Lamar Jackson shreds KC Chiefs defense in Ravens’ wild Week 2 win

Lamar Jackson once called the K.C. Chiefs his “kryptonite” due to his inability to defeat them—or even perform all that well against them. In primetime on Sunday night, he put the Baltimore Ravens on his back and willed them to a fourth quarterback comeback over a Chiefs team used to doing that to other franchises for a wild 36-35 victory.

For the game, Jackson rushed for 107 yards on only 16 carries and 2 touchdowns. He also threw for 239 yards and 1 touchdown. The Chiefs defense had no answer for the Ravens’ offense when it counted, even when they knew Jackson was going to run. In the end, the Chiefs had some costly second-half turnovers as Baltimore dialed up the pressure and failed to put the game away when they could.

The Chiefs not only came in with all the momentum, but they even carried it well into the first several minutes of the game. The Ravens received the ball to start the game and on Lamar Jackson’s second throw of the game, the Chiefs watched Tyrann Mathieu take it to the house for a pick-six.

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From there, the Ravens and Chiefs would trade touchdowns. Baltimore scored after a long drive when Devin Duvernay pounced on a fumble by running back Ty’Son Williams and took it in for a touchdown. The Chiefs followed suit with a 92-yard drive capped by an incredible throw from Patrick Mahomes against the blitz to hit Demarcus Robinson in the back of the end zone for a 33-yard score.

Shortly after that, Mathieu picked off yet another errant pass from Jackson for his second interception of the night and it began to look like the Chiefs were going to run away with the game.

From there, however, both teams settled in a bit defensively with both the Chiefs and Ravens trading punts before Baltimore finally got things moving with a long touchdown drive in which Latavius Murray ran it in from five yards out to tie the game at 14 apiece. The Chiefs scored on the very next drive, anchored by a Darrel Williams goal line score, but a poor defensive showing allowed the Ravens to move the chains too quickly on the final drive and Justin Tucker added a field goal before the half to pull within four points, 21-17.

Coming out of halftime, the Chiefs and Ravens continued to score at will. Mahomes hit Byron Pringle for a 40-yard touchdown on which the rarely-utilized receiver did the heavy lifting with an excellent burst after the catch to leave the Ravens defense in the dust. From there, the Ravens answered with a surprising drive of their own through the air on which Marquise Brown scored on a 42-yard catch from Jackson.

The Chiefs got the ball back and marched the length of the field with one of the greatest touchdowns ever from Travis Kelce on the same drive on which he also set the NFL record for fastest tight end in NFL history to 8K receiving yards. Check out the play below:

The Chiefs forced the Ravens to punt on the next drive and had a chance to put the game away with any points on their next drive, but pressure from first-round pick Ofade Oweh caused Mahomes to force a throw right into Tavon Young’s hands—Mahomes’ first ever interception in the month of September.

The Ravens not only turned that into a touchdown—on a short Jackson run—but they forced the Chiefs to punt again before putting together another touchdown drive that featured another Jackson TD run. Two failed 2-point conversions (on both drives) kept the Ravens up by a single point, 36-35 with just over three minutes left in the game.

With three minutes and all three of the Chiefs timeouts left, Mahomes, who threw 3 touchdowns in the game, went to work with a quick 20-yard strike to Byron Pringle to get to midfield. However, a few plays later, the Chiefs lost the chance to put it away while in complete control when Clyde Edwards-Helaire coughed up the ball when stripped by Ofade Oweh, who also recovered the ball. Shortly thereafter, Jackson clinched the win by converting a gutsy fourth-down call to go for it.

With the loss, Mahomes’ career win streak in September is now over and the Chiefs fall to 1-1 before heading home to host the L.A. Chargers. The Ravens also even their record to 1-1 before traveling to face the Detroit Lions next week.