Ravens’ comeback falls short against Chiefs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs tried to continue to maintain their dominance against an important AFC opponent, win 27-20 in a heartbreaking season opener for Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night.

The game came down to a tight end. Isaiah can‘s toe went out of bounds on a touchdown that should have come in the final seconds.

Led by midfielder Patrick Mahomes and a two-touchdown performance from the rookie Xavier WorthyThe Chiefs continued their form in the Super Bowl and are considered strong contenders for a third consecutive championship.

Meanwhile, Lamar Jackson dropped to 1-5 in his career against Mahomes.

Here are the keys to the game:

Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs hired Worthy to help bring big plays back to their offense. He won’t always be as good as he was in his NFL debut, but judging by Thursday night, he’ll have a big impact.

Worthy seems like a great fit for a wide receiver group that includes Rashee Rice And Marquis BrownBrown did not play with the Ravens due to a shoulder injury but is expected to return early in the season.

Buy/Sell on Breakout Performance: Worthy scored a touchdown on a 21-yard run the first time he had the ball in an NFL game. He caught a 35-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. While he won’t always score two touchdowns in a game, let’s see if Worthy has an impact like this. He won’t necessarily have a huge volume of touchdowns, but he’ll make the most of what he gets.

QB Analysis: Mahomes made a critical mistake when he was forced to throw the ball late in the first half and was intercepted. That cost the Chiefs some ground at times and gave the Ravens good field position, which they used to kick a field goal. Other than that, it was a solid game for Mahomes. He completed 20 of 28 passes for 291 yards while overtake Len Dawson as Chiefs top passer of all time

Amazing Enhanced Stats: WR Rice, who caught seven passes for 103 yards, had 72 yards after the catch, the second-most in a game of his career. Mahomes could often find him when he was moving upfield with a defender on his tail or at a seam in coverage. — Adam Teicher

Next game: compared to Cincinnati Bengals Football Team (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS, Sept. 15)

Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens’ season began the way their last season ended — a disappointing loss to Mahomes and the Chiefs.

In a rematch of the AFC Finals, Thursday night’s loss relegated Jackson and the Ravens. 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 down to the Kansas City 10-yard line, where he had three shots into the end zone. Jackson missed a wide-open shot. Zay Flower in the end zone and then appeared to throw a 10-yard touchdown to Likely. But Likely’s right foot touched the end line, causing the score to flip as time expired.

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

QB Analysis: 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 throws for 9 yards inside the end zone with two missed throws, including a dropped pass to an open field goal. Justice Hill. This is a stark contrast to last season, when Jackson completed 68 percent of his passes into the end zone. Additionally, Jackson fumbled at his own 13-yard line in the second quarter, leading to a Chiefs field goal. Jackson has now lost four fumbles in six games against Kansas City.

Worrying trend: Chiefs continue to take away tight end midfielder Mark Andrewswho was Jackson’s favorite target. Andrews wasn’t 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 averaged 21.8 receiving yards and scored no touchdowns.

Amazing statistics: With 122 yards running, a skinny Jackson overcame Russell Wilson for third place on the all-time quarterback rushing list. Jackson now trails only Michael Vick (6,109 rushing yards) and Cam Newton (5,628). But Vick and Newton have played in more than 140 games. Thursday night was the 87th game of Jackson’s career.

The biggest question: What are the implications of the Ravens’ loss to the Chiefs? While you can’t overreact to a Week 1 loss, this opener showed once again that Mahomes has the Ravens’ number. Baltimore knows it can’t even score points from last season’s AFC Championship Game loss, but the Ravens left Thursday with even more uncertainty about whether they can unseat Mahomes. Now, with this tiebreaker loss, the Ravens’ path to the Super Bowl may have to go through Arrowhead, where Jackson is 0-3. — Jamison Hensley

Next game: compared to Las Vegas Raiders (1 p.m. ET, CBS, Sept. 15)