OWINGS MILLS — The Kansas City Chiefs were effective in containing Ravens tight end Mark Andrews in the season opener.
Andrews faced a lot of double coverage and was targeted only twice by quarterback Lamar Jackson. It created opportunities for fellow tight end Isaiah Likely, who set career-highs with nine receptions for 111 yards in the 27-20 loss.
Andrews did not get frustrated, and it’s likely he’ll see more balls thrown this way in Week 2 against the Las Vegas Raiders in the Ravens’ home opener.
“To be honest, it’s really not that aggravating,” Andrews said about his involvement in the offense. “I’m aggravated that we didn’t win the game, and things didn’t go that way. I know that, at the end of the day, we’re all working hard, we’re all going to make plays. We’ve got a dangerous offense with a lot of guys.
“We can spread the ball out, [and] we can do a bunch of different things, so it’s not a worry for me. I’m excited about these next coming weeks, this week coming up against the Raiders and showing what we can do.”
Andrews was on the field for 59 snaps (75 percent of the offense), compared to 53 snaps (66 percent) for Likely. The duo puts extra pressure on a defense, and Andrews looks forward to creating more matchup problems in the coming weeks.
Andrews should have more space to get open if defenses shift their attention to Likley.
“I think we’re two dynamic players, and I’m very excited and happy for Isaiah and the type of game that he had, and it’s just about building,” Andrews said. “It’s about building our offense, building chemistry and moving forward each week with a mindset that we’re going to get better, [and] we’re going to become more versatile. The better we are about spreading the ball around and making big plays, it’s going to be hard for a defense to gameplan for that.”
Ravens second-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken is not tipping his hand on how he will use Andrews and Likely at the same time. He also expects Andrews to get more than two targets in the coming games.
“Did we intend on playing the tight ends a bunch? Yes,” Monken said. “Did we anticipate we’d have that amount of snaps? No, we didn’t anticipate that, and that’s not the norm. You’re not going to have 80 snaps or something like that in a given game per se, but I think we do a really good job of trying to find ways to distribute the ball, and we’re going to have to continue to do that. We have a number of excellent skill players that deserve to get the ball, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
