Chiefs outlast Ravens in dramatic fashion

The Kansas City Chiefs (1-0) defeat the Baltimore Ravens (0-1), 27-20 in week one of the 2024 NFL regular season.

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They say football is a game of inches, and that cliche has never been truer than the NFL’s 2024 season opener featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens. After being up most of the game, Kansas City punted the ball back to the Ravens at the two-minute warning, up seven points. 

With no timeouts, the Ravens drove all the way down the field on a drive that ended in a touchdown pass from Lamar Jackson to tight end Isaiah Likely with zeros on the clock. That was the call on the field, at least, before further review from the referees overturned the call, determining that Likely’s toe was centimeters over the white line in the back of the endzone. 

The embarking game that opened the Chiefs' quest to be the first NFL team to ever win three Super Bowls in a row ended on a walk off challenge won. Had the call stood, who knows if Ravens coach John Harbaugh would go for two or send the game into overtime, but the Chiefs sealed a 27-20 victory, nonetheless. 

“What a wild environment down there it was,” head coach Andy Reid said. “Two heavyweights in a fight right down to the end and when they say it's a game of inches it might be shorter than that … The guys upstairs saw it and so they knew he was out. We were just kind of waiting after that, but we battled so hard down the stretch, for it to come down to that, it’s something.”

It is tough to say if the better team won because the Chiefs were outgained by the Ravens by 99 yards Thursday night. The fact is two really good teams played really good football to open the season. Kansas City averaged one yard per play more than Baltimore and was the more efficient team all evening. The Chiefs got stuck in the mud a little bit because, unlike last January’s AFC Championship game, the Ravens stuck to their identity. 

Even though the Chiefs had the lead two minutes into the second quarter and thereafter, the Ravens committed to the run with both Jackson and running back Derrick Henry. That resulted in Baltimore running 24 more offensive plays and holding the ball more than six minutes longer than Kansas City. That, combined with the Ravens continuously playing catchup, led to a very strong statistical performance for last year's one seed. 

Jackson took off and ran at will, with the Chiefs linebackers having trouble keeping up with the two-time MVP. He ran the ball 16 times for 122 yards while also chucking 273 yards on 41 attempts. His go-to target was Likely, who finished with 11 catches for 111 yards and a touchdown. The Chiefs did find a lot of success against Henry, however. The front seven stayed stout on running downs, limiting Henry to 3.5 yards per carry on his 13 attempts. 

“We was able to fly around, play a lot of plays in the first half,” defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “(It was a) close game. I think we got to look at the film, correct some (mistakes) and some errors that we had on defense but overall, it was a tough battle game. You know (with the) Baltimore Ravens, we knew going in it was going to be a tough battle so thankfully we was able to pull it off.”

The reason why Kansas City was able to outlast Baltimore, even with the game script going the Ravens' way, was because of explosive plays. The Chiefs did not need tight end Travis Kelce to have a big game to do it, either, as he finished with three catches for 34 yards. Mahomes was able to lean on second-year wideout Rashee Rice and 2024 first-round pick Xavier Worthy to rack up 291 passing yards and a touchdown on just 28 attempts. Mahomes completed 20 of those passes, even with four of them being dropped passes by wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, running back Isiah Pacheco, Kelce and a close one by running back Samaje Perine. 

Rice was Mahomes’ go-to all evening, hauling in seven catches on nine targets for 103 yards. It seemed like it was automatic each time Rice ran a simple slant or crosser in the shallow to intermediate areas of the field, with most of those yards coming after the catch. Mahomes credits him playing fast to being more comfortable in the offense. 

“When you know the offense, you can play faster (because) you can just play free and he does,” Mahomes said. “He knows the offense and some of those times we might been a little hesitant at the beginning of last year. He just goes, trusts his instinct, I get him the football, then he makes plays after the catch. I want to continue to make him push down the field more. I think he can do that (but) the defenses weren't giving that to us today, but I think if he can continue working on that and he could be one of the best receivers in the league.”

While Rice was the more productive and efficient player in the offense, Worthy was there for the splashes when it was needed most. Worthy found the endzone twice in his NFL debut with one score tying the game at seven and the other putting the Chiefs up 10 to bring their total to 27. 

The first was actually a 21-yard touchdown run where Mahomes faked a jet-sweep before he pitched the ball to Worthy running a reverse, who was sweeping behind the right side of the line of scrimmage. When he got around the edge, he saw daylight and used that 4.21 speed to squeak by defenders closing in on him on the Chiefs' first drive of the game. The second came off a double move where he burned all-pro cornerback Marlon Humphrey, which ended in a wide-open 35-yard touchdown pass. 

“He's (Worthy) so cool, calm and collected, like all the time,” Mahomes said. “You would never even see the excitement on him, but he goes out there and makes plays. Obviously, we want to continue to use him more and more, but I thought he had a great day today making big plays in big moments.”

“Just having him (Worthy) out there, it just opens up stuff. You saw when he's out there they're playing shell coverages. It's getting guys like (Kelce) and it's getting guys like (Rice) open underneath and that's what's so great about this offense is we're able to do all of that and that's when we're at our best and like I said, when we get (Wide receiver Marquise Brown) out there too, it's going to be tough for defenses to decide who they want to cover.”

The Chiefs were not able to get much else going on the ground in the traditional sense, with Pacheco totaling just 45 yards on 15 carries, but the Rutgers product did bring in two catches for 33 yards and had a one-yard rushing touchdown. 

Another contributor in key situations was tight end Noah Gray, who had three catches for 37 yards after reportedly agreeing to a three-year, 18-million-dollar extension earlier in the day. Mahomes had nothing but great things to say about Gray, who is primed for more opportunity this season and the seasons to come. 

“Noah has always been a great player,” Mahomes said. “I mean, he makes plays every single time he gets the opportunity to. He's playing behind the greatest tight end of all time, so he doesn't necessarily get every single route called to him but when you go to him, he makes the play. (He made) a couple of great catches today, tough contested catches and (I’m) happy for him. He's one of those guys that's in the locker room and just does whatever you need. He'll play special teams, he'll block, he'll catch the football. He's the guys that you need in order to go out there and win Super Bowls.”

One of the bigger momentum shifts, which wound up leading to the Chiefs' first lead of the game came on the first play of the second quarter when star defensive tackle Chris Jones strip-sacked Jackson. 2023 first-round pick Felix Anudike-Uzomah recovered the ball on Baltimore’s own 13 and while the Chiefs were not able to punch the ball into the endzone, Butker nailed the short field goal to put Kansas City up 10-7. Anudike-Uzomah also registered a tackle for loss. 

While the front seven struggled to contain Jackson, the Chiefs' talented safety room was flying all over the field, making open-field tackles on key third-down situations. Veteran safety Justin Reid was second on the team in tackles, with nine, only trailing cornerback Jaylen Watson. Safeties Chamarri Conner and Bryan Cook were not too far behind him with six of their own. 

The Chiefs' defense did leave Jackson with just a 61 completion percentage and much of that was by way of batted balls or defenders in passing lanes forcing inaccurate throws. Linebackers Nick Bolton and Leo Chenal combined for three of those batted-down passes while also combining for 14 tackles. 

It was not a perfect night for the defense, allowing over 450 yards and only registering one sack and one quarterback hit, but they did make stops when they needed it the most. They eliminated Henry enough that they could get off the field, even if Baltimore controlled the clock in the process. 

Ultimately, the Chiefs offense was a far cry from what they were throughout most of the 2023 regular season and they were able to overcome the Ravens, even with things going mostly according to plan for Baltimore. Instead of leaning on a rookie such as Rice was in 2023 and Kelce having to produce while the others faltered, the Chiefs now have a much more comfortable Rice, a new weapon in Worthy to go along with strong role players in guys like Gray, Justin Watson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, etc. 

“I think everybody accepts everybody in this offense and they learn so much from (Kelce)” Mahomes said. “They pick his brain and they listen to him talk to me and we build all throughout the year and you can see (Rice) just kind of picked up right where he left off last year. (Worthy) made some big plays and so it's just we're going to continue to build and build and hopefully get (Brown) back and see what this offense can really be.”

Next up the Chiefs have 10 days to prepare for their rival, the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and company face off against the New England Patriots this Sunday before they come to Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, September 15th at 3:25 p.m. CDT.