Owings Mills, M.D. - Moving on to Sunday night's showdown, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson lowered his winless record against Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Jackson is 0-3 against Mahomes - losing to him in each of the last three seasons - while leading 30-5 (.857) against the rest of the NFL. According to ESPN Stats and Information Research, this is the fifth instance in the past 25 years of an NFL MVP quarterback losing his first three in contrast to another MVP quarterback.
"It's not about me and Mahomes," Jackson said after Wednesday's practice. "Not for me, maybe for everyone else. But it's the Ravens v. Kansas City Chiefs."
Mahomes won the NFL MVP in 2018, and Jackson became the league's second unanimous pick in 2019 after that. The only quarterbacks to lose their first four starts against another MVP quarterback were Peyton Manning and Matt Ryan. Both did this against Tom Brady.
NFL MVPs with at least three such starts are tied with Jackson Ryan for the worst win percentage in quarterback head-to-head matchups. Ryan, who is 0-5 against Brady, will face the seven-time Super Bowl winner when the Atlanta Falcons visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
In a 34-20 loss to the Chiefs last season, Jackson threw a career-worst 97 yards. Later, he called Kansas City "our kryptonite."
"They beat us three times or whatever, but that's in the past," Jackson said Wednesday. "I'm not obsessing over those losses. We're coming in on Sunday night and we're going to play."
In three games against the Chiefs, Jackson has completed 52.6% of his throws, passing an average of 170.3 yards per game. He has thrown for three touchdowns without a hitch for a rating of 78.8.
In 35 games against the rest of the NFL, Jackson has added 65.3% of his passes, averaging 192 yards per game. He has recorded 65 touchdown passes and 18 interceptions for a rating of 104.97.
Baltimore Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey admitted that the Chiefs had the Ravens' numbers lately.
Humphrey said, "The way you go about changing it is addressing it how it is: looking at it head-on and go into the game and just try to beat them." "This is a great opportunity for us to go out on Sunday night and show that we are on the field with them."