OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The last seven months have been excruciating for the Ravens and their fans.
It was — and still is — exhausting rehashing the end of the 2023 season over and over.
No, a path to a Super Bowl doesn’t set up much better than it did last January after finishing a league-best 13-4 to earn the right to host Baltimore’s first AFC title game in 53 years. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs appeared as vulnerable as they’d been at any point since all-universe quarterback Patrick Mahomes took the reins in 2018. One could look no further back than Christmas to see the perceived difference in quality between the teams as Kansas City laid a home egg against Las Vegas while the Ravens clobbered NFC-leading San Francisco on the road, a definitive statement as the NFL’s best team.
Of course, we know the Chiefs seemingly flipped the switch a few weeks later and reminded why they remain the gold standard by winning their third Super Bowl and appearing in their fourth in five years. In contrast, a team led by two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson and Super Bowl-winning coach John Harbaugh put on a championship game clinic in coming up small with backbreaking turnovers, questionable play-calling, senseless penalties, and high-leverage breakdowns in the 17-10 loss. To be clear, there was plenty of blame to go around.
Kansas City was the better team that day and deserved to win, but Baltimore was left to ponder its failures throughout the offseason, especially as a number of assistant coaches and impact players departed. To be clear, the Ravens’ championship window remains wide open with Jackson entering his age-27 season and other elite talent on both sides of the ball, but it’s fair to wonder if there will be another road as reasonable to navigate as that one. Even worse, the 28-year-old Mahomes isn’t going anywhere.
The defeat left a deep scar that will only fade with the Ravens returning to that stage and getting over the hump. After again failing to reach the Super Bowl despite owning the AFC’s No. 1 seed for the second time in five years, Jackson and the Ravens continuing to be regular-season royalty matters less and less without the January success to go with it. Postseason expectations being so high is a credit to Jackson’s regular-season greatness, and he needs to break through.
That’s what makes Thursday’s season-opening clash with Kansas City so maddening.
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No matter how various pundits have tried to hype this exciting Week 1 matchup, it’s not a revenge game or anything truly resembling a January meeting. The September Chiefs are not the same as the January Chiefs, and the same could be said about the Ravens — unfortunately.
Even if Baltimore were to win by 50, there will be no exorcising of demons or removal of monkeys from anyone’s back as critics will simply ask where that performance was in January. You can ask Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills what regular-season victories at Arrowhead Stadium — one in each of the last three years — have meant trying to get past the Chiefs in the playoffs anyway.
Of course, winning sure beats the alternative after an offseason full of second guessing.
The Ravens may not be able to hit the fast-forward button to four months from now to try to right last January’s wrongs, but they can take a positive step for their 2024 aspirations and boost their early-season psyche by starting on a high note.
“We want to win. We have to win regular season games to get to January,” said Jackson, who is a combined 1-4 against the Chiefs in the regular season and playoffs. “We can’t just go into the season and go 5-12 because then we’re not going to be in the playoffs. We have to go into every game trying to make the playoffs. Playoffs are on our mind, but at the same time, we have to win this game that’s ahead of us.”
Of course, with a revamped offensive line that includes three new starters and a new defensive coordinator in Zach Orr, the Ravens can’t afford to dwell on either the past or the big picture too much. There will be plenty of challenges with a schedule that includes 12 games against teams that finished .500 or better last season.
But even if the Ravens prove good enough to earn another shot at Mahomes and the Chiefs down the line, the hard truth remains.
8None of this will really matter without a different result.
“We lost at the end of the year. Nobody remembers the AFC Championship runner-up from 10 years ago,” All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton said. “We’re trying to be that team that everybody remembers won the Super Bowl. We lost. It is what it is.
“We had a good year, but we have to do it again.”
Regardless of the opponent, Thursday is only the beginning.
So close, yet so far away.
