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2024 NFL season, Week 1: What We Learned from Chiefs’ win over Ravens on Thursday night

Kansas City Chiefs 27, Baltimore Ravens 20

Baltimore Ravens
2024 · 0-1-0

AT

Kansas City Chiefs
2024 · 1-0-0

Worthy debut. The 2024 NFL Kickoff Game was delayed 20 minutes amid a thunder storm. But the fans who were forced to wait were instead rewarded with a little lightning — speed, that is. Thursday night was just a taste of what we have expected from Xavier Worthy since the moment the Chiefs swung a trade up to land him in the draft. Worthy’s first NFL touch was a sidewinding, brilliant 21-yard touchdown run on an end-around to tie the game. His second was a 12-yard crosser. On both plays, Worthy’s breathtaking speed was tangible. Patrick Mahomes only targeted Worthy once more in the first half, underthrowing him on a pass in the end zone — and credit the rookie for turning into a defender and knocking the would-be interception out of Ravens defensive back Ar’Darius Washington’s hands. The Chiefs finally got back to Worthy in the fourth quarter, and he rewarded them with a 35-yard TD catch against what looked like a busted Ravens coverage. That was it — three touches, 68 yards, two touchdowns. But with the Ravens keying in on Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice, Worthy made the most of his limited touches in a terrific NFL debut.

One toe spoils great night from Lamar, Likely. When Mark Andrews went down last season with a leg injury, it provided Isaiah Likely an opportunity to show the Ravens what he can do in a more featured role. Likely was good last season, but when the Chiefs clamped down on Zay Flowers in the second half, holding him to one catch for minus-2 yards, Likely looked like Lamar Jackson‘s best weapon while Andrews looked like an afterthought. Jackson gutted the Chiefs with his legs (122 yards) and his arm, especially to Likely in the second half. Likely finished with career highs in catches (nine) and receiving yards (111), including a 49-yard catch-and-run on a scramble-drill play. And Likely was almost the unlikely opening night hero, appearing to haul in what could have been a touchdown catch — John Harbaugh was prepared to go for two — that lifted the Ravens to a comeback win. The problem? Likely’s toe was a sliver out of bounds on what ended up being the final play of a thrilling first game. It was a massive showing from Likely, who also delivered a huge block on the Chiefs’ George Karlaftis, clearing the way for a Jackson scramble. The Ravens came up just short in the opener, and Jackson did miss a wide-open Flowers in the end zone a play earlier, but both tight end and quarterback carried their team most of the game.
McDuffie passed a big test, but the Chiefs defense has other issues. There was a big concern when the Chiefs moved on from L’Jarius Sneed that it might have a trickle-down effect on the Chiefs’ secondary. It wasn’t so much about whether Trent McDuffie could handle the CB1 role, although it did mean tougher assignments — and more snaps outside. On Thursday, McDuffie struggled a little early in his matchup with Zay Flowers and actually went into the blue medical tent at one point in the first half. But McDuffie came back out to make a great fourth-down tackle on Flowers shy of the line to gain and bottled him up for most of the second half. But the rest of the defense had its share of issues, mostly with containing Lamar Jackson and Isaiah Likely. Jackson made several defenders look silly — Nick Bolton more than once — in space and even powered through a few tackle attempts for extra yards. The Chiefs also couldn’t pressure Jackson ably or get him down, allowing him to create on the fly. Likely caught passes against seven different Chiefs defenders, per Next Gen Stats, nearly hauling in the game-winner. The Chiefs had two huge red-zone breakdowns in the final minute but came away with the win. The defense had a strip sack and two stops on downs, but it was not the cleanest performance by any means.
Henry quiet in Ravens debut. On the Ravens’ gutsy opening drive, overcoming three penalties and converting three third downs, Derrick Henry capped it with a plunging 5-yard TD run, putting the Ravens up, 7-0, on the champs. It was Henry’s fifth carry of the drive and a strong start for the Ravens’ big free-agent acquisition. Henry then touched the ball only three more times the entire first half, finishing the game with 13 rushes for 46 yards and no catches on two targets. Henry averaged 16.5 carries per game last season with the Titans, and he had six games with 13 or fewer, so this wasn’t some shockingly low usage by recent Henry standards. Plus, when the Ravens went down two scores in the second half, Henry came off the field in favor of Justice Hill, and the ball was mostly in Lamar Jackson’s hands, so clearly there was a game-flow effect that worked against Henry in his debut. He did convert a huge fourth-and-1 run with 6:34 remaining in the game — his final touch — that helped the Ravens stay in it, down 10 points. Hill had one carry, and Flowers had two. The rest of the rushing attempts went to Jackson and Henry. You can’t read too much into this usage, although it does highlight Henry’s limitations when the Ravens are down and/or going tempo.
Chiefs offense still dangerous despite hiccups. The Chiefs were without wide receiver Marquise Brown, as expected, and they were starting a rookie left tackle in Kingsley Suamataia. Even with some flubs expected, if we were to measure Thursday’s offensive showing by 2023 standards, it would rate closer to the top than to the bottom. Patrick Mahomes had fairly modest passing numbers (291 yards), but there were some close misses that could have beefed those up quite a bit. It wasn’t reminiscent of last year’s struggles, but there were a few hiccups on passes that hit the receivers’ hands, including two by the running backs. Travis Kelce had a drop. So did JuJu Smith-Schuster in his first game back. Even Mahomes threw a goofy interception and nearly was picked a second time, saving his own bacon in the final minutes by catching his own pass. Suamataia allowed a sack and had a holding penalty that wiped out a 9-yard run in the red zone. It wasn’t the crispest operation we’ve seen from this group. But Rashee Rice was terrific, Isiah Pacheco ground down on the Ravens and Mahomes has a shiny, new toy in Xavier Worthy. There’s work to be done here, too, but the champs were facing one of their toughest tests in Week 1. They’re still the champs for a reason.

Next Gen stat of the game: On his first NFL career touch, Xavier Worthy scored on a 21-yard end-around run, gaining +14 Rushing Yards Over Expected on the play. Worthy, who reached a top speed of 24.41 mph during his record-setting 4.21-second 40-yard dash at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, hit a peak velocity of 18.45 mph on his TD run.

NFL Research: On his 23-yard completion to Travis Kelce in the second quarter of Thursday’s game, Patrick Mahomes surpassed Len Dawson (28,507 yards) as the Chiefs’ all-time leader in passing yards. Dawson reached his total in 183 games with the Chiefs; Thursday was Mahomes’ 97th regular-season game with the franchise.