BALTIMORE — Seven seasons into his NFL career, Patrick Mahomes already has playoff wins against an impressive list of quarterbacks.
It includes Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Trevor Lawrence, Andrew Luck, Ben Roethlisberger, Tua Tagovailoa, Deshaun Watson and — of course — Josh Allen, who last weekend was eliminated by Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs for the third time.
One star AFC quarterback Mahomes has never run into in the postseason is Lamar Jackson. The Baltimore Ravens star could match Mahomes this season with his second NFL MVP award, but Jackson is only now making his first appearance in a conference championship game.
“He’s going to be the MVP for a reason,” said Mahomes, who also has two Super Bowl MVP awards and a third appearance in the big game despite not taking over as Kansas City’s starting quarterback until his second season (2018).
“He leads his team,” Mahomes said of Jackson, who was on the short list for both league MVP and offensive player of the year when NFL awards finalists were announced Thursday. “He scores, he runs, he throws, he does whatever it takes to win, and that’s what the greats do. It’s a challenge for our defense, but also a great challenge for our offense to keep up.”
Mahomes and the Chiefs face that difficult task when they visit the Ravens at 3 p.m. Sunday in the AFC championship game, with CBS televising the matchup. It’s their sixth consecutive year reaching this stage of the playoffs, but the first time in that span they’ll have to play it on the road.
The Chiefs are the reigning Super Bowl champions. The Ravens had the NFL’s best record during the recently completed regular season. It’s a fascinating matchup made even more so by the presence of Mahomes and Jackson.
Even if Jackson would be happy to avoid such a tough opponent.
“I don’t like competing against him at all,” Jackson said with a laugh. “He’s definitely a Hall of Famer. But I believe it’s just two greats — up-and-coming greats — just going toe to toe, like a heavyweight fight.”
This is the first playoff matchup between former MVP quarterbacks who are both younger than 30; Mahomes turned 28 in September and Jackson hit 27 earlier this month.
That’s not to say Mahomes hasn’t been pushed in the quarterback-deep AFC. Allen has come close to knocking him off, and Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals beat Mahomes and the Chiefs in the AFC championship game two years ago — though a postseason rematch last year went Kansas City’s way.
Jackson’s most recent matchup with Mahomes was a 36-35 win by the Ravens in September 2021. Mahomes won their meetings in each of the previous three seasons.
“Listen, this league is a lot about the quarterbacks, right? We’re fortunate in this game we have two of the best ones in the league,” Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said. “Our goal and what we talk about all the time is, ‘Let’s just get the ball back to our quarterback.’ That’s our job. And the only way to do that is make sure their quarterback doesn’t do the things that he’s capable of doing.”
Baltimore, after going 13-4 in the regular season and enjoying a first-round bye in the playoffs, advanced with a 34-10 win over the Houston Texans during the divisional round last Saturday. Kansas City, 11-6 during the regular season, topped Tagovailoa and the Dolphins in a wild-card matchup before beating Allen and the host Buffalo Bills 27-24 last weekend. That was Mahomes’ first postseason road win, coming in his first opportunity.
This is the first time the city of Baltimore is hosting the AFC title game since the Colts beat the Oakland Raiders in January 1971. The current Baltimore franchise has made it to this game four times previously, all on the road, and won twice on the way to Super Bowl titles.
This is Baltimore’s fourth time reaching the game under coach John Harbaugh, but the Ravens haven’t been this far since their Super Bowl run 11 years ago. Kansas City, of course, has made the AFC title game an annual part of its schedule lately.
“They’ve been in this situation many times. They’ve played in this game. I think they’re a very experienced team,” Harbaugh said. “They’re a hardened team. They’ve been through a lot. That experience always is helpful.”
Still, the Ravens have faced their share of tests this season — and passed them. Of their 13 regular-season victories, an NFL-record 10 were against teams that finished above .500.
“I think that we just do what we’re signed up to do, and that’s play for each other at the end of the day. Give everything that we’ve got and try to send a message, play in and play out,” Baltimore linebacker Roquan Smith said. “No bigger stage to do that than the game coming up this week.”
Both teams ranked among the NFL’s best on both offense and defense during the regular season, but special teams is often a more noticeable factor in the postseason, and the Chiefs and Ravens have two of the game’s best kickers. Justin Tucker is going to his seventh Pro Bowl in 12 seasons for Baltimore, while Harrison Butker was 33-of-35 on field-goal attempts for Kansas City this season and is perfect so far in the playoffs.
“He’s been there for such a long career, no injuries, and he’s made it look effortless,” Butker said of Tucker, whom he recalls watching on YouTube as far back as high school. “He’s kind of changed the kicking game and pushed us younger guys to say, ‘It’s possible to make 65-yard field goals and these game-winning kicks.’ He’s just an artist.”