Ravens Predicted to Fall to Chiefs

The Baltimore Ravens don't seem to be a popular pick in their season-opener.

Jan 28, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill (23) chases Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) in the AFC Championship football game at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

It's rare that the first game on the schedule is the biggest one, but one could reasonably make a case that the Baltimore Ravens' season-opener against the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday is just that.

Of course, the Ravens are looking for "revenge" after a 17-10 loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, even if they beat themselves throughout that game. Emotions will surely be high against the team that ended their dream season, but if the Ravens want to walk out of Kansas City with a win, they'll need to remain calm and cool.

The question is, can Baltimore pull off the upset? According to many pundits, the answer to that question is no.

The Ravens' site put together predictions from 46 pundits across seven different outlets, and only nine of those pundits predicted a Baltimore win.

Starting off with local news, the Baltimore Sun is the most-optimistic of all outlets surveyed with three of five analysts (Childs Walker, C.J. Doon and Bennett Conlin) predicting the Ravens to win.

“Normal rules of quality go out the window with a Thursday night opener," Walker wrote. "Just look at last season, when the Chiefs dragged their feet through a home loss to the Detroit Lions. The Ravens will be hyped to face their nemesis and seem unlikely to keep their Derrick Henry-powered running game in the holster this time around. Patrick Mahomes, meanwhile, will start without a full set of targets. The Ravens will pull the upset in a battle that won’t tell us much about what might happen if these teams meet again in January.”

On the other hand, all six analysts from The Baltimore Banner picked the Chiefs to defend their home turf.

"This could be a night of rude introductions: Congratulations, Zach Orr. For your first regular-season game as Ravens defensive coordinator, you have to stop Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes," the Banner's Jonas Shaffer writes. "And congratulations, Andrew Vorhees, Daniel Faalele and maybe Roger Rosengarten. For your first career start — either in the NFL or, in Faalele’s case, at a new position — you have to stop Chris Jones, George Karlaftis and Steve Spagnuolo’s migraine-inducing pressure packages.”

As for the national media, predictions were overwhelmingly in Kansas City's favor. Only one pundit from ESPN (Kimberly A. Martin), two from NFL Network (Adam Rank and Marcas Grant), two from CBS Sports (John Breech and Dave Richard) and one for Sports Illustrated (Iain MacMillan) picked Baltimore. Essentially all of the predictions have the game decided by one score, but as the Ravens know, close isn't good enough.

Regardless of what the predictions say, we'll see what really happens when the game kicks off at 8:20 p.m. ET.

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