The most interesting NFL game of last season, from a strategic standpoint, was when the Baltimore Ravens visited the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 14. In Lamar Jackson’s fourth NFL start, the Ravens, per their profile, ran the ball often and well, totaling 40 carries for 194 yards (Jackson himself 14 times for 67 yards). But Baltimore’s ground game was just a counterweight to its stingy defense, and the way that defense approached MVP Patrick Mahomes and the vaunted Chiefs offense is what made the contest—which ended 27–24, tilted in the Chiefs’ favor—so compelling.
An offense like Kansas City’s can make a defense overthink its strategy.