Many National Football League observers were ready to stick a fork in the loser of Sunday’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, both of whom had just one win through three weeks of action.
A day after the marquee matchup of teams with surprising records, the Ravens are at a fork in the road.
The Chiefs stomped the Ravens 37–20 at home, making Kansas City a good bet to find its footing and reach the playoffs, while the 1–3 Ravens have to take their broken wings and learn to fight.
And the biggest question after the game was the status of Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson.
The two-time league MVP was sidelined earlier than expected with an injury, and four other Ravens left the game and were unable to return. A number of inexperienced players saw action and weren’t able to come through for Baltimore.
“I felt a lot better watching the tape,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh deadpanned in his Monday press availability.
“I thought a lot of the young guys stepped up. They got their opportunities—they had never played before. They went out there in that environment and played well.
“You look at the individual performances, there’s a lot of really good things there. I felt better watching the tape, I can tell you that—a lot better watching the tape than I did standing on the sideline watching the game.”
Harbaugh wouldn’t discuss the extent of many of the injuries, but insisted his club has the personnel to turn things around.
“We have a really good team. We can win games with our guys. The guys we have [just] have to step up. Everybody gets injuries [over] the course of the season, and it’s who deals with them the best,” he said.
“You guys have been down these roads before. You guys have covered us. We’ve been through a lot of this sort of [stuff] together; the fans have been down these roads, too. You come to understand that this is how it works in professional sports, especially football.
“It’s a tough league and there’s going to be these challenges. And that’s why it’s so meaningful when you can overcome them and come through the other side and have success, or take it all the way to the end and go deep in the playoffs or win the Super Bowl.”
Jackson was in the midst of a choppy day, tossing for just 147 yards with one TD and one pick before leaving the game after the third quarter because of a sore hamstring.
The Ravens are already behind in a challenging American Football Conference featuring some of the NFL’s top teams and a tough division.
The loss was also debilitating to the team’s playoff hopes. Just five teams during the 14-team playoff format have been able to reach the postseason after starting with just one win in four games.
“I’m concerned, but I’m not overwhelmed by it,” Harbaugh said in his postgame press conference.
“Three losses to probably three of the top teams in the league.
“We’ve got to win the next game, and then once you win the next game, then you have a chance to start stacking some wins.”
Mahomes was just as calm and collected after the game as during the four quarters he used to pick apart the Baltimore defense.
“We’ve been working extremely hard and we want to have success,” the Kansas City three-time Super Bowl MVP and two-time league MVP said in his postgame press conference.
“We’ve been just making little mistakes here and there, and it causes frustration, but at the same time, we’ve been learning from them.
“We’ll learn from this game. I think early in this game, you saw the one to JuJu [Smith-Schuster] that got tipped at the line of scrimmage, and the other field goal that we had. I think there’s stuff you can learn from every game, win or loss. And I’ve been proud of the guys at how they’ve responded, and we want to be better every week.”
Mahomes overcame a sluggish start to finish with 270 passing yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions as the Chiefs moved to .500 after a 0–2 start.
Kansas City was thrilled to come away with the victory, but acknowledged the Ravens were limping.
“To the Ravens, and John [Harbaugh], he’s got a team that’s a little bit banged up right now, and he’s battling through that. Put up a great fight today, and I’m glad things worked out, obviously, the way they did,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said in his press session after the victory.
