KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s still not a competition.
Patrick Mahomes is now 5-1 versus Lamar Jackson. That’s a uneven match if I’ve ever seen one.
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens, 27-20, at Arrowhead Stadium to open the 2024 NFL season on Thursday night. I understand it’s a group videogame. But it’s likewise a quarterback’s videogame. Every one of these matches inbetween the Chiefs and Ravens hasactually been a must-see videogame. It has a playoff environment.
The three-time champ Mahomes reveals up in these minutes. Jackson — well, he’s not getting it done. He still has yet to show himself on the mostsignificant phases.
In the last minutes Thursday, Jackson had 3 successive incompletions in the end zone. Any one of them might’ve offered the Ravens the opportunity to tie or win the videogame. First, he toppled an open Isaiah Likely. (Given the misfire, it’s worth questioning whether the Ravens must haveactually increased the ball to stop the clock and settle his offense.) Then, he went large on a wide-open Zay Flowers. Then he tossed too high for Likely. The 3rd effort was just too high, pulling the tight end to the back of the end zone. Likely tried a toe-tap — however his right toe landed an inch out of bounds.
“I idea he was in,” Jackson stated postgame. “I still believe he was in.”
He wasn’t. The eye in the sky wear’t lie.
If Jackson is going to be an all-time fantastic, he requires to make one of those tosses. It’s that basic.
If Jackson is going to lead the Ravens past the Chiefs and to a Super Bowl, the superstar quarterback can’t lead simply 2 goal drives when tossing for 273 lawns and hurrying for 122 backyards. If there’s one thing we now understand about whipping Mahomes from his matches versus Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy, it’s that 59 minutes of terrific play isn’t enough. It’s about 60.
Lamar brought his group. But not rather far enough.
It sounds unbelievable, however it’s real. The two-time MVP required to be 2 plays muchbetter than he was. He required a goal and a 2-point discussion. He and the Ravens weren’t excellent sufficient to knock off Mahomes and the ruling champs on Thursday night.
“Same thing that tookplace last year[in the AFC Championship Game] We beat ourselves,” receiver Rashod Bateman stated. “We didn’t carryout the videogame strategy that we had. We weren’t effective on the plays that we required to be effective on. And we stoppedworking.”
It wasn’t a best videogame by any stretch for Mahomes. He tossed a pricey interception near the end of the veryfirst half. (Though Lamar didn’t make it expense almost enough, with the Ravens settling for a field objective after the turnover.) Mahomes likewise put too much pepper on a set of swing passes, one to Samaje Perine in the 2nd half and the other to Isiah Pacheco in the veryfirst half. Both might’ve gone for huge gains — and the Perine incompletion was on a 3rd down that, had he captured it, would’ve produced a initially down and mostlikely gotten the Chiefs into the red zone (or near it).
What’s insane is that Mahomes and business left plenty of plays on the table — and, still, they came away with a win versus one of the leading competitors in the AFC. The Chiefs haveactually been winning for years without being at their finest, mostly because they wear’t have to be with No. 15 under .
And all they did this offseason was set Mahomes up for more success this year. It’s borderline unreasonable.
Rookie receiver Xavier Worthy scored a goal on his veryfirst touch of the videogame. He lateron knocked the door shut on the Ravens in the 4th quarter when they busted their protection on him and he penalized them for a 35-yard goal catch. Worthy is the 6th novice giventhat 1970 to record a hurrying goal and a getting goal in his veryfirst profession videogame, and simply the 2nd to do so in the 21st century. So, yeah, it was a effective start for the first-rounder.
It’s simply one videogame, however he currently appears to fit the mold of what Kansas City hasactually been doingnothave: a genuine field-stretcher. He’s the guy that set a record at the NFL integrate for the 40-yard dash. And now he’s been cast for a starring function in the Chiefs’ Legion of Zoom offense.
But Worthy wasn’t even the group’s finest receiver. Rashee Rice is plainly allset for WR1 responsibilities — he endedup with 7 captures for 103 lawns. That made life simple for Travis Kelce, who did a entire lot of obstructing however didn’t truly requirement to do much in the passing videogame. Because Mahomes’ time to toss was relatively fast (2.72), it made life mucheasier for novice left takeon Kingsley Suamataia. It was simple to forget that the Chiefs were without Hollywood Brown, whom they anticipate to have a significant function when he returns from a sternoclavicular injury.
All in all, the Chiefs didn’t have to labor for triumph. They didn’t even have to perform especially easily. It nearly looked a bit like cruise control for Mahomes.
But Lamar did, certainly, appearance like he was laboring to produce production. And their brand-new weapon, Derrick Henry, didn’t appearance like he was fresh. Every bring was tough work for the 30-year-old Henry. He completed with 13 brings for 46 backyards and a goal. It neverever felt like he might develop any speed — the Chiefs were too frequently in the backfield.
Lamar and Henry had the exactsame issue: the offensive line.
The line didn’t appearance like the dominant group that we’re accustomed to seeing from Baltimore. They had 3 brand-new beginners: guards Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele and dealwith Patrick Mekari. Rookie right takeon Roger Rosengarten likewise took some snaps for Mekari — and his veryfirst didn’t go well. Defensive takeon Chris Jones blasted previous the novice and strip-sacked Jackson.
That’s a part of why Jackson had so lotsof hurrying backyards. He was fast to relocation out of the pocket in basic, recording 112 of his 273 pass lawns on the run. His only goal? That was on the run, too.
“The things that he can do — it’s remarkable,” Ravens center Chris Lindenbaum stated. “But at the end of the day, he can’t be a one-man program out there. Everyone has to play a part.”
By the 4th quarter, Jackson began playing hero ball. He ran and attempted frantically to make things occur. Two things worked: getting the ball to Likely and hurrying the ball himself. Likely endedup with 9 captures for 111 lawns and a goal.
As for Lamar’s ground production, that was a huge part of his offseason strategy as he cut down to offer his group more in the hurrying videogame. But that likewise led to larger hits. He can run more — however he likewise requires to get down more. He simply justrecently spoke to GQ Magazine about how his body used down last season yet looked on speed for that to repeat itself.
Cutting the weight can’t mean increasing the contact.
Jackson’s vertical efforts were off-target. He was 1 of 5 on passes that tookatrip 20 backyards or more. For the most part, Jackson inspected down and hoped that Flowers and Likely would create backyards after the catch.
Jackson didn’t get assist from tight end Mark Andrews, who is recuperating from last season’s ankle injury and a current automobile mishap. Outside of a 38-yard catch that put the Ravens into scoring position on the last drive, Bateman wasn’t efficient. That was simply one of his 2 captures. The previous first-rounder was one guy that mostlikely needsto have revealed up more. The Chiefs began a reasonably unverified cornerback in Jaylen Watson, who hasactually been hurt throughout training camp. Bateman and Jackson couldn’t take benefit.
Even the authorities made life challenging for the Ravens, who dealtwith many unlawful development charges from their dealswith — when it appeared the Chiefs were making the exactsame error however not getting flagged for it. Ravens dealwith Ronnie Stanley stated he was studying the Chiefs dealswith and felt like their developments were in evenworse shape, however didn’t get any flags.
“It’s a little bit disturbing,” Stanley stated. “I simply feel like — kinda making me feel like I’m insane, like I wear’t understand where I’m lining up. We’ll watch the movie. They simply requirement to be held responsible if that’s what it is. If it’s that outright, and they’re making those calls and they shouldn’t be, they oughtto be held responsible.”
He has a point.
But even without those flags, the Ravens still looked treacherously flawed — from their departures (on the offensive line) to their additions (Henry) to the areas where they kept the status quo (Bateman at WR2). It’s not clear whether it includes up to an rising group.
But puton’t inform Likely.
“This is mostlikely the worst videogame we’re going to play all year,” Likely stated. “So, if this is the finest that they got, I indicate, great luck in the postseason.”
And that simply went up on Mahomes’ publication board.
Thursday night was Jackson’s chance to get after Mahomes — to genuinely fireup a competition. Not with talk. But with a W. All Mahomes did was evenmore cement what was currently clear: he’s muchbetter. He’s the finest.
And he just continues to pull more away from the field.
Henry McKenna is an NFL pressreporter for FOX Sports. Prior to signingupwith FOX Sports as the AFC East pressreporter, Henry McKenna invested 7 years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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