Certain opponents make the lights of the marquee burn a little bit hotter. For the Chiefs, when opponents like the Bills, Bengals, Eagles, or Ravens come to town, something happens to the composition of the air around Arrowhead Stadium.
Mingling with the scents of barbecue smoke and beer and the sounds of thousands of stereos blaring hundreds of different choruses throughout the Jackson County sky is the buzz of a top-tier opponent entering our airspace—a new form of rivalry forged in the upper echelon of NFL competition. These games always mean a little bit more, and when the stadium fills up, you can see that, hear that, and most strikingly, feel that.
When these matchups come around, the stakes are always high. Oftentimes during the regular season, playoff seeding is the main focus. Since 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens have owned the AFC's top seed—only once in the seven seasons leading up to this one has a team other than the Chiefs or Ravens held the AFC's top seed going into the playoffs, and that was the Tennessee Titans in 2021. These two, along with the Bills, have been the class of the AFC for quite some time. And while this game will certainly have playoff seeding implications, this time around, it is for a very unfamiliar reason.
Week 4's matchup finds both the Chiefs and Ravens in unfamiliar territory.
Both teams come into this weekend's matchup at 1-2, but the optics surrounding each have been stark contrasts. The Chiefs, who collected their first win last Sunday against the lowly New York Giants, started 0-2 and were very much reeling, depending on which sports information well you draw from. After a catastrophic (albeit possibly hyperbolically catastrophic) loss in Super Bowl LIX, Kansas City opened the season with a loss to the newfound kings of the AFC West, the Chargers, and then followed that up by still being in the shadow of the mighty Eagles.
Never mind that Kansas City is without its top wideout and lost its second pass-catching option on its third play from scrimmage this season. Don't mind the fact that the Eagles were graciously allowed multiple free false-start penalties from an officiating crew that helped gift-wrap an Eagles victory, which plays well for an offensive line that recently put out a Christmas album. If memory serves me correctly, these were also the same officials who so openly pined for the Chiefs only a season ago. Et tu, Brute?
So the limping, former behemoth Chiefs have been diminished to a team that's washed up, with a washed-up quarterback, a washed-up tight end, and a head coach whom the game seems to have passed by. The Ravens, on the other hand? Their losses are more defensible. They lost to the mighty Bills in a Week 1 thriller and again last Monday to the Lions. But they've scored a ton of points! Lamar Jackson! Derrick Henry! Even DeAndre Hopkins is catching touchdown passes!
Yes, the same DeAndre Hopkins who caught a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl that ended the Chiefs' dynastic run. No matter how you spin it, both teams are 1-2. The Chiefs’ losses came to opponents who are 6-0, and the Ravens’ losses came to opponents who are 5-1. Their wins came against teams that are a combined 1-5. Both teams were expected to be at or near the top of the AFC once more, so to say both need a statement win would be, well, an understatement.
The fact of the matter is, neither the Chiefs nor the Ravens play in a cupcake division like the AFC's other contender, the Buffalo Bills. The AFC North and AFC West opponents of both the Chiefs and Ravens, respectively, are 5-4 combined, while the Bills’ division mates are a combined 1-8. What does this mean? Buffalo has (essentially) four more automatic wins on its schedule, while the Ravens and Chiefs will be in dogfights for the rest of the year inside their own divisions.
Buffalo already has a two-game edge on both Kansas City and Baltimore. One of these two teams losing another game in the standings to the Bills this early wouldn't necessarily permanently doom them from once again attaining the AFC's top seed and a first-round bye, but it certainly would make the road ahead much more treacherous.
Baltimore's road looks a bit friendlier than Kansas City's in the event of a loss. They do have to contend with a Steelers team that has certainly upgraded from the beat-up, unreliable Chrysler 300 (Russell Wilson) they were driving to a more practical late-model Subaru (Aaron Rodgers). However, with yet another Joe Burrow injury, Cincinnati is a lot less daunting, and then also, the Browns. Kansas City has the Chargers once more, and whatever the Broncos and Raiders end up being to contend with. It seems tougher, but time will tell.
Ultimately, that's the thing we all have to remember with both of these teams—time will tell. Both will almost inevitably be in the playoff picture, no matter where they end up from a seeding perspective. Both have a chance to beat anyone on any given night. Both of these teams have two narrow losses in games against elite opponents. Both of these teams have superstar signal-callers who have thrived at times and struggled at others. Only one of these teams, however, is currently trying to find itself without much of its offensive firepower.
Just because the Chiefs are 1-2 and without Rashee Rice and presumably Xavier Worthy doesn't mean that we can forget genetics. After all, paternity tests in the past have proven that Patrick Mahomes, who is 5-1 in his career against Baltimore, is Lamar Jackson's football father. The Chiefs have beaten the Ravens before with guys like Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, and Kadarius Toney getting actual significant playing time—do we think that Hollywood Brown, Tyquan Thornton, and JuJu Smith-Schuster are really that bad?
Let go of the 0-2 start. The stakes are too high in this one for us to lose faith now. Kansas City's offensive woes have been real, but if the second half of Sunday's game against the Giants is any indicator of what to expect, then the Chiefs look to be finding their footing. Typically, a Baltimore defense coming to town would be cause for concern, but are we truly fearful of a team that has allowed more points thus far than anyone in the NFL, not named the Miami Dolphins? When the stakes are highest, Mahomes tends to shine the brightest. Maybe the 0-2 start wasn't a sign of things to come, but a wake-up call to a sleeping giant.