Chiefs trounce Ravens 34-14 for eighth straight win

Marcus Peters sprinted up the left sideline Sunday, the football cradled in his right arm as 70,791 fans at M&T Bank Stadium collectively groaned in exasperation.

But by the time Peters, a Chiefs rookie cornerback, snagged a Jimmy Clausen pass for a game-clinching, pick-six late in the fourth quarter of their 34-14 win over the Ravens, the fans had grown used to that feeling of disappointment.

All game long, their Ravens squandered opportunities, committed errors and were punished by a red-hot Chiefs team that has somehow made sequences like this a habitual occurrence the last two months. They’re the only team in NFL history to win eight straight games in a season after a five-game losing streak.

“I’ve been on some pretty good teams over the years,” inside linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “It just seems like this team, when the other opponent makes a mistake, we capitalize off it. Big time.”

Peters’ pick-six, which extended the Chiefs’ lead to 20 points, was not the only example of this Sunday. Safety Tyvon Branch scooped up a fumble and returned it 73 yards for a touchdown in the first half.

Game-changing plays like this in the NFL are fairly rare, as evidenced by the fact the Chiefs, 9-5, are also the first team in NFL history to record a 70-plus-yard fumble return for a touchdown and a 90-plus-yard interception return for a touchdown in the same game.

That’s certainly an indication of the Chiefs’ increasing skill at forcing turnovers. They entered Sunday’s game second in the league in that category. But to be clear, the Chiefs also received some help from a sorry Ravens team.

Before this season, Baltimore coach John Harbaugh had an impressive 72-39 record and a Super Bowl victory under his belt, but even he hasn’t been able to salvage a roster that has been savaged by injuries during a 4-10 season. Eighteen Ravens are on injured reserve, including star quarterback Joe Flacco.

“(They) had three turnovers today,” said Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, “and we capitalized on all of them.”

The first Ravens blunder came on the Chiefs’ first possession, when it looked as if the Chiefs would have to punt because Smith, who completed 21 of 25 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown, ran out of bounds far short of the first-down marker on third and 11.

However, a late-hit penalty on defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan extended the drive, and a few plays later, Chiefs coach Andy Reid made the Ravens pay.

With his team facing third and inches at the Ravens’ 38-yard line, Reid dialed up a power formation — featuring all tight ends and fullbacks with an additional offensive lineman — and Charcandrick West ran directly behind the block of left guard Zach Fulton for a career-long touchdown run.

Players said the coaching staff told them before the game that the play would go for a big gain if they executed it.

“It was one of those things where (running backs) coach (Eric) Bieniemy said, ‘If we get this call in short yardage, if we get our blocks, there’s no one there,’ ” fullback Anthony Sherman said. “Everyone executed, and that’s what we’ve been doing during this winning streak — executing, making big plays and getting the ball to our playmakers and letting them have fun.”

A nice return gave the Ravens the ball at the Chiefs’ 45-yard line, and five plays later, Clausen found fullback Kyle Juszczyk for a 1-yard touchdown pass that tied the score at 7-7. The Ravens, however, would soon help the Chiefs toward the end of the first quarter.

That’s when Johnson stripped running back Javorius Allen of the ball on an inside run. The ball bounced around for a bit, hidden within a mass of bodies, until Branch spotted it, scooped up the ball and sprinted, untouched, past a handful of Ravens 73 yards for a touchdown.

The Ravens weren’t quite done shooting themselves in the foot, though. On their ensuing possession, facing fourth and 9, Baltimore strangely attempted a fake punt run. But punter Sam Koch was stopped a few yards short of the marker by tight end Demetrius Harris and safety Daniel Sorensen, which gave the Chiefs the ball at the Ravens’ 24.

“It was risky, gutsy, whatever you want to call it,” Harbaugh said. “But it wasn’t a good call because it didn’t work.”

The doomed fake punt set up the Chiefs’ next scoring drive, which was capped by a 13-yard touchdown pass from Smith to receiver Jeremy Maclin that gave the Chiefs a 21-7 lead.

Later, Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos converted a 53-yard field goal, tying a career long, and gave the Chiefs a commanding 24-7 lead. With 54 seconds left in the half, it appeared they would take that lead into the break.

But the Chiefs, taking a cue from the Ravens, allowed a mistake to snowball into points. Facing second and 8 at their own 30, Clausen — who was starting at quarterback for Flacco — scrambled for 8 yards. He slid at the end but was stuck by a glancing blow from Sorensen, who was whistled for unnecessary roughness.

The penalty tacked on 15 extra yards, which allowed Clausen to lob a Hail Mary heave toward the end zone with 4 seconds left that was somehow caught among three defenders by receiver Kamar Aiken, who sprinted for a score that cut the Chiefs’ halftime lead to 24-14.

“That was a total bust on us,” said Peters, who added that the Chiefs work on defending the Hail Mary every day — an assertion echoed by Reid.

So the Ravens had the momentum coming out of the break, but they still had the not-so-small problem of actually scoring on the Chiefs’ defense in a non-Hail Mary situation. And this proved to be difficult against what is becoming one of the league’s better defenses.

The Ravens were shut out in the second half, as their running game was practically nonexistent — they gained only 93 yards for the game. And Clausen struggled, on the whole, to make the Chiefs pay for blitzing and stacking the box to stop the run. Clausen finished 26 of 45 for 281 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, the first of which essentially iced the game.

The Chiefs, who added a 32-yard field goal by Santos early in the fourth quarter, led 27-14 when the Ravens turned to a hurry-up offense in a last-gasp attempt to get on the board. But Clausen’s short pass to receiver Daniel Brown — who tripped and fell — was jumped by Peters, who returned it 90 yards for a touchdown that he capped with an imitation of Ray Lewis’ signature celebration dance.

“Playing in Ray Lewis’ house,” Peters said of the iconic Ravens linebacker, who has a statue in front of the stadium. “That’s an honor and a salute to Ray Lewis. I knew if I got a pick, I was going to do it.”

The score gave the Chiefs a 34-14 lead, and any hope the Ravens had of mounting another late-half scoring drive was wiped away on their very next drive, when Peters again struck, intercepting his second pass of the day and team-high seventh of the season.

It was, in many ways, a fitting end to a game filled with Ravens mistakes, and the Chiefs’ eagerness to capitalize on such moments. The fans that had not fled the premises began doing so immediately, while Peters and the Chiefs howled in excitement over their latest victory during an increasingly special season.

Their last two games are at home against two sub-.500 teams in Cleveland, 3-10, and Oakland, 6-7, and the AFC West title is still a possibility. More important, there is hope the traits the Chiefs have shown to opponents during this winning streak — those of a tough, opportunistic bunch — will continue through the rest of December, and beyond.

“When you’re not turning the ball over, when you’re not committing penalties and when you’re relentless, those are huge keys to success,” said Juszczyk, who has been a Raven since 2013. “That’s what Kansas City did today, and that’s what we’re used to doing in Baltimore.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Chiefs trounce Ravens 34-14 for eighth straight win."