KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For nearly four years, Lamar Jackson has been trying to forget the one time he called the Kansas City Chiefs the Baltimore Ravens’ kryptonite. And in that same span, the franchise has tried to reduce the number of times Jackson has to shoulder the burden of Superman to keep the Ravens neck and neck with their AFC rival.
And yet, here we are again after the NFL season opener on Thursday night, with Kansas City once again playing Baltimore’s kryptonite, and Jackson once again having to don a cape and play superhero to keep the Ravens neck and neck with the Chiefs. All with the familiar result of Jackson and Baltimore losing, this time via a 27-20 Kansas City victory that was literally sealed for the Chiefs by the length of a toe out of bounds as time expired in the fourth quarter.
The deciding moment in a game is rarely as close as what happened at Arrowhead Stadium, where Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely caught a potential game-tying touchdown late in regulation, only to have the score overturned when a review showed the tip of his foot touched the white line at the back of the end zone. It was the narrowest of margins in a game the Ravens haven’t played particularly well, on the road in one of the NFL’s toughest stadium environments.
From that perspective, the Ravens can celebrate. They led the Chiefs until the final second of the game, and the slimmest of margins separated victory from defeat. But in a first week that is almost always rife with over-the-top analysis, Thursday night also offers us the first potential overreaction. In the form of a question worth asking only because it’s so familiar: Is the Ravens’ reliance on Jackson to be Superman in games like this sustainable as an offense?
Before we get into that, let me reiterate: We’re in the first week of the season, and we rarely get a perfectly accurate picture of an NFL team after a season-opening loss. Especially teams with talent, good coaching, and a quality quarterback. The Ravens have all of that, so there’s plenty of reason to give them a few weeks (or even months) to fully realize their ambitions. But we can do so while remaining realistic. And that requires taking a look at their first attempt at a balanced offense on Thursday.
Yes, it was balanced. But largely due to the creativity of Jackson, who repeatedly had to extend plays while passing for 273 yards and a touchdown and also running 16 times for 122 yards. To put it precisely: He was the Ravens’ entire offense.
It’s something the team has been trying to shake off for years. Not because Jackson can’t carry the load, but because the model has historically proven untenable. Either because Jackson takes too much physical punishment or because the Ravens fizzle out in key moments of the postseason when he can’t be perfect. The final 20 seconds of…