Kansas City Chiefs 34-20 Baltimore Ravens: Pat Mahomes comes out on top in Lamar Jackson clash

Patrick Mahomes passed for 385 yards and four touchdowns, rushing for another score, as he got the better of Lamar Jackson in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 34-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football.

In the battle of the 2018 and 2019 league MVPs, both leading undefeated teams, Mahomes was comfortably the victor, completing 31 of 42 of his passes to go with his impressive yards and TD tallies. Jackson was limited to a career-low of 97 yards through the air.

• Chiefs stats: Patrick Mahomes, 31/42, 385 yards, 4 TDs
• Rushing leader: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, 20 carries, 64 yards
• Receiving leader: Travis Kelce, six catches, 87 yards

The Ravens had just 228 yards of total offense after averaging 394 yards and 35.5 points over their first two games. The Chiefs, meanwhile, put up a massive 517 total yards. That being said, the Ravens briefly threatened a second-half comeback when pulling to within one score of Kansas City at 27-20 in the fourth quarter.

• Ravens stats: Lamar Jackson, 15/28, 97 yards, 1 TD
• Rushing leader: Lamar Jackson, nine carries, 83 yards
• Receiving leader: J.K Dobbins, four catches, 38 yards

Baltimore trailed by 17 at half-time after Mahomes lit it up with three second-quarter TDs – to Anthony Sherman, Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman – but got back into the game on a Justin Tucker field goal and a five-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to Nick Boyle on the first play of the fourth.

At that point, the Chiefs were stuttering on offence, with their last three drives having seen Harrison Butker miss a 42-yard field goal try to end the first half, Darwin Thompson fumble the football on their opening series of the second half, and then turn the ball over on downs on their next possession.

But, the defending Super Bowl champions’ swagger soon returned and in response to the Ravens making it a one-score game, Mahomes marched his team 75 yards down the field on a 13-play drive that ended with a two-yard touchdown pass to offensive tackle Eric Fisher to all but end the game.

The Ravens reached the Kansas City 13-yard line on their next series but Ben Niemann and Frank Clark sacked Jackson on back-to-back plays to back Baltimore up 16 yards and Jackson’s subsequent throw on fourth-and-24 fell incomplete.

Chris Jones also stood out on the defensive side of the football for Kansas City, recording four sacks and two forced fumbles on the day.

Earlier, Tucker had kicked a 26-yard field goal on Baltimore’s opening possession to see the home team briefly into the lead, only for Kansas City to swiftly answer with a six-play 75-yard drive capped off with a three-yard Mahomes touchdown run.

Jackson himself had 83 rushing yards on nine carries for the Ravens, who also scored on a 93-yard kick-off return for a touchdown by Devin Duvernay to make it 13-10 in the second quarter.

But that’s when the game began to get away from the Ravens, with Mahomes connecting on 20-yard and 49-yard TD tosses to Hill and Hardman to see them into half-time with a handy lead.

Baltimore showed some fight after the break, but they now drop to 1-2 on the season following the defeat – and Jackson to 0-3 versus Kansas City (he is 21-3 versus all other teams) – while the Chiefs stay undefeated at 3-0.

Sky Sports NFL will be your dedicated channel for NFL coverage through the season – featuring a host of NFL Network programming, a new weekly preview show as well as at least five games a week and NFL Redzone, you won’t miss a moment.

Don’t forget to follow us on skysports.com/nfl, our Twitter account @SkySportsNFL & Sky Sports – on the go!

(c) Sky Sports 2020: Kansas City Chiefs 34-20 Baltimore Ravens: Pat Mahomes comes out on top in Lamar Jackson clash