Baltimore vs. Kansas City

Rough Second Quarter Dooms Ravens as Lamar Jackson Still Can't Solve Chiefs in 34-20 Loss

Lamar Jackson has proven to be one of the brightest young stars in the NFL, but in order to reach that elusive next level, Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens will have to beat Patrick Mahomes and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Despite being favored by 3.5 points coming into this Monday night matchup with the Chiefs that was probably the young season's most anticipated game so far, Jackson fell to 0-3 against Kansas City in his young career, as Mahomes threw four touchdown passes in a 34-20 win for the Chiefs. 

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The loss snapped a run of 14-straight regular-season wins for Baltimore (2-1) while KC ran their overall winning streak up to 12. Incredibly, three of Jackson's four regular season losses have been at the hands of the Chiefs (3-0), as he is 21-1 against the rest of the league. 

The Ravens' defense had only allowed a total of two touchdowns in their first two games, and the one-sidedness of this game wasn't expected because the teams' prior two meetings in Kansas City were close affairs—an overtime Ravens loss in 2018 and a five-point KC win last season. 

"We got beat just about every way you can get beat, and we understand that. We have a long way to go to get better," head coach John Harbaugh said after the game. "Big picture and all that—I don't know. They're better, obviously. …So, you win or you learn, and we have a lot to learn from this game right here."

The game started out well enough for Baltimore, who took the opening kickoff and drove 11 plays to the Chiefs 8-yard line, but the drive stalled, forcing the Ravens to settle for a Justin Tucker chip-shot field goal. The Chiefs then took less than three minutes to drive the length of the field and score on a Mahomes QB keeper from three yards out. A missed extra point by Harrison Butker made it 6-3 in favor of the visitors.

After a three-and-out that also included a holding penalty, Baltimore punted the ball back to the Chiefs, taking over at their own 32-yard line. Mahomes again marched his team down the field with precision, finding Anthony Sherman on third-and-goal to extend the lead to 13-3. 

While the offense and defense was struggling, the special teams provided some juice to get the Ravens back in it since they were playing in an empty M&T Bank Stadium due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the ensuing kickoff, Devin Duvernay zipped down the line for a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to make it 13-10. 

Baltimore then forced the first Chiefs punt of the game, but the Ravens had a three-and-out of their own, and the Chiefs had two big plays bookend their next drive. Mahomes found tight end Travis Kelce for 29 yards on the first play, and Mahomes ended the drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill. The Chiefs weren't done either, as their next drive ended with a 49-yard touchdown strike from Mahomes to Mecole Hardman to put the Ravens in a major hole at halftime, 27-10. 

The Ravens ended up outscoring Kansas City in the second half, 10-7, but the damage was done early in this one. After a 42-yard Tucker field goal was the only score of the third quarter, Baltimore opened up the fourth with a Jackson touchdown pass to Nick Boyle, cutting the deficit to 27-20 with 14:55 remaining. 

But all hopes of a comeback were squashed on the next Chiefs possession. KC went on a game-icing 13-play drive that chewed up nearly half of the time remaining in the fourth quarter, punctuated by a Mahomes two-yard pass to Eric Fisher to put the game out of reach at 34-20. 

Jackson ran for 83 yards on nine carries but couldn’t get much going through the air, going 15-for-28 for 97 yards and a touchdown. He called his counterpart Mahomes' play, "Outstanding." 

"We always start cranking up at the wrong time. …We've got to come in an finish how we start," Jackson summarized after the game. "…We'll keep getting better. We'll talk with our offensive coordinator, our offensive unit, and we'll go from there."

Jackson also didn't complete a pass of over 20 yards, something that may becoming a trend on how to stop what has been a potent Ravens offense over the past year-plus. 

"It looked like the same thing from the Tennessee game [in last season's playoffs] to be honest," Jackson said. 

The defense is also not pleased with their performance, but veteran defensive end Calais Campbell doesn't believe that this loss defines who they are.

"You have to take your hat off to them; they played a great football game," Campbell said. "They played like the best team in the league. But it's Week 3, and I'm confident we're going to rebound. …We're going to be just fine."

The loss is a disappointing one considering that the two teams were considered, going into this season, as the class of the AFC, and a head-to-head win can give Kansas City an edge when it comes to playoff seeding, especially this season when only the No. 1 seed in each conference gets a first-round bye. 

"You got to give credit to Pat [Mahomes] for leading the charge," Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said of his Super Bowl MVP quarterback, who threw for 260 yards, three TD passes and another one on the ground.

Up next for the Ravens is a road game at NFC East foe Washington (1-2) in nearby Landover. Washington is 1-0 at FedEx Field this season after beating Philadelphia in Week 1, but they suffered back-to-back losses on the road these past two weeks in double-digit losses at Arizona and Cleveland. 

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