In their 34-10 divisional round loss to the Ravens, the Houston Texans committed five false start penalties and one delay of game.
Chalk one up for the rowdy M&T Bank Stadium crowd.
But according to Ravens right guard Kevin Zeitler, the team needs even more from its fans when the Kansas City Chiefs come to town for the AFC championship game on Jan. 28.
“Any time you have a home game in the playoffs, you need any advantage you can get,” Zeitler said on Glenn Clark Radio Jan. 23. “Obviously they affected the game in a very positive way for us. We need them to be 10 times louder this week because it’s going to be a whole different ballgame this week. It’s going to be a tough one.”
Indeed, there was no time for celebrating for Zeitler, even after helping the Ravens run for 229 yards in what was the first playoff win of his 12-year career. The 6-foot-4, 340-pound right guard knew the winner of Chiefs-Bills divisional round playoff game the next day would come to Baltimore, and whichever team survived would present quite the challenge.
“I went home, watched the next football game and went to bed. That’s all I did,” Zeitler said, referring to Packers-49ers.
That trip home came after a dominant second-half performance against the Texans. Baltimore and Houston were tied at 10 at halftime as fans feared another early-round flameout. No reason for panic, as it turned out. After ending the first half with three consecutive three-and-outs, the Ravens began the second half with three straight touchdown drives.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who accounted for 252 total yards and four touchdowns, said following the game that he had some strong words for his team at halftime. Zeitler didn’t get into what the soon-to-be two-time NFL MVP had to say, but it certainly seemed to work.
“When you have a guy like Lamar on the team, you want to live up to his expectations,” Zeitler said. “You know that he can raise your level at any given time. Everyone knows what our team is capable of. We know what Lamar is capable of. When things aren’t going our way, I think we all have a desire to make sure we get it going our way.”
The Ravens have dispatched plenty of high-quality opponents along the way this year, but no challenge is bigger than the one posed by the battle-tested Chiefs, who will be appearing in their sixth consecutive AFC championship game. They’re led by two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes, considered the best player in the game.
Now, the Chiefs have the best defense of the Mahomes era. Kansas City finished the regular season second in scoring defense (17.3 points per game) and total defense (289.8 yards) and seventh in defensive DVOA. With Mahomes on the other sideline, it’ll be crucial for the Ravens to put together a 60-minute offensive effort.
“No matter what anyone says, it’s hard to win playoff games. Obviously, we were able to get it done [against the Texans] and that’s all that matters at this point,” Zeitler said. “Now we have another chance to do it. We’re going to have to play a bigger, better game and we’ll see what happens.”
For more from Zeitler, listen to the full interview here:
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