The NFL world is hyped up for the season opener game where Patrick Mahomes’s led Chiefs will face off against the Ravens. Recently, 2-times MVP Lamar Jackson downplayed the encounter as not a ‘revenge game’ but Nick Wright thinks otherwise.
On an episode of First Things First, Wright discussed the upcoming fixture and Mahomes’s record against the Lamar-led Ravens.
He explained that Mahomes dominated the charts with the Chiefs winning three out of four games against the Ravens and outplayed Lamar every chance. He said:
“The Chiefs have owned him because Patrick Mahomes has thoroughly outplayed him in every spot in his career.”
Against the Ravens, Mahomes covered 354 yards scoring 14 touchdowns with an exceptional passer rating of 115.5 (his regular season career average is 103.5). Whereas Lamar is only leading in the number of turnovers.
Wright claimed this made the game against the Chiefs ‘one of the biggest games of Lamar’s career’, with only the 2023 AFC title game, Raven’s 2019 and 2020 divisional round game against the Titans and the Bills ranking over this. Highlighting the importance of the game, this was Lamar’s chance to start the season on a strong note by beating the Super Bowl champions or else he risked a back-to-back loss record against the Chiefs.
In their last encounter in the AFC championship game, Mahomes kept a tight play with short passes, covering 241 yards and scoring 1 touchdown. In return, Lamar put in a strong play and scored an equalizer with a 30-yard pass to Flowers in the 2nd quarter. He was close to touching the Chiefs’ red zone in the final quarter, but an incomplete pass to OBJ turned the game.
This time, the Chiefs are facing the Ravens on their home turf and would like to put on a show for the cheering crowd. Lamar would need to run a play with tight passes to break into the Chiefs’ end zone, and Derrick Henry’s strong legs could help the team trick the Chiefs’ defenses.
Chris Broussard pins hopes on the Ravens even if Lamar had a bad game vs the Chiefs
Broussard agreed with Nick’s pick for the most important games of Lamar’s career except for the coming regular season game. In his opinion, Lamar had to prove nothing, and ‘he doesn’t have to play an outstanding game‘. For the Ravens, the focus should be on winning the game in the season ahead and a win against Kansas City will help their mentality for a strong campaign.
However, he cautioned that the team is overly dependent on Lamar and claimed that a ‘win with Lamar not playing well’ would be a bigger problem than a ‘loss with Lamar putting on a strong show’.
The Ravens’ reliance on Lamar was on full display in last year’s AFC game. Despite the defense’s failure to contain the Chiefs, the majority of the focus was on Lamar. If the team doesn’t change this attitude and work on all fronts, the team’s strongest pillar form can easily turn the Ravens’ season into a nightmare.
