Chiefs: Ravens and Bengals Desperation Levels

Laddie Morse

The Kansas City Chiefs play the Cincinnati Bengals in Arrowhead Stadium this Sunday at 3:25 PM CDT. These same Chiefs squeaked by with a win — by a toe — to the Baltimore Ravens last Thursday evening in Arrowhead Stadium as well. With K.C. playing the Bengals next, the question that keeps coming up for me is: are the Bengals more desperate than the Ravens?

The Bengals are 0-and-1 and coming off a loss in Paycor Stadium to the New England Patriots, a Home game no less. When K.C. played the Ravens, they were facing an 0-and-1 start and trying to dust off the memories of an AFC title game, in Baltimore.

Players create desperation and Ravens LB Roquan Smith said this last week before the two teams faced off (0:59):

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Much of the desperation is played out in players heads leading up to a game. It looks like Roquan Smith was trying to make some thing happen that didn’t happen… or, couldn’t happen. What he may have accomplished in the process is bringing the wrath of the Chiefs players down on his own head.

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While Chiefs fans enjoyed what Kelce did, that doesn’t speak to the desperation that the Ravens players may or may not have felt going into the game. By game’s end, Zay Flowers had to feel worse than he did when L’Jarius Sneed punched the ball out of his hands just before he crossed the goal line in the AFC Championship game. Why? Because his QB over threw him — or Flowers over ran the ball — when he was wide open in the end zone. If he had scored on that play, the Ravens would have had a chance to win the game with a two-point conversion, which it looks like they were going to take (0:06).

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I have long thought that the Chiefs were in the heads of the Ravens players, especially after their AFC Championship win back in January. It’s clear that Bengals players were trying to get into the heads of the Chiefs players last year when they kept repeatedly saying, “Burrow-head” before facing them on the last day of December in 2023. The Chiefs won that game 25-to-17 to put a sock in it.

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So, which one… do the Bengals players, or the Ravens players, have the desperate feeling more than the other? Although the Ravens may have the desperate feeling more than ever right now, especially since they just lost their first game of the season to the Chiefs, the question is… did the Ravens player have that desperate feeling more before the game, than the Bengals have it now?

One question we must answer before going further is: why is this question important?

The answer may not be clear to everyone, but to me, the answer is related to the willingness to put everything on the line. IOW, will the Bengals be willing to go all out to put everything on the line to beat K.C.?

Merriam-Webster says that desperation can lead to rash behavior... and that’s exactly what I’m talking about here. If the Bengals come in with as much, or more, despair than the Ravens came in with, the talent of the Chiefs may not matter. Desperation can do funny things and in this case, it may end up in a loss for our boys in red and gold.

Still, I’m not convinced the Bengals will have more desperation that the Ravens did (0:02).

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As Bengals WR said after the team’s loss to the Patriots, “I lost, I don’t like losing.” The question is, how much does he not like losing? Here’s the Bengals schdule the rest of 2024:

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If the Bengals are looking at the month ahead, their schedule is much easier than the Ravens. The Bengals play the Commanders, the Panthers, the Ravens, and the Giants. The Ravens play the Raiders, the Cowboys, the Bills and the Bengals. Looking too far ahead can make players soft. That’s the only way the Chiefs may be getting off lightly against the Bengals.

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There are two reasons I bring up the Ravens when it’s Bengals Week: one, the Chiefs just played the Ravens, and two, the Bengals are in thier same division. The Ravens fans are not taking the loss well. At all. EbonyBird.com — the Ravens FanSided site — has an article called: “3 Ravens to blame for another agonizing loss to Chiefs in Week 1” in which they blame:

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You have to be crazy to blame your 2X MVP QB. Lamar Jackson accounted for 395 yards in that game and almost singlehandedly won it for the Ravens. I may not like the way he plays quarterback, but really? I feel the same way about their OC, Todd Monken. I’m like, why?

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I guess I’m landing with the Ravens as being more desperate. They had the whole offseason to think about the loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. They may be even more desperate now that they’ve lost… again… but that’s just days after the game.

What do you think?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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