Loser of the Ravens-Chiefs matchup faces difficult road to Super Bowl contention

Audio By Carbonatix

The Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens entered the season with Super Bowl-or-bust goals.

One of them will be 1-3, unless they tie this week.

Coming off a 38-30 loss at home to Detroit on Monday night, Baltimore will travel to Kansas City to face the Chiefs on Sunday in a matchup that’s critical for both teams.

The 2001 New England Patriots are the only team to start 1-3 and win the Super Bowl.

It’ll be a difficult challenge for the losing team to rebound.

“I feel like the way we performed was a hole; a huge hole, but it’s still the beginning of the season,” Lamar Jackson said after the Lions sacked him seven times. “We have a lot of work to do, and we just have to execute.”

Per NFL research, the Jackson-Mahomes matchup will be the first between multiple-time MVP QBs in which each enters the game with a losing record that season. It will also be the first matchup between multi-time MVP QBs with a combined record under .500.

Overall, the AFC is off to a poor start.

Only six teams in the conference have a winning record, including just three playoff teams from last season: Bills (3-0), Chargers (3-0) and Steelers (2-1).

In the NFC, all seven 2024 playoff teams have winning records plus three other clubs.

It’s too early for any team to panic except for the two-time defending AFC South champion Texans (0-3). Houston is in a tough spot with Indianapolis (3-0) and Jacksonville (2-1) both playing well.

Despite a daunting road ahead, Baltimore still has the second-best odds to win the Super Bowl behind Philadelphia, according to Bet MGM Sportsbook.

The Bills currently have the best odds while the Eagles (3-0) and Packers (2-1) are tied for third. Somehow, Philadelphia’s odds dropped even though the Eagles are undefeated.

The NFL trade deadline isn’t until Nov. 4 but teams may want to call the New York Giants about Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston now that rookie Jaxson Dart is the guy.

The Bengals were 4-3 with Jake Browning in 2023 and he led them to a comeback victory after Joe Burrow was hurt in Week 2. But the Bengals are coming off the worst loss in franchise history, 48-10 to Minnesota.

Browning is familiar with Zac Taylor’s offense but Wilson could be productive throwing to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. He had 450 yards against the Cowboys in Week 2.

Jalen Hurts had zero touchdown passes in the first 10 quarters this season before the Eagles fell behind the Rams by 19 points and the offense opened up.

He completed 17 of 24 passes for 209 yards and 3 TDs in the second half to help Philadelphia earn a 33-26 win secured by Jordan Davis’ blocked field goal.

Why was the passing attack stagnant before the second half?

“We want to be the aggressive person, right? The word this past week for the offense of when I spoke to the offense was ‘attack,’” offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said. “We want to be in attack mode and going into the game, that was what we wanted to do. The first drive was a good drive. We went for it on fourth down, we threw the ball down into the red zone at the goal lines. We were in an attack mode.

“We got stuck in those weird situations where we just couldn’t get it out of there and get it going. And then the second half, obviously, we had to play a little bit differently, but we were able to get it going."

Texans rookie wide receivers Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel became close friends at Iowa State and their tight-knit relationship has only grown stronger since Houston selected Higgins in the second round of the NFL draft and Noel in the third.

The rookies love to fish so they started the “J&JFishinn” TikTok channel in college. They’ve got bigger priorities right now adjusting to life in the NFL but still plan to go fishing when they can.

Higgins has four catches for 65 yards while Noel has two receptions for 11 yards in the first three games.

___

On Football analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL from week to week. For more On Football analysis, head here.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl