Ravens-Chiefs "Tonight Baltimore Sends A Message" MNF Live Blog

Jamie Squire. Getty Images.

Biggest game of the year. We waited all offseason for this one. Nothing can wash away the taste of that brutal loss to Tennessee but as we watched Mahomes and the Chiefs win their championship we knew that this was going to be the next best thing until the postseason rolls around. This should have been the AFC Championship game in Baltimore last year. Believe me, nobody was more fired up to see the Ravens piss away that season than the Kansas City Chiefs. With the way the Ravens had been rolling for 12 weeks straight, they wanted no piece of coming to Baltimore. We pissed down our leg and they got their championship. That can't be undone.

The stakes obviously aren't the same as a conference championship game, but they're about as high as Week 3 gets. With the NFL cutting down the playoff bye to one team per conference, this game has massive implications for who gets that bye. I hold firmly that these are the best two teams in not just the AFC, but the entire NFL. But rest assured, the AFC looks stacked with the Bills, Patriots, Steelers, and those pesky Titans all looking dangerous so far. Common sense dictates that having to play one of these teams on wild card weekend is less than ideal.

Beyond that, this game presents an opportunity for Baltimore to send a message. They can't dethrone the Chiefs tonight. They rightly earned their spot on top of the mountain and a game played in September can't undo that. But this is an opportunity to send a message that the Baltimore Ravens are coming for that ass. We're here to make life difficult for the Kansas City Chiefs and to ensure that the road to Tampa goes through Baltimore, just like it should have last year. Last year was no fluke. The fluke was one night in January. We can't prove that once and for all until the postseason comes back around again, but tonight we let the whole world know who is who in the National Football League.

Mahomes is great but this secondary has what it takes to slow him enough to be the difference. Both Lamar and Mahomes shine tonight, but the Chiefs just don't have an answer for Lamar Jackson. Shooutout, low-scoring game, whatever it might be, the Ravens are the more well-rounded team and they show that with a big W tonight.

Ravens win 38-27

Let's. Fucking. Go.