Welcome to NFL Daily, where our toe is always in bounds. We are here on the very first game of the year. Chiefs win 27 to 20. I am Greg Rosenthal. So lucky today to be joined by Jordan Rodrie. We are going live on YouTube. So hello to all the people out there watching on YouTube, but most of you listening to us in your ears. Jordan, I apologize to the gods at the NFL for ever doubting that this should be the game. I was like, Oh, why you want to burn Ravens chiefs right off the bat? This was an incredible way to start the season. And I'm so happy to be starting it with you.

I know. It lived up to all the hype that I had in my brain about football being back, and to use my Greg impression. I'm so happy. We texted in the third Second quarter, about halftime. We talked on the phone for a minute, halftime, just to catch up on just ideas and thoughts. And both of us just took a moment and just thought, Oh, I'm so happy right now, football being back, and it's these stakes, and, oh, my goodness, we're here. We're back.

We're such dorks. And yes, I'm a dork. I'm sending out the link as we're actually posting it. I know.

I'm trying to activate my screen here. Sorry, ETP, behind the glass. I am so excited to go through this game, but I think the easiest way to do it is, yes, we'll start at the end, but we'll also take a lot of lessons from this game and talk about what we learned in this game.

The first thing I'm going to say I learned in this game is something we've known, but I think it's even more true now than ever, which is that the Chiefs can win in so many different ways. Yes, you could say they got a little fortunate at the end of this game. Lamar Jackson missed a couple open receiver in the end zone. Ravens are trailing 27 to 20. They get the ball with no timeouts with one minute and 50 seconds. They have to drive the length of the field. He makes a nice throw down into the red zone. They waste a lot of time on a Zee flowers' catch, and then he misses a couple of receivers. And then, yes, he delivers a ball to Isiah Likely, who is just out of the end of the end zone. Let's listen to Mike Tariko making that call, and then, unfortunately, the call by the referee right afterwards.

He's rushed four. Lamar trying to make magic happen. Throw an in zone. Whiteway, two feet down. Yes. Touchdown. What a play.

The runner's toe hit out of bounds. It's an incomplete pass. The game is over.

Kansas City has won. 27 to 20. The Chiefs win on opening night by a toe.

So that was the call from Mike Therico. What a roller coaster of emotions there. This felt like a game to me, Jordan, that the Chiefs should have won, that they probably were the better, more under control team throughout. And yet at the end, everyone is gassed. Week one is so much different than other weeks, and the Ravens are going to look back on this as a missed opportunity.

Yeah, a couple of missed opportunities I think, particularly the second half, the new Zack Orr-led defense. When they said he was 32 on the screen, I knew that. This is not a lesson. This is not something I didn't know, but I had an existential moment thinking about that I'm 32. I have not done anything like this is. And I was impressed with his defense the first half. They had some busts the second half. They had some issues. Obviously, the Xavier worthy second countdown was a huge one in that regard. It looked like Marlon Humphrey was seeking some safety help there, and Xavier worthy got behind him. And it reiterates how if you leave the door a crack open, or if you miss a throw, or if you have a size 14 and a half shoe instead of a 14, the chiefs will make you pay for it. This is not anything we didn't know, but man, was this a good game? This was a fun game. I'm heartbroken for Isiah Likely. He had an incredible incredible game and seemed to really get hurt at the end there landing on his shoulder.

Then he comes right back in.

He came back on and really gutted it out and made such a gutsy play. And it just, by that much, it kills you. But that's football.

So I was planning to talk Chiefs to start the game in general because they're the defending Super Bowl champions back to back. They won the game. For a lot of this game, they felt like they controlled it. And yet I actually do want to start here because we're on it with likely because to me, he was a revelation in this game. Nine catches for 111 yards, an absolutely sick 49-yard countdown catch where he just makes an absolutely ridiculous hezzy. It was just a strange night from the Ravens' offense that they were waiting for insane individual plays by a handful of players. So it was Isiah Likely, Zee flowers, and Lamar Jackson. Lamar ran for in 22 yards in this game. He threw for 273 and a countdown, and yet it felt a little scattered, a little uncomfortable for him. I'm curious if one of your takeaways from this game, because this is another thing that I'm going to say that I learned in this game was it was almost too reliant on Lamar Jackson's legs, that this formula, at least on Thursday night, running the ball 16 times for 122 and taking a lot of hits was probably too too much.

They were counting on his playmaking too much in this game.

Yeah, I think that you saw him at times check into runs as well. I thought that it was... Honestly, I think that once he irons out the rest of it, I think that this will be really special to watch for him, a really special season to watch for him, because you saw him take that ownership of this offense. And you don't just check into runs because you say so. You are allowed to do that because you're collaborating with your coaching staff to do that. So it's not like he was just playing hero ball. This was the game plan, right? To give him the option to do so. If he saw it, he clearly saw tons of space, 122 yards, like you said, and 7.6 yards per carry on, 16 carries. And they had a hard time containing him. This is the thing that I am stuck on because Isiah likely is such a great partner for him. I mean, the adlibbing that they did together on that breakdown, I called it the Matador move, where he stood at the goal line and just allowed the defender just wish right by him and then walked in for the countdown.

But that was an... Like Lamar made a spot throw on that play. He was working out a structure and escaping pressure like he was often. And particularly, you just threw to a spot that he knew Isaiah likely would be, because the two have worked at it together, and they've adlibbed. But I think once he gets another... One more element that shows up, one more element that comes alive, gives dimension to this passing, because you could tell they thought they were going to come out and run the ball a lot, but they couldn't at a certain point because they fell to a deficit. And then Lamar took matters into his own hands. And again, he's given the autonomy to do that, and he had the space to do that on the field. It's just you need one more dimension here.

Yeah. Let's listen to Mike Tariko on the call for NBC on that long, Isaiah likely, countdown, which got the Ravens back in the game when they were down by a couple of scores in the second half.

The quarter begins with second 17, and the Chiefs leading by 10. Lamar Jackson, chased by Chanel, and Karl-Oftis to Likely downfield. Isiah likely with a block down the sideline. Lankley inside the five to the end zone. Touchdown, Baltimore. Lamar kept it alive and likely finished the run, and the Ravens are right back in.

Yeah, that came when it was 20 to 10, very first play of the fourth quarter. Likely is what a third-year player, and I think anyone that took him in fantasy league and anyone that took Mark Andrews in fantasy league is wondering, who got the one and who got the two? Because when I'm watching this Raven's offense, I'm thinking, Man, they are so reliant on Zee flowers to be big time, and that likely could be the next most dynamic player, and tight ends take a little while to develop. I would caution Mark Andrews, very quiet in this He was on the field a ton. He just missed two entire weeks of practice after a pretty serious car accident. This is a preseason game, except you have to play 60 snaps for a lot of players. Just hold off on making too many takeaways there. But I will point out, we talk 12 personnel. If you are with us on NFL Daily, back in mid-July, one of our very first shows with Nate Tice, where we just totally dorked out. Jordan, you talked about how many more teams are going to use 12 personnel more? Well, I've got some numbers for you from next Gen stats.

The Ravens had two tight ends, one running back on the field in over half their snaps tonight, 52%, which would have led the league by far. I don't know if they're going to do that every game, but I do think we're going to see more heavy sets. It's certainly something the Chiefs like to do, too. They had two tight ends 36% of the time. Noah gray was really big for them. I want to throw it to you to give me more of a Chief's takeaway and lesson because we should give the two-time defending champs their flowers. They got it done. The toughest match of possible in week one at home. I know it's a tough spot for the Ravens, but ultimately, it's a tough spot for the Chiefs, too, to start this way. So a great, great way for them to start their season.

Yeah. And segueing into that, too. I want to give Dave Merritt, the Chief's defensive backs coach, his flowers here because I think a big... You're like, I didn't see that Jersey. He, I think, deserves some flowers here because there's a clear plan to try to get some of these downfield guys, at least try to get them open, get them looks. There was at least some element of that from the Ravens game plan, particularly once they set up some of the play action and those types of things. But you saw pops and flashes from a couple of these chiefs corners, a couple of these DBs. I'm thinking in particular of a play where I thought, I need to go make sure I know and reiterate who the DBs coach of this football team is. Obviously, Steve Spagnola deserves a ton of credit for his gameplay. But specifically with that position after LeGerri Sneed leaves, I'm looking at Jalen Watson, that play he made downfield against, I believe it was Zee flowers. So ironically, I'm saying give Dave Maritz flowers.

Little underthrown there by Lamar. There was two straight throws in this game, and it was a bit of a trend that Lamar had an up and down game throwing the ball down the field. I think missed a few throws down the field. But you're absolutely right. Great closing speed there by Jalen Watson. And it's just like what they do is they uncover these cornerbacks.

There was a second awareness or a second effort by a lot of these players on the Chiefs that comes with experience in playing together as a unit and also coaching in the same continuity for a long time that sometimes in the second half, you were a little bit concerned about, and even at a point in the first half, the second effort push for Pacheco, that breakdown, the rollover. I mean, that's a really hard play to be aware of in the first place. But you just saw some of the Chiefs defenders and the DBs, particularly make some of those second effort plays. And I'm actually sure I would imagine the Ravens are going to be talking about tomorrow morning or Friday morning in the film room about, okay, how do we follow through here? What do we do here? To put a cap on the Ravens here, I was impressed in the first half with that defensive unit. They looked a lot tighter than I thought they would be. But then obviously, it's Patrick Mahomes. What are you going to do? I mean, the guy is rebounding his own batted pass. I thought Tristan Simpson was going to give the Ravens a chance, and he did there.

He gave him a chance. But Patrick Mahomes won a contested catch.

Okay, let's stop you right there. Let's set it up for the listeners of the situation. Very interesting. The Chiefs get the ball back. The Ravens have no timeouts at this point. We'll get to that later because it's one of my big takeaways. But the Chiefs get the ball back. I think it was with over five minutes to go, but they have a first down with about three and a half minutes to go. They run the ball in first down, two yards for Pacheco. Get a little conservative, perhaps. Run it again on second down with Carson Steal. Am I getting his name? Do I have this thing memorized by now? Carson Steal. It was a fun presence in this game, but he had no chance on that play. Roquan Smith breaks into the backfield and gets him for a two-yard loss. Suddenly, you're third and 10. It's one of the reasons why I love Andy Reid. A lot of coaches in that spot would call something safe to keep the clock moving. It's 2 minutes and 40 seconds left. It's third and 10. You're on your own 30. Calls a regular drop-back. Mahomes doesn't see anything, finally sees a receiver flashing over the middle.

Here's what we hear on the call.

He's first down here. Go, go, right. Lock this one up for KC. It's Mahomes under pressure, stepping up, deflecting, and Mahomes caught it. It's just going to be a gain of a yard. Looks like Lamar caught his own deflected pass in the ANC Championship game.

We talk all offseason about these teams and blah, blah, blah, and all the different things. Sometimes games come down to Trenton Simpson, who I thought had a really good game. He's Patrick Queens' replacement. I'm looking forward to rewatching this on Friday. But to me, he flashed and showed a lot of the athleticism in the running game and a couple of times in the passing game. That could have been the game when he play if the ball just bounces a little different and he's able to catch it. But instead, you see a quarterback with a contested catch. He's going to finish with the highest contested catch percentage in the NFL this year. Mahomes should finish one for one. That not only kept the ball with the Chiefs, which was massive, but kept the clock moving to the point where the Ravens only had a minute and 50 seconds left after the Chiefs punt to go down the field, or else, who knows? The Ravens are in great shape there. That was just a fun athletic play by Mahomes in a game where he finishes 20 for 28 for 290 He won one TD, one interception on a truly bad decision, which could have cost them late in the second quarter.

He also has two rushes for three yards, and you think like, Oh, that's a pretty pedestrian game. And yet, he was awesome in this game. You felt like other than that one interception, he had total control, and he had Patrick Mahomes. Are you more optimistic? Do you have any takeaways about this Chief's offense after watching them in this game?

Oh, my God, yes. So many. Because this was a team we talked about all freaking offseason about, Oh, what are they going to do with this new group of with the receiver? And, Oh, what's Pacheco going to... What's his role going to be? And, Oh, is Kelsey washed? And he didn't get a ton of action in this game. He was blocking a lot. And then he had that Adlib play. Speaking of tight ends and quarterbacks, Adlib'ing together, a great Adlib play, one of their classics that they throw out once every couple of weeks or so between Travis, Kelsey, and Patrick Mahomes. But this was Xavier worthy's debut into the public eye. He had two touch downs off his first three touches. And let me hedge for a second or caveat or whatever the correct word is late at night when we're recording this. But one of those was a blown coverage. Marlon Humphrey was looking for help in the back, the deeper part behind him in the field, and fine.

That was on the 35-yard countdown in the second half. That gave them a two-score lead again. That was That's their answer to that likely long touch then that we just talked about.

Yes. Yes. But I think more proof of concept of what the Chief's offense is really going to exploit and try to do this year was evident on the first play, his first touch of the game the touch down. And it was the fake handoff to Pacheco, and it was a reverse to Xavier worthy. He got an escort block from Noah gray, who just signed an extension, by the way. And that speed and navigation through his downfield blocking, which was prodigious at that point, and really started with that tone setting block by Noah gray. It technically was a short yardage play. What a lot of people have talked about with the Chiefs all offseason is the explosive pass, so air yards pass, and explosive pass play, and getting behind the defense, which again, on the blown coverage, he did get behind the defense, quite literally. But what I've been honking about all offseason is I think you're going to see some of this Dolphins-esque combination of speed and timing footwork and quick throws in order to exploit the middle of the field in ways that deep passes actually can exploit the middle of the field, just depending on if your receiver can actually get to the spot of the throw, or in this case, use the speed and the downfield blocking to take what is technically a short concept, this reverse, and turn it into a huge gain, and in this case, a score.

And I want I'm going to go to a statistic that I was monitoring throughout the game, because this is where speed really matters. Sometimes we look at throw time and we're like, Oh, throw time. Oh, my God. All he does is check down. That's actually not the case here. I looked in the third, late in the third quarter because I felt like the way the game was trending, maybe you're going to watch the Chiefs try to close things out in the fourth quarter.

I thought this game was going to end quickly, and the chiefs were going to end it quickly. I know. I have a text- We were texting, and I was wrong about that. It did end quickly, but it was a lot of action.

But okay, so at that point, late in the third, when I checked in, I'm looking at my piles of notes here, by the way. You guys can all laugh at me for what a nerd I am. So in 2023, Patrick Mahomes was throwing... His average time to throw, according to NextGen, was 2.97 seconds. That was above league average, which was 2.8. Through those three quarters of this game, he was at 2.62 seconds per throw on average. However, his yards per attempt was 10.5. And for comparison, Lamar Jackson at that point, was also at that exact moment, was also at 2.62 seconds per throw, but was at five and a half yards per attempt.

So basically- Yeah, they didn't dunked, and they were afraid of their offensive line.

It's a total difference. What they're doing is they're using what the dolphins have shown. That reverse, by the way, looked like a very dolphins-esque play. I'm sure other teams will now borrow it from Andy Reid because That's just how this goes. He got to go first, and now people are going to steal from him. But this is about exploiting the way that defenses drop from back to front or the way they have to backpedal from front to back. Depending on the type of footwork and the type of throw, they see the quarterback making, depending on the cadence, depending on the motions. And if you have speed players the way that the Chiefs now do and the way that the Dolphins do, but the way, especially, the Chiefs now have shown that they do, you can basically make the plays look like they will require either a deeper drop from the defender, or it's the type of footwork that makes you think that they're either going to go or they're going to go quick game. And then all of a sudden, the speed of the player whips them around behind the defender because they've dropped too deep.

You can disguise things when you have speed like that. You can disguise the type of throw and speed throw or not that you're doing. And that's what you could see Patrick Mahomes in the Chief's offense do, because you're seeing them open up the middle of the field, less so maybe even the deepest parts of it, but actually the middle of the field using all of this game-changing speed in combination with some of the ways they're layering their concepts and also some of the misdirection that they're using pre and at snap. And all of those things in tandem are great. But if you have that game Same altering speed like we saw with Xavier, space on the field that would not otherwise be open with the exact same concepts are going to be open, and the player is getting there faster, the quarterback can get the ball out faster.

Mahomes talked about it to Mike Tariko. I thought that was very telling that. And I know you were excited about this because this is something that you were talking about in the offseason, how the speed can open up some of the shorter routes. And that was exactly what Mahomes. So you, Patrick Mahomes, roughly equivalent in terms of football minds. No, no, no. It's telling that he said it. But to your I can point some numbers on that. The only deep throw he had all night was that busted coverage, TD. But it was actually one of the only three TDs that he's thrown over 20 air yards since Tyreek Hill left, which is totally insane. Three in two years in a game, that's insane. But he was 4 for 7 in the intermediate area. He did have that interception there, but they had 94 yards on those seven throws, and a lot of the biggest plays came on that. Noah gray is going to be involved. We'll see about Kelsey. I'm not worried that he had a quiet night. To me, it's cool to see him out there blocking his ass off at 34 as someone that was always a...

Travis Kelsey is not even in the same ballpark of Rob Gronkowski in terms in terms of how dominant a player is. It's been pretty awesome to see how Kelsey has evolved, and it's just a total dog. There will be some games where he's quiet. He only had 34 yards receiving in this game. But you mentioned worthy. We don't even have Marquies Brown in this game. He's injured, and it's probably going to be back in week two or three. It does not sound like it's going to be longer. That was my takeaway, just the Chief's juice is back. Reid's spitting the dial. A lot of funky Fun formations, a lot of creativity. I think worthy is helping that. I think Carson Steal is going to help that. I think Noah gray getting better and better is going to help that. Obviously, Mahomes can handle everything, but worthy is the key to everything. It's not about like, Oh, the bill's He gave up worthy, and what a dope. We'll see. I think worthy is going to have a great year. I said it. I was high on worthy coming into the draft. He was one of my guys I thought was underrated because he just wasn't a speed guy.

But he is also a speed guy, and he can be set up on touch downs where he doesn't have to do that much. Let's hear the first one because that was, to me, his welcome to the NFL, but in a positive way moment, his rushing- His first touch.touchdown early in the game. Take it away, Mike.

He grabbed it the The lane plate there. That gets you the 15. It wasn't inside the opening. This is the speedy man, Xavier Murphy, the fastest man to the end zone right away. His first touch, a Kansas City TD. Oh, man. We needed our auto racing guys here to call this one. Watch him take this turn, 4.21 seconds.

No more worries about whether or not Kansas City has any speed.

Beep, beep. Here he comes.

You can honk about Chris Collinsworth, and you could be, Oh, this guy's too folksy, or whatever.

I love it. Honk, honk. Golly. I'm into it. And by the way, you You don't have to use the word hunk. I saw when you said hunk, you said it with a little smirk or almost distaste on your face as if it's a rule that we pass out when you sign up with NFL Daily that you have to say hunk. You don't have to say hunk.

Must hunk this much to participate. So okay, so- We are two hunkers.

We're going to go deep on this show. Keep going. I'll take it. By the way, great rookie class. I'm trying. 83. I want to talk about. Great rookie class performance. By the Chiefs and Brett Veatch.

I want to talk about that in the highlight. When people go back and watch this game, again, watch number 83, the at Snap motion/movement that he does in order to So he basically moves open that hole with the immediate movement of that motion. And then he flips all the way around and comes back across as almost like an escort blocker, but he already opened the gap. So basically a pre-escort blocker. And then he sets the first part of that gap with his block. So that's this type of stuff that happens in the middle of these plays that Andy Reid is a mastermind of, because it's not just about Xavier worthy. And that was a fantastic moment. By the way, I saw a clip of Patrick Mahomes going into the stands, making sure he got his ball for him. That was his first NFL touch, and it was a countdown. Patrick Mahomes ran all the way down to celebrate, and then also looking around for the official just to make sure that Xavier worthy can keep that for the rest of his life. That's so special. That's a great quarterback, a great leader right there as well to do that.

But that type of mid-play or in-play movement that just changes space just a little bit more in sequence. It's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom doing. That, to me, is what makes this so electric, this Chief's offense. It does not get old to me.

And man, we haven't even talked about Chris Jones yet. It's always different. Kingsley Suamatea is a rookie left tackle out there looking like a solid starting NFL tackle in his very first game. If they found a left tackle in Xavier worthy in this draft, that is how you keep dynasties going by paying the Chris Joneses who had a nice game. First half, he's picking on the Ravens guards. He's picking out matchups that he wants. You have your stars show up, of course, but you're going to need to have some cost control younger players to keep this thing going, like the cornerbacks you mentioned, Jalen Watson, and like these rookies. If Suamateya ends up being upgrade. It's a little early. It's not the toughest pass rush in the world to go against Baltimore, but a really promising start for him. I do think the defensive coaching, though, for the Ravens was a little bit of a concern. They had to take the timeouts early in the second half because they weren't ready. I think there was one in the first half, actually, like that, too. And those timeouts really ended up hurting them. That's a situation where you might want to just let them run the play.

Whatever is your problem on the field, the timeouts are actually worth more. It's like when Sean McVay burns timeouts on offense. It's the same principle. You had the busted coverage. There was some confusion where it just wasn't as tight as the Ravens defense. But I will warn anyone Anyone wanting to overreact here, the Ravens defense tends to start slow and really figure things out as the season goes along. That was even true with Mike McDonald. It wasn't as dramatic, certainly last year, in a year or two, of McDonald. But there's a lot going on, and so they had a lot to deal with tonight. And talent-wise, I think they're going to be fine. I'm not too worried about the Ravens defense.

I want to ask, did you notice how much drama and theater and razzle-dazzle that the younger Hockley put into his calls? Particularly, you could see him almost start to get annoyed by the fact that he was calling so many penalties for that pre-snap alignment for Roni Stanley.

That was crazy. In the very first drive of the game, the Ravens get a countdown, and it was so impressive because they had to overcome three formation penalties where they got on Roni Stanley. This was a priority in the preseason, too, of guys guys lining up off the line of scrimage or not aligned with the guard. It was almost like they told them going into the game, make this a point so everyone watching stops doing it. I saw it in the preseason, too. Yes, I find it very interesting that they put Sean Hockley in this big spot. It's the first game of the season. They know what they're doing. Sean Hockely is the next ref star. Has a lot of buzz, actually, as a really good ref. Maybe better than his dad, some people are saying.

Some people, yeah. Some people close to Sean Hockley are saying. But no, I think that I love a dramatic ref, frankly. As long as the calls are good, I love a dramatic ref. My other subtly favorite non-football moment was Spags running down the field to try to call one of the timeouts. And only a head coach can do that. And I put out a post on Twitter. I was like, Go, Spags. Manifest it, man. Because he's He deserves to get the pop. He was a coach and defensive coordinator, one of the best every year. And really, certainly his unit missing a couple of personnel. I was impressed. Chris Jones is Chris Jones. I mean, I don't really know what else there is to say. I also am curious that- Got a little gas, though, at the end of the game.

I went and looked at the end of the game, though, and he only had three pressures in this game. They were memorable, but it wasn't a crazy, crazy- He forced the fumb, which I thought was a really good play.

And then you're aware of him, knowing this covering Air Donal for so many years. You're just so aware of where he is at all times. You could tell it was affecting even some of the tight-end usage that the Ravens were able to deploy being in 12 personnel so much because of just having to account for him and give some of their own players a little bit more help. I'm curious about... I want to ask the Sports Science Department for the Chiefs. They will never tell me. But I'm curious about how many miles total, Leochanal actually ran today. He was all over the field. He was all over the place. 25 rushes, obviously, he's a blitzer. Then he was the spy sometimes. I mean, obviously, that was tough because Lamar ran for what he did. I mean, it was incredible. But being used as that at times. He had three pressures, batted the ball. It could have been a shutdown, the Lamar pass that he batted. But I really am curious. Man, that dude looked gassed at the end, too. I don't know who wouldn't be that. I'd like to know how many miles he actually ran today.

Week one is such a different game. These guys are really building their bodies up. Week two, I think you can see that as well. But you mentioning Shanaal. Linebacker every year was such a bugaboo, including in the Spagnolo era in Kansas City. They couldn't get it right. They tried free agents, they tried graphics, and they've just hit these last couple of years. Drew Tranquil, I don't know if he was hurt in this game. No, he played a full amount of I'm looking at the next Gen stuff. I'm geeking out a lot of the next gen live stuff that I missed last year. Were you looking?

We have live docs now.

Yeah, we have participation. But him and Chanel are out there every snap, basically, in this game, and they played fantastic. Nick Bolton was out there even more. He was there literally every snap. They had three linebackers on the field, most snaps. Again, cost-controlled guys. Trank will sign a contract there, but it's pretty reasonable. Then you have two guys that are affordable, especially Leochanal. I think nick Bolton is going to get a nice contract in the offseason. I do want to just circle back to Lamar because I know there's going to be a lot of conversation on Lamar in this game. I don't know if he had a It was a great fantasy day, and he made it happen at the end. It was a little up and down in terms of his passing. I mentioned the deep passing. He was one for five, throwing the ball over 20 yards down the field. In most of those, he had chance to make a big play. But other than that, he completed a high percentage of his passes, and they did move the ball. They start the game where he has to overcome his offensive line, and he runs for over 120.

He was sick. But I thought he went out with a purpose to do that. I didn't see these quotes from the Washington Post until the game had started, but I want to read them to you, Jordan. I don't know if you've heard them.

I don't think I've seen. Yeah, I probably have.

They put this game into context. He said, How I'm I'm feeling right now, and this was back in June, actually, when Kent Bab, who was really good, did the interview, said, I wish I was feeling like this bodywise in the AFC Championship game. We would have won the game. I would have been able to move around for my guys with me just hurting and can't move. I know if my legs were good, we would have won that S-word. We wouldn't even have to throw in the ball. F throwing the ball. That's pretty interesting to have that comment, F throwing the ball.

Because Objectively, overall, he is a great thrower of the football, so that's wow.

Although if he has one bugaboo, it is probably the vertical throws. And that he came into this game almost with a mindset of, if the throw is not there, if the play is not there, just run. And he did take a lot of hits in this game. But the whole idea of Lamar lost weight, and Lamar is quicker this year, and the old Lamar runner is back, it's like, yeah, that wasn't just a phony narrative. Whether he can keep that up for 17 weeks, I don't know. But to my eye, he did have more juice today. I Maybe don't take quite... He is usually so great at avoiding big hits, and he took two, I would say 2-3 today that were a little dicey. He was hitting that spin move button, and it was a beautiful thing to watch, but it was a lot on Lamar's plate. It was a little too much. He wanted this game so badly, you could tell. I don't think you want to do that week after week, obviously, and have him carry the ball like 325 times.

Yeah. Like I said before, I thought that the Chief's defense played a good, relatively objective overall a good game against this receiving, specifically the receiving core. Isiah likely obviously found his spots at tight end. But I also maybe push back just a little, although I don't think we're disagreeing at all. I don't think he was always running with just running in mind. A lot of these plays that he made, he was running, looking to throw first and looking for the opportunity at the moment. The All 22, coming out tonight or tomorrow, will reveal a lot more about where receivers were because on your broadcast screen- They were scrambles, though.

It He's in a lot of design runs.

No. There was a lot of pass-release pressure. He's escaping pressure. He's escaping pressure. He found, Isaiah, as a person, I think this was a really great moment for the two of them to understand that in live-action like this, they really can adlib together like that, because it seems like if pressure is like this on a regular basis against this group of linemen, and they're going to need that to happen, similar to how we've seen at times, Patrick Mahomes escape pressure and extend plays with Travis as Kelsey. I mean, this was that moment for me where I was like, oh, these two are going to be great partners for a long time if they keep it up like this. But at the same time, I think that you could see he was He's trying to make sure, okay, especially if the pocket was pushed around the outsides of him, he's like, yeah, that's obviously a lane right there, and I can get 10 yards or 7.6 yards per carry. I can get an easy eight, pick up an easy eight right now. But he was lowering his shoulder into these hits. And he was really trying to, I think, set a tone as a captain, as a leader on this team, that this is the brand of football that they're going to try to play, this physical style of football.

And I think they would have run the ball with pure running backs a little bit more had they not been in a deficit, had they not wanted to try to push the ball a little bit as well.

Yeah. Before we go, just any little nuggets that you have, let's throw them out now.

Oh, let me get my... Let me flip through my... We appreciate it.

We appreciate it. But when you brought up, I'm glad, is that, yeah, Justice Hill had a lot of buzz in Ravens training camp that he was going to be a key part of this team. We actually talked about that on NFL Daily. Sometimes we're on to things. He played more than Derek Henry in this game. He played third downs, primarily. It was very close, the snap count. He only had one carry to Derek Henry, who was 13 for 46, didn't have a ton of room, but he's on the field for all these third downs. Six catches, 52 yards for Justice Hill. Third most amount of targets on the team. Flowers ends up with 10 targets for 37 yards, and I mentioned likely with 12. Mark Andrews is very quiet in this game. But yeah, more Justice Hill in this game than Derrick Henry. Are you at all concerned about the offensive line for the Ravens? I would say that that was probably if I had to choose one thing from either of these teams that would just concern me, and It's week one. I think both these teams are going to be great. But just like this needs to improve as the season goes along or else you're not going to be in the AFC Championship game.

It would be the Ravens offensive line. Pass protection, poor overall. The new guards rotating at right tackle. Then the running game, they need to be great, I think, and they're not great and cohesive yet. I think they have a little ways to go for the Raven's offensive line.

Yeah, it's not like, and again, to bring up Leo Shinal again, it's not like His pressure stats, specifically, are out of this world. He was sent quite a bit. But a couple of times, especially late in the game, you saw, especially coming around that right side, you saw that there was a struggle there, and that just can't happen. And you also saw, again, you saw they had to use tight-end help quite a bit. I think they want to stay in 12 personnel because their tight ends are good players, but they want to use them as weapons in the passing game a little bit quicker at the snap versus having to stay in chip and then roll out, things like that that just take time. They just, in a way, if pressure is getting from the other side, if the guy you want to throw the ball to has to wait a second and chip for you on the other side, That actually helps the pressure on the other side because you're holding the ball. That thing. It just there's a ripple effect. And yeah, long story short, I am concerned about that, but it's one game.

All right, we're going to wrap up with one final play that we to listen to because I don't want it to get lost in the shuffle. This is one of the greatest teams of all time in a run that rivals any team's run over a four-year period. Now they're trying to extend it out for one more season, not just three in a row, but having that Super Bowl appearance, having the Super Bowl a few years before that. It's just incredible what they're doing. It's incredible that tonight, Patrick Mahomes, in only a seventh year, is now the all-time leading passer for the Kansas City Chiefs, and he did it on this throw to Travis Kelsi.

312 deep drop Mahomes runs away to find space, fires on the run to Kelsi to the 30-yard line. A perfect play for Patrick Mahomes to set the Chief's record for most passing yards, passing the legendary Lenny Dawson.

I mean, you got the shot right up to the booth with Taylor Swift. I love love. You have the Ravens defenders crashing into each other like the Keystone Cops as Mahomes runs away from three guys and throws it on a hop. Just what an incredible player.

There's a vintage them.

I never want to take it for granted. It's a big deal that they won this game. If they lost it, we would say It's not that big a deal. And yet, they're trying to get home field advantage in the playoffs. They have an easy division. They have an easy schedule. They have probably the easiest schedule of any of the truly elite Super Bowl contenders coming into the year. And they just won one of the toughest games and have the tiebreaker over the Raven. So the way last season ended is the way this one started. Jordan, it feels different for me how this season is starting. So that's familiar, but I'm so excited that you here for this first show. Obviously, you're going to be a big part of the show on Wednesdays all year, and hopefully, we'll do some more TNF recap. This was fun. Let us know, by the way, everyone in the comments, and certainly everyone listening, if We like doing it live, and we'll try to do that more often. Thanks, Jordan.

I was terrified to do this live, but I had a blast. It reminds me of when I'm covering a game and thinking through everything and talking about my notes and looking at my charts and flipping through a billion pages, and I actually got to talk to someone else and not just to myself inside my own head. So thanks, Greg.

It was a pleasure. I will be throwing it to Cynthia Freeland on our audio version. But for all of the video folks watching, we really appreciate you joining us on this NFL Daily. That wraps it up. And if it's not obvious, by now, football is back. See you next time.