise after the red and yellow confetti fell. Nine-time Pro Bowl and Future Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce called the Ravens a “juggernaut” and acknowledged Jackson as the league MVP.
To potentially make matters worse and more torturous for the Ravens and their fans, they are one of eight teams that will have to play a regular season game in Kansas City in 2024. They could very well end up being the team that has to watch the Chiefs unveil their latest Super Bowl banner in the season opener.