Mistakes cost Ravens in AFC Championship loss to Chiefs (2024)

BALTIMORE —

The Baltimore Ravens had a disappointing end to their season as they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship 17-10.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson picked the worst time to have his worst game of the year, while Patrick Mahomes played mistake-free football to lead his team to another Super Bowl.

"We're going to bounce back. Nobody played the game perfect," Jackson said in the postgame news conference. "I'm angry about losing. We were a game away from the Super Bowl. We've been waiting all this time, all these moments for an opportunity like this and we fell short. But I feel like our team is going to build in the offseason, get right, get better, grind and try to be in this position again, but on the other side of victory."

The offense struggled to do anything against the Chiefs defense and two turnovers in the end zone was too much to overcome. The Ravens were in position to make it a three-point game early in the fourth quarter, but rookie receiver Zay Flowers had the ball stripped while he dove for a touchdown.

Jackson would add an interception into triple coverage, that took away an option to kick a field goal to make it a one-possession game. The offense would outgain the Chiefs, but the turnovers were the difference in the game.

"Offense, we put nothing on the board, we scored once -- that's not like us, you know?" Jackson said. "You drill the ball down the field, that's cool, but we've got to put points on the board. I feel like my team's just angry, not frustrated, because we know how hard we worked to get here."

"We had a couple opportunities to score down there that we didn't get the touchdowns, and it really was a defensive struggle, if you step back and look at the whole game, and they were able to score points and we weren't," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said in the postgame news conference.

The defense deserved credit for its effort in the second half as it was able to shut out the Chiefs and gave the team a chance by keeping it close. The Chiefs were held under 100 total yards in the second half and were forced to punt five times.

Unfortunately, they couldn't force a turnover and the Chiefs made enough plays in the end to come out with a victory. Linebacker Roquan Smith and safety Kyle Hamilton were all over the field and both finished with double-digit tackles.

This game was a tale of two halves as Kansas City dominated the first half on defense, before the Ravens did the same thing in the second.

"We were fighting like crazy to get back in it. I think, you know, strategically, we moved the ball back down the field, we were fighting to get the ball back at the end with the clock and everything and with the impasse, we were close to getting the ball back again, we were close to scoring. That's what we were trying to do, we were against the clock there, a lot of different strategic moves to get that done, and then they hit the one pass," Harbaugh said.

The Ravens offensive struggles really cost them in this game and the Chiefs defense deserves credit for coming up with a good game plan to stop this year's probable MVP in Jackson.