Chiefs vs. Ravens score, takeaways: Defending champs survive late rally by Lamar Jackson and Co., win opener

The Ravens are going to lose this game by a matter of inches. Oh my. 

Oh boy. Zay Flowers was as wide open as you will ever see a receiver and Lamar just threw the ball over his head. That is a BAD miss. 

Bateman makes his presence known

Rashod Bateman had been quiet all night long, with only one catch for 17 yards. He just came up with the biggest grab of the evening for the Ravens to set them up just outside the 10-yard line with a chance to tie the game late. Spectacular grab up the sideline. 

Patrick Moss?

Here's Patrick Mahomes' second career reception. He had to out-jump two Ravens to come down with the ball off a deflected pass -- and it's a good thing he did because the pass would have otherwise been intercepted, but also because catching the ball meant the clock continued running and brought it down to the two-minute warning, so the Ravens won't be able to stop the clock at all on their last-ditch drive.

Spinning and winning

Incredible play from Pacheco, spinning over the top of two defenders and keeping his knees off the ground to pick up a first down on the screen pass. The dude never stops churning his legs. 

Ravens clock management issues

Baltimore called two timeouts on defense earlier in this half, and now has only one remaining. Down by two scores, the Ravens need to be operating with much more urgency here or the Chiefs might be able to run the clock out after a score, just like they did in the AFC title game. 

Xavier Worthy x 2

Seems like the Chiefs found themselves a big-time playmaker with their first-round pick. He has three career touches in his first game, and he's scored on two of them. This latest one came on a coverage bust from the Ravens, who left Worthy WIDE open up the right sideline for what will likely be one of the easiest scores of his career. 

Lamar-to-Likely gets the Ravens back into it

We've seen Patrick Mahomes make plays outside of structure all night. This time, it was Lamar's turn. He scrambled away from pressure to his right and found Isaiah Likely down the field. Likely made the rest of it happen from there with a great run after the catch. Baltimore is back within a field goal. 

Why did the Chiefs punt? 

Fourth-and-5 from the opponent's 40-yard line. Your quarterback is Patrick Mahomes. Your defense is shutting the Ravens down since the opening drive of the game. Why aren't you going for it in that situation? The punt gained Kansas City all of 20 yards of field position.

Jaylen Watson steps up 

Watson interfered with Zay Flowers on a deep ball earlier in the game, but the play was erased by an illegal formation penalty. The Ravens tested him with another deep ball to Flowers and this time, Watson got his head around and made a play on the ball to knock it away. He has an opportunity to lock down the No. 2 cornerback spot across from Trent McDuffie, with L'Jarius Sneed now in Tennessee. 

Pacheco's one-yard touchdown run ocurred after he departed the game just a few plays earlier to vomit on the sideline, per ChiefsDigest.com. 

Pacheco gets the Chiefs back on the board

Quick scoring drive for Kansas City to open the second half, and it ends with a 1-yard touchdown run by Isiah Pacheco. It looked like his forward progress was stopped before the goal line, but the officials allowed a bit more time and the offensive line (and Mahomes) pushed him into the end zone. 20-10 Chiefs. 

More Mahomes

This doesn't look like an incredible play, but it takes the absolute perfect amount of touch to get the pass up and over the defender and down into the hands of Rashee Rice in front of the safety to create a huge gain. It's a little Mahomes Magic once again. 

Chiefs lead 13-10 at halftime

After a fast start to the game with each team scoring a touchdown on its opening drive, the defenses took over the proceedings. The only scoring for the remainder of the half came on three field goals, each of which came on a short field following a turnover. At the break, the Ravens have 204 yards on 37 plays, and have controlled the ball for 19:28 to Kansas City's 10:32 of possessions. The Chiefs have only run 22 plays but still hold a three-point lead.

Smith forces sudden change

Roquan Smith was getting picked on by the Chiefs earlier in the game, with KC getting him matched up with Rashee Rice in the slot. But he just came up with a huge play, picking off Mahomes in the middle of the field. Mahomes got hit by Travis Jones as he tried to throw downfield, and Smith took advantage. 

Tucker hooks one

Justin Tucker is arguably the best kicker in NFL history, but he just missed a deep field goal to set the Chiefs up with great field position. The kick came from the left hash and Tucker hooked it wide left from 53 yards out. After making 71.3% of his 50-plus-yard field goals between 2012 and 2022, Tucker went just 1 of 5 on those kicks last year. 

Lamar looking fresh

Much has been made of Lamar Jackson's weight loss this offseason, which was designed to get him back to the more explosive running style he had earlier in his career. So far, so good on that front. He has 6 carries for 47 yards already. He's also 10 of 11 for 80 yards through the air. With the exception of the Chris Jones strip-sack -- which wasn't really his fault as Jones absolutely smoked rookie RT Roger Rosengarten off the line -- Jackson has looked really good.

Mahomes Magic

It was only a matter of time before we saw Mahomes break out the improvisation. And of course, it's Travis Kelce on the receiving end. This pass gave Mahomes the all-time record for passing yards by a Chiefs quarterback, surpassing Len Dawson. Fittingly, it came on a classic out-of-structure play for a big gain.

Fourth-down stop for KC

The Ravens quickly moved the ball near midfield to open the drive, but after an offensive pass-interference penalty on Rashad Bateman nullified a short catch by Zay Flowers, they were backed up to third-and-long. After a Lamar Jackson scamble, the Ravens went for it on fourth-and-3, but a quick screen to Flowers was stopped short of the line to gain by star corner Trent McDuffie. Those two have been locked in a battle all night.

Big stop for the Ravens

With the Chiefs starting this possession inside the red zone, holding to a field goal is huge for the Ravens. Travis Kelce's holding penalty on the first snap set the Chiefs back, but Marcus Williams made a big play breaking up a pass intended for JuJu Smith-Schuster at the goal line on third down. 

Chris Jones begins his DPOY campaign

Chris Jones has been one of the best defensive players in the NFL for a long time, but he has been overshadowed among interior defensive linemen by Aaron Donald, who is possibly the best of all time at the position. Well, Jones is making it known that he is now the top dog at the position. Huge strip-sack on Lamar Jackson to set the Chiefs up with a short field opportunity to take the lead. 

Chiefs drive stalls out

After a big start to the drive with back-to-back chunk gains on passes to Isiah Pacheco (23 yards on a checkdown) and Rashee Rice (19 yards on a pivot route), Kansas City stalled out, capped by a sack by David Ojabo on third down to force a punt. (Ojabo beat rookie LT Kingsley Suamataia pretty quickly to get to Mahomes.) Baltimore has gotten some pressure good pressure on the edge so far, which is something to watch out for the rest of the way. 

Ravens back to using heavy personnel

Last season under Todd Monken, the Ravens dramatically scaled back their usage of multi-tight end sets. They used two or more tight ends on 39.5% of their snaps in 2019, dropped down to 22.7% and 23.7% in 2020 and 2021 and spiked all the way to 59.2% in 2022. But last season, that figure plummeted to just 15.7% under Monken. It looks like they are throwing things back to the past, as they have used multiple tight ends on more than half their snaps already tonight. (8 of 15, via Tru Media.)

Chiefs receivers make an immediate impact

Last year, Rashee Rice didn't take on a full-time role until very late in the year. It took until Week 14 for him to top a 70% snap rate. He's been Patrick Mahomes' go-to guy right from the jump this year, on the receiving end of each of his first two passes. And he wasn't the only receiver with a big play: First-round pick Xavier Worthy -- the fastest man in the history of the NFL combine -- took an end-around 21 yards to the house to tie the game. Considering that Kansas City's wideouts arguably cost the Chiefs the game in last year's opener, it's safe to say that they're faring better already tonight. 

King Henry's crown

Fantastic drive by the Ravens to open the game. Eleven plays, 70 yards and a touchdown on a Derrick Henry run from 5 yards out. Henry had five carries for 17 yards on the drive, while Lamar Jackson went 3 of 4 for 39 yards and ran twice for 19 yards. Baltimore brought Henry in for this type of run behind a new, much bigger offensive line -- especially on the right side. 

Third-down improvement

The Ravens went just 3 of 11 on third down in the AFC title game loss against Kansas City. They have already converted each of their first three third-down opportunities tonight. 

Lamar beats the blitz

That third-down conversion was a big one for the Ravens because it came against a blitz. Only one team has blitzed Lamar Jackson at a higher rate since he entered the league than has the Chiefs, and he has generally struggled on those dropbacks. Evading the rush and finding his checkdown to move the chains is a good sign for Baltimore. 

Henry donning his new threads ahead of the season opener

Matchups to watch

Before the game kicks off, check out our in-depth preview of the matchups that matter on both sides of the ball. Here are a few in particular to watch out for: 

• Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes vs. New Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr
• Kansas City's interior offensive line vs. Nnamdi Madubuike
• Rashee Rice vs. Kyle Hamilton
• Travis Kelce vs. Hamilton and Roquan Smith
• Lamar Jackson vs. Steve Spagnuolo's pressure packages
• Derrick Henry vs. Kansas City's run defense
• Zay Flowers vs. Trent McDuffie
• Mark Andrews vs. Chiefs linebackers and safeties

Both teams are back out on field warming up. The clouds have parted. We are on track for football at 8:40 p.m. ET