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Ravens narrowly miss comeback against Chiefs
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Ravens narrowly miss comeback against Chiefs

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The Kansas City Chiefs continued their dominance over a key AFC rival with a 27-20 victory in a thrilling season opener for the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night.

The game ended with tight end Isaiah Likely’s toe going out of bounds on a potential touchdown in the final seconds.

Led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a two-touchdown performance from rookie receiver Xavier Worthy, the Chiefs picked up where they left off in the Super Bowl and appear to be serious contenders for that elusive third straight win.

Meanwhile, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s record against Mahomes fell to 1-5 in his career.

Here are the keys to the game:


Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs signed Worthy to bring back some power to the offense. He won’t always be as good going forward as he was in his NFL debut, but judging by Thursday night, he will have a big impact.

Worthy seemed to fit well into the wide receiver group that also includes Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown. Brown did not play against the Ravens because of a shoulder injury but is expected to return early in the season.

Worthy scored a touchdown on a 21-yard run the first time he got the ball in an NFL game. He caught a 35-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. While he doesn’t always score two touchdowns in a game, expect Worthy to have that impact. He won’t necessarily have a lot of touches, but he’ll make the most of them.

QB Breakdown: Mahomes made a crucial mistake late in the first half, forcing a throw that was intercepted. That cost the Chiefs a chance at several points and gave the Ravens good field position, which they used to kick a field goal. Otherwise, it was a solid game from Mahomes. He completed 20 of 28 passes for 291 yards, surpassing Len Dawson as the Chiefs’ all-time leading passer.

Stunning advanced statistics: WR Rice, who caught seven passes for 103 yards, had 72 of those yards after the catch, the second-most in a game of his career. Mahomes was often able to find him when he was moving up the field and a defender was behind him or otherwise in a gap in coverage. — Adam Teicher

Next game: vs. Cincinnati Bengals (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS, September 15)


Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens’ season began the way their last season ended – with a frustrating loss to Mahomes and the Chiefs.

In a rematch of the AFC Championship Game, Thursday night’s loss dropped Jackson and the Ravens to 1-5 against Mahomes. Jackson has a 60-19 (.759) record against the rest of the league, including the postseason.

On the final drive, Jackson drove the Ravens to the Kansas City 10-yard line, where he had three throws into the end zone. Jackson missed a completely open pass from Zay Flowers in the end zone and then appeared to throw a 10-yard touchdown to Likely as time expired. But Likely’s right foot touched the baseline, causing the score to be nullified.

Jackson, the reigning Most Valuable Player, did everything he could to keep Baltimore in the game, posting 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in his ninth game, the most in NFL history. Despite his performance, the Ravens couldn’t keep up with the big plays of Mahomes, who now has 14 touchdown passes and three interceptions against Baltimore in his career.

QB Breakdown: The most frustrating part of Jackson’s game was his play inside the 20-yard line. In the first half, Jackson completed 1 of 4 passes for 9 yards in the red zone with two missed throws, including a blocked pass to a completely free Justice Hill. This was a far cry from last season, when Jackson completed 68% of his passes in the red zone. Additionally, Jackson fumbled at his own 13-yard line in the second quarter, leading to a Chiefs field goal. Jackson has lost four fumbles in six games against Kansas City.

Worrying trend: The Chiefs continue to take out tight end Mark Andrews, who was Jackson’s favorite target. Andrews was not targeted until five minutes into the second half and finished the game with two catches for 14 yards. In his previous five meetings with Kansas City, Andrews had averaged 21.8 yards and no touchdowns.

Stunning statistics: With 122 rushing yards, the slimmed-down Jackson overtook Russell Wilson and is now third on the all-time rushing list for quarterbacks. Jackson is only behind Michael Vick (6,109 rushing yards) and Cam Newton (5,628). But Vick and Newton have played in over 140 games. Thursday night was Jackson’s 87th career game.

Biggest question: What are the implications of the Ravens’ loss? While one can’t overreact to a Week 1 loss, this opening game once again showed that Mahomes has the Ravens under control. Baltimore knew they couldn’t make up for last season’s AFC Championship Game loss, but the Ravens left Thursday with even more uncertainty about whether they can beat Mahomes. After losing this potential head-to-head matchup, the Ravens may have to go through Arrowhead, where Jackson has an 0-3 record, on their way to the Super Bowl. –Jamison Hensley

Next game: vs. Las Vegas Raiders (1:00 p.m. ET, CBS, September 15)

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