I honestly understand.

I would rather feel like it must feel in Kansas City, too. I would rather be waking up feeling a level of invincibility as a football fan because the team I root for has an offense and a quarterback that are more inevitable than Thanos.

I would rather feel like what happens during the course of the first 58 minutes is almost irrelevant because as long as the game is within shouting distance in the final two, your team is coming out on top. You’ve been there, you’ve done that, you know how it ends.

I really do get it.

It’s not reasonable to be frustrated with the Ravens’ performance in their 13-3 win against the Panthers Nov. 20. It’s not. It’s reasonable to speak factually. It’s reasonable to say it “wasn’t an overwhelming offensive performance” or “the defense deserves more credit than the offense” or even “it wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing performance.” Those are truly fair and reasonable things to say.

But it isn’t reasonable to be frustrated with a double-digit victory in which the team you root for wasn’t (really) threatened in any way. This is the NFL. Wins are never assured. The Ravens recorded a routine one in Week 11. If that’s the type of thing you find frustrating, I hope I don’t draw you in the office’s Secret Santa this year.

“You got me a $130 pair of AirPods? Thanks. I hate them.”

For many of you, the strength or your relationship with reason is about on par with the strength of your belt at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday night.

I would be more concerned about the offensive output had the team not come into the game as a top-five offense both via points and DVOA. Against the Panthers, the Ravens certainly appeared to be content to not force the issue. They looked like a team that wasn’t going to take many risks because, A) the wind was insane, and B) they didn’t think they had to. Against a different opponent or in different circumstances, perhaps they would have been a bit more aggressive. But in this game, it appeared as though they simply didn’t believe it was worth taking … any risk whatsoever.

If that was the strategy (and to be clear, the Ravens would never confirm such a thing because it would be seen as them minimizing an opponent), it … worked. The Ravens never trailed. Perhaps they weren’t tremendously sharp offensively, but they outgained Carolina by more than 100 yards and had a roughly 6:30 time of possession advantage for the game. Maybe they could have been more aggressive (and we can debate if they “should” have been), but their strategy worked.

Yet I get it. I really do. Even though the Ravens won their game by a more comfortable margin than the Chiefs did, it will be the Chiefs who will be further cemented among the favorites in the AFC.

As we search for ways to describe what we saw on Sunday, perhaps you think another reasonable thing to say might be “they’re going to have to be much better than this to compete with the best teams in the AFC playoffs.”

And like Oasis in 1994, definitely maybe. I mean, specifically, yes, I think the Ravens will have to score more than 13 points to beat the other AFC contenders in January. But we’re splitting hairs. If the Ravens’ offense had performed like the Broncos all season long, I’d be fearful! But that hasn’t been the case.

And the Ravens have dedicated themselves to being the team that dominates possession more so than being a team that tries to get up and down the field at will. Given their personnel on both sides of the ball, that seems to make sense. In fact, it might present not only their best path to winning a Super Bowl but maybe their only path.

Yes, they need to play “better” offensively than they did against the Panthers. But I expect that. And the Panthers game is the outlier. And they’re still set to get at least one of their top two running backs (if not both) back on the field in the coming weeks. And perhaps the emergence of Demarcus Robinson could prove to be even more significant down the road than the total points scored in one nonconference game.

It would be great to look like the Chiefs. But the Chiefs have only won the Super Bowl once (so far) in the Patrick Mahomes era. I can’t tell you with the certainty that they’re more likely to win this year’s than the Ravens.

Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox

Glenn Clark

See all posts by Glenn Clark. Follow Glenn Clark on Twitter at @glennclarkradio