Takeaways from AFC Championship: Chiefs defense dominates to clinch Super Bowl berth

The Kansas City Chiefs are on their way to another Super Bowl after defeating the Baltimore Ravens, 17-10, during Sunday's AFC Championship game. 

It is the Chiefs' fourth Super Bowl appearance in the past five seasons, and unlike previous years where quarterback Patrick Mahomes was the star, it is the other side of the ball that helped get them there. 

Here are three takeaways from the Chiefs' win on Sunday. 

1. The Chiefs defense is why it is in the Super Bowl

The Ravens defense got most of the headlines this season and in the build-up to this game, but everybody seemed to forget the Chiefs were — statistically speaking — just as good this season. They showed that on Sunday with a masterclass performance as they completely shut down one of the NFL's highest scoring offenses and made life miserable for quarterback Lamar Jackson. 

The Chiefs forced three turnovers, including two in the end zone, sacked Jackson four times and mostly limited his big plays on the ground. They held him to just 54 yards rushing on eight attempts. He had 21 yards on just one play, meaning he gained just 23 on the other seven carries. 

Mahomes is still great and arguably the best player in football. He still made plenty of big plays this season and on Sunday. But this was statistically the worst Chiefs offense of his tenure, with by far the weakest group of wide receivers on paper. 

It was the defense that consistently stood up all season and carried them along. 

They did it again on Sunday to get them to another Super Bowl. 

The Chiefs finished the regular season with the No. 2 scoring defense in the NFL. They played their best game of the season on Sunday. 

2. The Ravens self destructed 

The Ravens not only played one of their worst games of the season, they also played one of their dumbest games. They completely self destructed from a discipline standpoint, handing the Chiefs points and taking away potential points of their own. 

Baltimore was flagged for two personal foul penalties on Kansas City's final possession of the first half, helping move the Chiefs into field goal range to take a 10-point lead. Without those penalties, the Chiefs do not get into range for Harrison Butker.

Things only got worse in the third quarter when rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers single-handedly stalled a drive.

After catching a 54-yard pass to set the Ravens up deep in Chiefs territory, he was flagged for taunting to push them back to the 25-yard line. Just a couple of plays later he appeared to be going in for a touchdown only to have the ball knocked out of his hands at the goal line, resulting in a Chiefs recovery in the end zone. He added to the frustration when he cut his hand slamming it on the bench in disgust.

Following a Justin Tucker field goal to cut the deficit to 17-10 late in the fourth quarter, Baltimore's defense came out on the ensuing series, desperately needing a stop, and opened up by taking a 12-men on the field penalty on the first snap. Then gave the Chiefs another free 15 yards when linebacker Patrick Queen was called for unnecessary roughness. 

It was a brutal showing. It looked like a team that was not ready for the big stage and the bright lights. 

3. Lamar Jackson's playoff struggles returned

This has always been the big "yeah, but" regarding Jackson's career, and he did a lot of work to silence those critics with a huge performance a week ago against the Houston Texans in the divisional round. 

Those same critics will have reason to talk about his playoff performances again after this one.

Jackson made two stunning highlight reel plays in the first half — his Houdini escape act to complete a touchdown pass to Flowers; and then completing a pass to himself — but he was largely ineffective beyond that. 

He fumbled once, threw a terrible interception into triple coverage in the end zone with the game on the line, and completed just 20-of-37 passes. He missed open receivers down field and he finished with a passer rating of just 75.5. That is 27.2 points lower than his regular season mark (102.7). 

Jackson is now just 2-4 in his playoff career and has thrown as many interceptions (six) as he has touchdowns in those games.