While Thursday’s Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs game set records, the former would experience the negative side losing 27-20, which is yet another loss by star quarterback Lamar Jackson head-to-head against Patrick Mahomes. Even former NBA player Paul Pierce would say that the Chiefs are the Ravens’ “daddy,” but when Jackson was asked about the one-sided nature of the matchups, he would snap back.
There is no doubt it was a frustrating game for the Ravens who are coming off of a season where they were the No. 1 seed, riding a high, but lost in underwhelming fashion to Kansas City in the conference championship game. The same would happen in the Week 1 opener where when a reporter asked after the game if the Chiefs are the Raves’ kryptonite or weakness, Jackson wouldn’t hesitate to refute it according to ESPN.
“Ain’t my kryptonite,” Jackson snapped back.
“What’s that?” the reporter asked.
“Not my kryptonite,” Jackson said.
One has to admire the confidence of Jackson who threw for 273 yards to go along with a touchdown and 122 yards on the ground, but it’s hard to disagree when Baltimore has lost its fifth of the last six matchups both teams have had. However, Thursday night was almost uncharacteristic with all the mistakes made, blown plays, missed opportunities, and more.
“I believe everyone in our locker room hates losing, point-blank period — coaches, trainers, equipment guys, cafeteria women and men and definitely the players — because we’re out there putting it on the line, blood, sweat and tears,” Jackson said. “And for us to lose to those guys, and the way we lost, even though I don’t want to lose, but I can’t be mad at my guys because we battled.”
If there was something to take away from the game, it was the continued renaissance of tight end Isaiah Likely though fantasy football managers were upset about Ravens’ Mark Andrews not getting as much work. Likely caught nine passes for 111 yards and a touchdown and was a toe short of scoring another one which would’ve put the team in range to tie or win the game off a two-point conversion, but after the game spoke highly about Jackson.
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“He showed you what type of player he is,” Likely said. “The two-time MVP [doesn’t] back down to nobody, no matter where we are, no matter whose environment [we’re in or] who we’re going up against. He’s going to show you who he is every snap, every play, whether it’s running or passing. He shows you that he’s Lamar Jackson.”
Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith also spoke about Jackson and even took blame for how the defense played as they let go of big big plays, especially ones to Chiefs rookie receiver Xavier Worthy and his two touchdowns.
“There’s a reason he’s a two-time MVP, but as a defense, we should’ve never put those guys in that position,” Smith said. “It starts with us as a defense and eliminating explosive plays, eliminating countless mistakes that we had, and then giving the offense as many opportunities to do what they do. We’ll do that the rest of the way. This is the worst we’ll play all season. I can promise you that.”
The Ravens face the Las Vegas Raiders next Sunday.