Ravens Lose An Absolute Heartbreaker By A Toe In Kansas City

Well shoot me directly in the face. How fucking predictable was that. Why would anyone expect anything good to happen against the Chiefs, in that spot, in their building.

Shit was going their way all night. Slanted officiating on roughly a bajillion illegal procedure calls that weren't being called both ways, soft serve late hit and roughing the passer flags, d-coordinators illegally calling timeouts… at no point tonight did it ever feel like the Ravens were actually going to get it across the line and steal a win there.

They damn near did it. We knew Isaiah Likely was a dog, but that guy fucking balled out and carried us in the 2nd half there. With the way he went down with 10 seconds there, I thought he'd be out for 6 weeks. Turns out he was out for 6 seconds and he damn near made the play of the year.

With all of that said…… way way way too much slop from the Ravens tonight. While so little went their way, they did very little to earn their luck. There were dumb penalties mixed in there too, awful timeout management (which… when you think about it, very materially changed the complexion of that final drive), some terrible pass protection, and baffling playcalling in the 1st half that had Lamar not push the ball downfield whatsoever.

No result tonight was ever going to be totally satisfactory after the way last season ended, and ultimately the Ravens are 0-1 and not feeling any better about their ability to potentially beat the Chiefs when it matters. They're definitely good enough to push them to the edge, but just like every other AFC contender, they can't possibly feel confident in their ability to push them off that edge.

Whatever. Long season. We'll see them again and it'll probably have to be in their barn because of tonight. Time to go to work and clean up a whoooooole lot and give ourselves that opportunity again.