ExtremeRavens Posted September 1 Posted September 1 Six weeks before Derrick Henry signed the two-year, $16 million deal that brought him to the Ravens, the All-Pro running back watched the AFC championship game with undertones of envy. His Tennessee Titans had finished 6-11 and missed the playoffs for the second straight season. Henry couldn’t help but muse. “Hell yeah, I wished I could suit up that day watching that game,” he said, of the Ravens’ 17-10 loss to the Chiefs in January. “But now it’s my turn. I gotta take advantage of it. It’s gonna be a hell of a game.” Baltimore opens its season at 8:20 p.m. Thursday at Arrowhead Stadium in a rematch of that long-discussed AFC championship game. The NFL announced the matchup May 13. Facing the team that ended their Super Bowl hopes one game shy of a title shot, each Raven compartmentalizes the Week 1 rematch differently. Around the locker room Sunday was a smorgasbord of coachspeak, motivation and downright emotional detachment from seeing the Chiefs again. “To me, you have to remember it’s the first game,” coach John Harbaugh said. “But it’s not the only game.” The notion of the NFL using two of the game’s elite quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes, as its headliners in anticipatory graphics for the league’s season opener gave Jackson pause. Even if only for a moment, the look that washed across the two-time MVP’s face was one of naivety: “It’s the start of the season,” he said plainly. “So we gotta make a great impression for the first game.” Jackson spent so much of last season talking about his “singular goal.” The Chiefs were the ones standing in the way of a chance at delivering on his draft night promise. The way Jackson views opening night is the Chiefs — who are chasing the NFL’s first three-peat — are once again standing in the way. Even if it’s a bit further from the big one he promised. Thus, Jackson — who threw for 272 yards and a touchdown with one interception in the AFC championship game — did his best to sidestep any questions about the obvious pageantry beyond just the start of a new season. “I really don’t pay no mind, I just want to play football,” Jackson said. And later, along the same vein, “Any game I play in, I feel like it’s a revenge game so I’m not gonna look at this game like a revenge game.” His counterpart Mahomes told Kansas City reporters on Sunday, “I don’t think last year is too much in your mind. You’re so focused on trying to get better and we’re playing the best of the best Week 1. We’re gonna see where we’re at.” Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith said of Thursday’s season-opening rematch with the Chiefs, “Obviously the guys that were here last year are gonna carry that into the season.” (Kim Hairston/Staff) Roquan Smith doesn’t totally agree. The linebacker who embodies the longstanding fiery reputation of the Ravens’ defense doesn’t plan to completely forget the loss. “Obviously the guys that were here last year are gonna carry that into the season,” Smith said. “Putting that in your back pocket and using that as motivation on top of the motivation that’s already there.” Safety Kyle Hamilton added: “We’re all just excited. We’ve been talking about it all offseason that last year didn’t end how we wanted it to, but it gives us perspective on what we need to do to get back to what we did last year and win that game.” The wide receiver room shares in those sentiments. Going back to watch that loss is obviously a part of the football prep. Compartmentalizing the plays they’d like to have back — like wide receiver Zay Flowers’ fourth-quarter fumble at the goal line — only adds fuel. Nelson Agholor is narrowly thinking about two ways to approach Thursday’s game. Both of which are positive, the veteran receiver said. There’s the side of detachment and poise that can ready a player the way it would any other outing. Or they can carry a nearly-eight-month-old hunger into Arrowhead. “Both are gonna help you out,” Agholor said. “At the end of the day, you just gotta attack it.” Henry doesn’t have much emotional attachment to the loss considering he watched it from his couch at home. “At the end of the day, it’s just football,” he said, comparing “Thursday Night Football” to the sport he started playing at 5 years old. “But the atmosphere,” Henry said, “and it being the first game. At night. Them coming off a Super Bowl. It being at home at Arrowhead, which you know the environment is gonna be loud. It’s gonna be hostile. That’s what you want.” View the full article Quote
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