Beating the Ravens means KC Chiefs are AFC’s best team

After a 14-point victory over the Ravens, the KC Chiefs have solidified themselves as the best team in the AFC three weeks into the season.

The NFL is a marathon, not a sprint, but so far, the Kansas City Chiefs are far and away the best team in the AFC. They proved just that by knocking off the Ravens, who were the team a lot of people had pegged as the best team in the conference prior to this week’s slate of games.

Heading into the Week 3 match-up pitting the Chiefs against the Ravens, both teams were 2-0 and playing for the right to be crowned as the kings of the AFC, even just three weeks into the season. With only one bye week in the playoffs this year, it was entirely possible that whoever won this game would be the recipient of that bye week (though the Chiefs beat Baltimore last year and ended up as the two seed).

After a lackluster performance against the Chargers, people slept on the Chiefs and didn’t give them much of a chance in Monday’s game, and we saw how that went. The Chiefs stormed into Baltimore and really could have left M&T Bank Stadium with a 38-13 victory were it not for a special teams touchdown by the Ravens and four points off the board by Harrison Butker. Instead, they settled for a 34-20 victory against a team many labeled as the best team in the league.

There’s still a lot of football left to be played and that’s what the KC Chiefs need to remember.

As of now, yes the Chiefs are the best team in the AFC, but being the best team three weeks in gets you nothing in the end. Kansas City has the talent to run it back this year and we saw that on both sides of the ball against the Ravens.

Offensively, there’s no quarterback better than Patrick Mahomes and he has plenty of weapons to spread the ball around including Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Sammy Watkins, Mecole Hardman, and rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire. And even with all of those weapons, Anthony Sherman and Eric Fisher caught two of Mahomes’ four touchdown passes in Baltimore. Because of course they did!

Defensively, the secondary continues to step it up despite injuries depleting the cornerback position. Bashaud Breeland has one game left on his suspension, but rookie L’Jarius Sneed had been playing great prior to his collarbone injury.

Even the Chiefs linebackers stepped it up this past week after getting a lot of heat for their lack of tackling against the Chargers. Anthony Hitchens and Damien Wilson might not be the linebackers of the future for this team, but they both played very well against a run-heavy Ravens team.

Beating the Ravens is a big accomplishment, but the Kansas City Chiefs can’t read too much into their headlines. Yes, they’re the best team in the conference and maybe even the league, but we’re not even a month into the season yet. They have to keep proving that every week.