The Kansas City Chiefs opened their march toward a hopeful third straight Super Bowl with a 27-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens Thursday night, but the finish was much closer than even that score indicates. Driving all the way to the red zone in the final seconds of play, Lamar Jackson and Co. came within centimeters of potentially upsetting the reigning champions, all the way down to a final would-be touchdown strike.
The first close call for the Chiefs: Jackson laced a perfect sideline zinger to Rashod Bateman, who up to that point had been invisible in the Ravens’ wide receiver corps, to set up the red-zone push.
A few plays later, facing second-and-goal with 10 seconds left, Jackson maneuvered around a messy pocket to sling one across the field to a wide-open Zay Flowers, only to sail the ball to his target’s left, forcing a last-gasp attempt on the following play.
Jackson appeared to redeem himself in magical fashion on third-and-goal with five seconds to play, dancing around the pocket, avoiding a pressuring Chris Jones and then firing a perfect shot to tight end Isaiah Likely at the back of the end zone.
The only problem: Likely’s catch, quickly ruled a would-be game-tying touchdown, goes under review, and the officials see what the replay shows. Likely’s foot, it turns out, barely crossed the back of the end zone line as it came down, perhaps not even an inch, resulting in an overturning of the score.
The Chiefs proceeded to walk off GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on top, handing Baltimore its first loss of the 2024 campaign. At least the Ravens can know they couldn’t have gotten much closer in defeat.
