That was so Raven …

There hasn’t been this big of an egg laid in Baltimore since … the last time the Ravens played a nationally anticipated game on national TV and they soiled the bed in their January playoff humiliation to the Tennessee Titans.

Monday night’s 34-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, in a contest that was billed as a match-up between the NFL’s top two teams, fell a team short of realizing that lofty billing, as the defending Super Bowl champs beat the Ravens far worse than the score might indicate.

The Chiefs, in fact, destroyed the Ravens in every conceivable fashion, beginning with time of possession. The Baltimore offense could not keep the Baltimore defense off the field. Not that it would have mattered as it turned out, but as Earl Weaver always said, “Everything affects everything.”

The game turned on the very first series, as the Ravens, they of the most loaded running game in the league, marched directly down the field behind (what else?) the running game, advancing deep into Kansas City territory. However, on a second-down play, the Ravens decided to go cutie pie and passed, which failed; which set up the necessity of another pass on third down – which also failed – which set up a Justin Tucker 26-yard field goal to conclude a scoring drive that had “Touchdown Required” written all over it.

From there it was all Kansas City as the unicorn Patrick Mahomes needed less than three minutes to put his team in front, 6-3. And if Chiefs kicker Harrison Butler hadn’t had such a dreadful night, beginning with a missed extra point on the first touchdown, the score truly would have been worse than 34-20.

From there, Kansas City was off to the races (it’s Preakness Week; see what I did there?), never looking back, as every Ravens shortcoming was exposed, just as they were in last September’s regular-season loss to the Chiefs and in the last two first-round home playoff losses to San Diego and to Tennessee.

The Ravens do two things very well – run the football on offense and stop the run on defense. They have no passing game to speak of because quarterback Lamar Jackson doesn’t/can’t throw outside the numbers and defenses, as the Chiefs’ did Monday night, take away the middle routes. Then when Jackson does make the good throw, it seems that tight end Mark Andrews or the team’s lone deep threat Marquise Brown are sure to make the big drop, as they did on Monday, and as they had previously done in the playoff loss to the Titans.

Defensively, despite the expensive additions of defensive ends Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe, neither do the Ravens have an edge pass rush. (The Ravens were close to acquiring Jadeveon Clowney in a sign and trade just prior to the season, but were blocked by the league.) The only way they are able to pressure the quarterback is to constantly blitz, which, as we saw Monday night, doesn’t work out too well against a quarterback like Mahomes. But then, what does work well against Patrick Mahomes?

Offensively, the Ravens seem to get away from their powerful running game too quickly in big games, which makes no sense. They should be taking the mindset of a high school wing-T offense and run the football first, first, first regardless if they are down early or not because they have four extremely talented running backs in rotation and their offensive line is built to run-block and not pass block.

Yet too often they get away from the running game early, perhaps feeling by doing so they are freeing up more opportunities to run. But a team cannot do that if it does not have an effective and reliable passing game, which the Ravens do not have.

Matter of fact, the only way the Ravens were even able to make a bit of a game of it in the second half was by going back to the running game.

Yes, it was only Week 3, but it will be worth following what kind of effect this catastrophe will have on the Ravens – another highly anticipated game at home with a chance to show the nation they’re all that and a pack of baseball cards, only to create the perception that they’re merely the stale stick of bubble gum coated in that white powdery stuff.

Not only that, the Chiefs are so deep into the Ravens’ collective head it’s not funny. The Ravens were out-prepared, out-smarted, out-played and out-coached on Monday night, kind of the way Michigan always is when they play Ohio State (that isn’t very nice).

Yet, just as Michigan usually has the Outback Bowl or the Alamo Bowl to fall back on after losing to the Buckeyes, the Ravens, after belching their wine while sitting at the grown-ups table, must now prepare for a trip to beautiful Landover on Sunday for the Maryland state championship game with Football Team. The series stands at 3-3, with Football Team having won the last two.

Keep your eyes peeled for the virtual pep rallies.

And play the Preakness.

Hail!

Mike Burke has been writing and covering sports since 1981. Write to him at [email protected], or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBurkeMDT and listen to him, Matt Gilmore and Lydia Savramis on their “You Don’t Know Jack” podcast. Follow “You Don’t Know Jack” on Facebook as well.