Chiefs’ Mahomes puts on show
Kansas City snaps Ravens’ 14-game win streak
BALTIMORE — It wasn’t just that Patrick Mahomes threw for a ton of yards and four touchdowns. Most impressive was how he did it.
Mahomes juked, danced, and jumped in and out of the pocket. Sometimes he just dropped back and fired pinpoint throws downfield. He tossed shovel passes and flung it sidearmed.
The common thread was that just about everything he did worked for the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who rolled past the Baltimore Ravens 34-20 on Monday night.
Mahomes put on a scintillating show while outperforming Lamar Jackson, who’s 0-3 against the Chiefs and 21-1 against the rest of the NFL as a regular-season starting quarterback.
With Mahomes leading the way, the Chiefs (3-0) ended the Ravens’ 14-game regular-season winning streak while extending their own run to 12 games (including playoffs). Mahomes was 31-for-42 passing for 385 yards and averaged 6.5 yards on his four rushing attempts.
“They don’t give that guy a half-billion dollars for no reason,” Ravens defensive tackle Calais Campbell said. “He just made play after play. You’ve got to give him respect.”
Mahomes, who signed a 10-year, $503 million extension in July, gave the Chiefs their money’s worth Monday night, surgically shredding a Baltimore defense that had allowed only two touchdowns in its first two games.
“You got to give credit to
Pat for leading the charge. He stepped up big,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said.
Mahomes was not intercepted, and avoided being sacked. The Chiefs led 27-10 at halftime and held on to defeat Baltimore (2-1) for the third year in a row.
“The plays we ran, we got in the right situations,” Ma
homes said. “I thought guys executed at a very high level on those plays.”
In a duel between Mahomes, the 2018 NFL MVP, and the player who won that honor last year, Jackson was no match for the man whose resume also includes a Super Bowl MVP trophy.
Jackson completed 15 of 28 passes for 97 yards and ran for 83 yards, 30 of them on one carry during the Ravens’ opening possession.
It wasn’t nearly enough against Mahomes, whose performance Jackson described in one word: “Outstanding.”
Small crowd
There were an estimated 250 people in the seats consisting of immediate family members of Ravens players, coaches and front office personnel. They were scattered in several sections behind the Baltimore sideline.