Unerring Chiefs set example for bumbling Ravens in 34-14 win

The Kansas City Chiefs continued to showcase their defensive dominance and knack for the turnover on Sunday with a 34-14 victory in Baltimore, and the stellar D is propelling the Chiefs toward the playoffs.

-Quarterback Alex Smith completed 21-of-25 passes for a completion rate of 84 percent against Baltimore.

Baltimore outgained the Chiefs 366-277 and made more first downs, but Kansas City (9-5) won the turnover battle, and thus, won the game.

The Baltimore Ravens have been absolutely ravaged by injuries, primarily on the offensive side of the ball, but on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, they saw another key piece go down.

And with games against lowly Cleveland and Oakland at Arrowhead Stadium to finish the regular season, their first division title since 2010 is within sight.

Through four seasons (with two games left to go in his fourth), Hilton has caught 275 passes for 4,305 yards and 24 touchdowns, averaging 15.7 yards per catch.

The addition of Peters has made the Chiefs a different kind of team.

“They broke character today and did things that we hadn’t seen on film”, Smith said.

Though the result was ugly, Colts wide receiver T.Y. Hilton went over 1,000 yards receiving for the third straight year on Sunday.

Tyvon Branch returned a fumble 73 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and Marcus Peters clinched the victory with a 90-yard interception return for a score with 4:36 left. Yes the same Ryan Mallet the Chiefs beat back on September 13th when they opened the season with a victory at Houston.

“They didn’t make a mistake”, Harbaugh said of the Chiefs.

Allen was subsequently benched in favor of newly reacquired Terrence Magee and local product Terrance West (35 yards, seven carries). Last year, they were begging for turnovers and had just six interceptions. No one looks good against the Chiefs in the fourth quarter, apparently. And they’re a great team when they need to be the most.

“We’re not near where we want to be”, he said after the game.

“If you think that I’m going to go into a shell with this football team and not go for it – especially when we’re down – for one second, that’s not who I am”, Harbaugh said.

“The biggest thing is taking care of the ball”, Clausen said. “If you’re a young player and you want to stay in this league, you have [to have] a team that understands how to play winning football”.

Kansas City also needs to defend the run more consistently-they rank 23rd in yards-per-carry allowed.

But a Kansas City offense that had been held to 164 first-half yards and only 26 in the third frame finally salted the game away in the final period. Well, they faced bad teams to start the year, and then finished 2-5 against a tougher schedule.

Clausen came right back to tie the game after a 30-yard pass to Aiken helped set up a 1-yard play-action touchdown to Juszczyk. “I thought Jimmy played really well”, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

“The Force Awakens” opening in theaters across the country last week, NFL coaches have fielded questions about the movie franchise at press conferences over the past few days, mainly so they can explain how they’ve never had time to see any of the films due to their football-centric lives.

NOTES: The Ravens lost CB Jimmy Smith to a thigh injury in the first quarter….