The Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills are two of the better teams in the NFL. The two consistently jockey for AFC supremacy on a year-to-year basis. Look no further than last year's AFC Divisional round playoff game.
That 27-25 heartbreaker didn’t just knock Baltimore out of the postseason — it launched months of frustration. From Mark Andrews’ two-point conversion drop to uncertainty around his employment in Baltimore to Lamar Jackson’s MVP snub, the Ravens walked out of Buffalo in January with more baggage than answers. So yeah, Week 1 has been circled since the minute the schedule dropped.
It’s a Sunday Night Football rematch, and it comes with revenge, redemption, and every other primetime storyline baked in. But for all the noise around Week 1, there’s a more important matchup coming just three weeks later — and it might be the one Ravens fans need to pay closer attention to.
Week 4 at Arrowhead might be Baltimore’s real litmus test
While everyone is focused on Josh Allen and the Bills, Ravens insider Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic said the quiet part out loud when naming Baltimore’s real must-watch game: Week 4 in Kansas City.
“The Ravens matchup with the Bills will generate the most hype, but the Chiefs are the standard in the AFC — and that will remain the case until the Ravens, Bills or some other AFC team knocks them off in the postseason. Baltimore won’t be able to make a strong statement in late September. Yet, beating the Chiefs on their home field would certainly improve the Ravens’ confidence if they have to return to Arrowhead for a postseason matchup,” Zrebiec wrote.
The last time these two AFC titans met, it ended in controversy. Isaiah Likely’s would-be game-tying touchdown was overturned in the final seconds, erasing what could’ve been a defining moment for Baltimore. They were literal inches away from exorcising Lamar's perceived demons, and starting off the season hot. Funny enough, their Week 1 loss last year was a rematch of the AFC Championship game the year before where they also lost in Kansas City 17-10.
There’s no sugarcoating it — the narrative around Lamar is he can’t win the biggest games. He has every reason to believe this season is the one where that changes. The chance to rewrite the story starts with Allen in Buffalo in Week 1, but the volume only turns up in Week 4 at Arrowhead.
That game won’t crown a new AFC king. But it will reveal if the Ravens can finally go toe-to-toe with the NFL’s final boss without flinching. For Lamar, it’s a lot bigger than just another game. He has struggled against the Chiefs. It's the perfect chance to prove he can do it. For the defense, a chance to show they’re still elite. And for the fans, it’s the kind of early-season clash that could say more about Baltimore’s ceiling than any playoff rematch.
So while Week 1 is loaded with revenge, retribution, and redemption, Week 4 might just be the game that matters more.