At least we know we wouldn’t have had to endure a nervous overtime in Kansas City to start the season if the tippy toes of Isaiah Likely had fallen just inside the white chalk. Or, perhaps, if he had worn white shoes. It sure would’ve been high drama – and higher stakes – on a potential Derrick Henry/Lamar Jackson do-or-die Todd Monken play call on the goal line to win the game but we didn’t get quite that much excitement.
Instead, it’s just another loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs that can only be avenged with the mighty and necessary effort ahead to earn another chance to see them again in January.
A season-opening, somewhat disheartening thud that will have the Baltimore Ravens thinking about 0-1 for the next 10 days and doing what Coach Hardball will call: “clean up” on a slew of penalties (some even imaginary), an offensive line that isn’t inspiring confidence and an offense that seven seasons and three offensive coordinators into the Lamar Jackson experiment still has only one truly great play: “Lamar, get into the phone booth, go run it and figure it out on the playground!”
And as much as Lamar all but went Clark Kent once again to pull out another un-Likely victory and some purple flowers at Arrowhead, the Derrick Henry experiment figures to only gain more traction when – or if – the offensive line becomes more functional. Or until next weekend when they see the dreadful Las Vegas Raiders and some purple home cooking.
What is there to say about any Week 1 game in the modern NFL in any year? It’s always choppy, sloppy and stoppy. And that’s just the officiating…
Patrick Mahomes is still the greatest football player on the planet. And Lamar Jackson will have to live with that until the next time or until he wins an AFC Championship Game and the little game they play two weeks after that one.
Don’t look now, but the Ravens have lost two in a row to the Chiefs in the previous 120 minutes in two different cities.
8
The Kansas City Chiefs are better than the Baltimore Ravens.
Of course, it’s a lot more complex than Mahomes > Lamar when they meet at the bright lights of the NFL center stage with four MVP trophies and provide more weekly excitement than any two quarterbacks in the history of the sport.
For me, it’s more about coaching and Andy Reid being a better head coach than John Harbaugh on any given Sunday. And that “Spags” has spent enough time around his best pal “Harbs” and knows what he’s thinking before he thinks it. And the clear internal pedigree that the Chiefs have in finding more offensive weapons – and a different cast every year – to surround their franchise quarterback, something that Eric DeCosta is still working on for Number Eight.
Sure, Rashee Rice should probably be in prison. But I most certainly should’ve had Kansas City BBQ on my breathe from Wednesday night in the Arrowhead press box doing my job and asking Marlon Humphrey how and why the ball went over his head.
As I will be writing in the coming weeks, the NFL does what it wants as long as we keep paying for it and watching it. Oh, and most importantly, gambling on it – shoddy or shady officiating or not.
For the record, I would also ask Humphrey how the fastest player in the sport wasn’t worthy of carrying down the field with the greatest quarterback on earth looking for him over the top?
Weak one sloppiness and miscommunication on the backend is not unique. It’s to be expected.
8Hence the Hardball mantra of “we’ll clean that up” is acceptable here because I’m not sure any of us – including DeCosta and Harbaugh – really believe the pedigree of the current offensive line trends toward elite in 2024. Let’s just aim for “functional” and getting up on the line of scrimmage next week against the Raiders and then re-evaluate.
And Ravens’ fans better be evaluating a 1-1 squad come next Monday with the gauntlet of: at Dallas, Buffalo and at Cincinnati, waiting and ready to deliver the meaty first-place schedule that is uniquely rarefied air here in Baltimore.
Of course, all of Thursday’s sins could’ve been washed away with a 1-0 start and a little luck at the end. Or if Zay Flowers would’ve sat on that ball in the end zone when Lamar threw behind him. Close, but no barbeque.
And as Luke Jones pointed out this morning when we convened: It’s hard to be in the moral victory business when you expect to win the Super Bowl.
Will this be more than a screen pass offense?
Will Lamar outrun Derrick Henry every week? And out carry him? And Justice Hill, too? (We do know I won’t be in the press conference asking Harbaugh if No. 8 carrying the ball 15 times every week is sustainable. Or smart. And why it’s necessary and happening. Again.)
Is Likely a star?
8Can Lamar get on the same page with his receivers with the game on the line?
As I have preached, the down and distance is the key to Lamar Jackson and this offense being really dangerous. Winning on first down on the ground is everything. I’m not sure this offensive line is going to be able to produce 2nd & shorts on the regular. And that means Lamar is gonna need to throw the ball more. And the pass protection might be worse than the run blocking at the moment.
Chris Jones created havoc. All teams with a serious front seven that are multiple will challenge Lamar, and more importantly, Todd Monken, to figure out ways to move the ball when the 1993 Dallas Cowboys offensive line isn’t checking into Baltimore this season.
Lamar will earn his $50 million this year. His body will hurt every Monday morning.
You knew the Chiefs would be ready. Proof came when they instantly answered the first Ravens’ first touchdown – and then never trailed.
Sure, the Ravens were maybe a toenail and a two-point scrum away from beating the Chiefs on Thursday night. But they’ll have a lot of long steps to earn a rematch. And they’ve already lost the tiebreaker so the menu in late January will already likely involve BBQ and a sea of red on a cold winter’s afternoon.
Not the ideal ideology when the other 30 teams are still waiting to kick off.
