Sports
Jones: Ravens strayed from their identity against Chiefs, and paid the price
BALTIMORE — Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs put their championship-caliber mettle on display once again Sunday, knocking off the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the AFC title game.
Reid, Patrick Mahomes and company are headed for their fourth Super Bowl in six seasons not because they boasted a prolific offensive attack or breathtaking fireworks display. No, they punched their ticket to Las Vegas because Reid and his staff won their chess match with John Harbaugh and his Ravens assistants and positioned their squad to pull off the grittiest victory of this budding dynasty’s history.
The Chiefs, long known for lighting up scoreboards with dizzying and dazzling heroics from Mahomes, didn’t even score in Sunday’s second half. Instead, they drew heavily on experience and also leaned on the most dominant defense Kansas City has fielded in the last six seasons. That defense delivered a performance that largely neutralized presumed NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and one of the league’s most imposing offensive attacks of the 2023 season.
But as a whole, the Ravens found themselves on the losing end after succumbing to pressure early and failing to overcome crippling mistakes late.
Well aware of how the Ravens are constructed and how they like to attack offensively (with a strong run game that ensures balance and paves the way for an improved passing attack), the Chiefs understood the importance of a fast start. They brought the pressure early to force Baltimore into a quick three-and-out and then delivered as impressive an offensive display as they have all postseason: a 10-play, 86-yard scoring drive, capped by a 19-yard Mahomes pass to Travis Kelce. With that, the Chiefs extended their streak of game-opening touchdown drives to eight straight playoff contests.
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The Ravens did respond with a touchdown of their own — a highlight-worthy Jackson escape and 30-yard strike to Zay Flowers. But the Chiefs came right back with a methodical 16-play, 75-yard drive that gobbled up 9:02 of clock.
Mahomes couldn’t miss, completing 11 straight passes to start the game. Kelce was as unguardable as ever. And that Chiefs defense that this season morphed from serviceable to dominant kept the pressure coming and delivered a strip-sack and recovery at the Baltimore 33-yard line.
And just like that, the Ravens found themselves on high alert.
Punt, touchdown, fumble was not the desired tone setter for Baltimore early in the first half. The Ravens’ defense had yielded game-opening touchdown drives only twice in its last 26 games, and until Kelce’s touchdown catch, Baltimore’s second-year star safety Kyle Hamilton had never surrendered a touchdown to a tight end as a pro.
The scoreboard may have read 14-7, but as Baltimore found itself in unfamiliar territory, the deficit felt far larger. And that’s when the Ravens committed their mortal sin.
Overwhelmed by the ease with which the Chiefs had scored, they went into panic mode. On defense, they momentarily lost their poise while committing life-giving personal fouls. And offensively, they got suckered into believing they had slipped into a far larger hole than they were actually in. As a result, they abandoned their bread-and-butter and tried to adapt a style of play for which they are not built.
After dominating on the ground all season long, the Ravens opted for a pass-heavy attack far too early.
For the rest of the second quarter, the Ravens ran the ball just twice (once on an off-schedule play by Jackson). For the remainder of the game, they ran the ball only seven more times. The league’s leading rushing team — a unit that averaged 156.5 rushing yards per game while boasting the most balanced offense in the NFL — turned one-dimensional and finished with only 81 ground yards, never regaining control in a very winnable game.
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The Ravens trailed only 17-7 at halftime. Yet they came out in the second half with the same frantic feel and approach as if they trailed by a heftier margin. They kept gunning even though their defense was keeping them in the game and the Chiefs off the scoreboard.
“It was just that kind of a game, I’d say,” Harbaugh said of the season-low 16 rushing attempts. “That’s just how it played out.”
The absence of a run game meant Baltimore’s offense never regained the rhythm that carried it so often this season. And the lack of balance eased pressure on the Chiefs’ defense because it allowed Kansas City’s pass-rushers to pin back their ears and come after Jackson. Meanwhile, when the quarterback wasn’t getting hit, a familiar problem — a lack of consistency in the receiving department — cropped up for the Ravens.
Again and again, Jackson dropped back to throw, but struggled to find an open receiver. Aside from Flowers, who finished the game with five catches on eight targets for 115 yards and a touchdown, Baltimore’s receivers struggled greatly to get any separation. Running back Justice Hill was the second-leading receiver with four catches, and not until the fourth quarter did Odell Beckham Jr. manage to get involved (three catches for 22 yards).
“We could’ve ran the ball,” Jackson said. “But we were just down and just trying to get the ball downfield. You’ve got to make something happen.”
Zay Flowers had a touchdown catch Sunday but also a costly fumble. (Geoff Burke / USA Today)
Even while one-dimensional, the Ravens did have a chance. To open the fourth quarter, they reached the shadow of the Kansas City goal line on a five-play, 78-yard drive highlighted by a 54-yard throw to Flowers. But that possession painfully ended with a fumble as Kansas City’s L’Jarius Sneed punched the ball from Flowers’ grasp as the receiver dove for the end zone after an 8-yard catch.
And on the next possession, after reaching the Kansas City 25, Jackson threw an interception into triple coverage while trying to connect with tight end Isaiah Likely.
A Justin Tucker 43-yard field goal with 2:38 left cut the deficit to a touchdown, but the Ravens came no closer.
The Chiefs didn’t score in the second half, but they didn’t really have to. They did just enough offensively to spell their dominant defense and run precious minutes off the clock: five minutes here, two minutes there, another four there. By game’s end, they had won the time of possession battle 37:30 to 22:30.
The defeat represents a lost opportunity for the Ravens, even though the game never felt as close as the score might indicate. Jackson and his teammates lamented that they managed just one touchdown, and they’ll spend the offseason replaying costly miscues. It’s impossible to avoid wondering if a more patient approach would have better benefitted the Ravens while helping them find a better offensive flow throughout the game.
“You would like to use the saying of ‘I would love to have this back or have this play back,’ but you can’t get those plays back,” right tackle Morgan Moses said. “You have to learn from them and move forward. And you know, it’s not over. Anytime you have a quarterback like Lamar, you have the opportunity to play in games like this again.”
This one will sting for a while, however, especially because of how it ended.
The 2023 season was a year of change and growth in Baltimore, and perhaps the Ravens can build on that. But Sunday, as they aimed for their ultimate goal, they strayed from their identity when pressure reached its highest point and never recovered.
(Top photo: Rob Carr / Getty Images)
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LAS VEGAS – Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio were once brothers in arms in the Judgment Day. The two helped the faction run “Monday Night Raw” for several years.
As championships and opportunities came and went, the rift between Balor and Mysterio grew. It came to a head when Balor caused Mysterio to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Penta. Balor leaving the Judgment Day left Mysterio and Liv Morgan as the leaders with JD McDonagh, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez sticking around.
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The latter four chose to ride with Mysterio and attacked Balor on one episode of Raw.
The bitter war led to a match Sunday night at WrestleMania 42. To make matters more interesting, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made the match a street fight hours before the show was set to begin.
Balor had vowed to bring the “Demon” out and he certainly did.
JACOB FATU PUTS DREW MCINTYRE IN THE ‘REAR VIEW’ IN UNSANCTIONED MATCH AT WRESTLEMANIA 42
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Balor made his way to the ring in his “Demon” gear, dripping with red and black paint. Mysterio was in a mask with other Mysterio supporters.
The two then proceeded to beat the crud out of each other.
Mysterio wrapped Balor’s head in between a chair and hit a 619 on him. He tried to pin Balor, but to no avail. At another point, Mysterio tossed Balor through a table set up in the corner.
As many have learned, it’s hard to keep your demons down. Mysterio learned the hard way.
Balor would not give up. Balor clotheslined Mysterio, hit him with a chair multiple times before wrapping his head in between the chair and drop-kicking him into the corner. Balor put Mysterio onto a table and hit the Coup de Grâce for the win.
Dominik Mysterio is introduced before his match against Finn Balor during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Balor excised his own demons, while Mysterio is still haunted.
DENVER — What do you know? The once-stampeding Dodgers have been caged by the Colorado Rockies.
With a 9-6 loss Sunday at Coors Field, the two-time defending World Series champions lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Dodgers again couldn’t hold a lead, letting the Rockies tee off for 15 hits.
Nor could the Dodgers keep up offensively at the hitter-friendly park — though they put some pressure on in the ninth inning, when Shohei Ohtani led off with a ground-rule double and the Dodgers scored twice to cut the lead to three runs. Then the new guy, Ryan Ward, made the final out in his big league debut, robbed of a hit and a chance to keep chipping away by a diving Troy Johnston in right field.
Before that, the Rockies — who beat the Dodgers twice in 13 meetings all of last season — chased starter Roki Sasaki from the game in the fifth inning and then ruffled the Dodgers’ relievers. That included closer Edwin Díaz, who came on in the eighth and promptly gave up three singles, a walk and two runs before being pulled with the Dodgers trailing 8-4.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki gave up three runs on seven hits in 4-2/3 innings Sunday against the Rockies in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
He and Blake Treinen combined to face eight batters without getting an out.
“They both weren’t sharp,” said manager Dave Roberts, who had theories but not many answers — though he did have real concern, especially about Díaz, who recently had his right knee checked out by the medical staff.
Roberts said the closer wanted to pitch after nine days off, even though it wasn’t a save situation. But his velocity was slightly down (95.4 mph vs. 95.8) and so, “today was a tough evaluation,” the manager said.
“It really was,” Roberts said. “Because, you know, I know what it’s supposed to look like, and when it doesn’t look like that, it gets a little concerning, really.”
And losing for the second time to the Rockies, who are now 9-13? Being in danger of losing their four-game series, after arriving in Denver without having lost to a National League opponent, against a club that hasn’t made the postseason since 2018?
It’s well below the bar the Dodgers have set, and it added a bitter note to Ward’s otherwise sweet debut.
Ward punched a big league clock for the first time wearing No. 67 and cranked his first hit off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning, lining a changeup to right field for a single that scored Andy Pages, made it 3-0 and got the 20-some members of Ward’s party up, jumping in place, hugging and high-fiving.
“When I was on first base, I got to see them all jumping around up there,” Ward said. “That was a pretty special moment.”
He also singled in the sixth and swung on the first pitch in his first at-bat, a fly out in the third inning.
The Dodgers gave Sasaki a 2-0 lead in the third. Alex Freeland drove in Hyeseong Kim, and Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland — and extended his career-best on-base streak to 51 games, moving past Willie Keeler into third place in Dodgers history.
Sasaki went 4-2/3 innings, threw 78 pitches and gave up three runs on seven hits, striking out two and walking two. His ERA after his fourth start: 6.11, worst in the six-man rotation.
The Dodgers fell behind 6-5 in the seventh when Treinen — who was cleared Friday after he was struck in the head by a batted ball during batting practice — gave up four consecutive hits, including a two-run home run by Mickey Moniak.
The result likely will be a minor detail when Ward tells the story years from now about getting the call after first baseman Freddie Freeman was placed on the paternity list.
The Dodgers’ No. 19 prospect and reigning Pacific Coast League MVP spent the last seven years in the minors. Last season, he hit 36 home runs and drove in 122 runs with a .937 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for triple-A Oklahoma City, and he has a 1.020 OPS and four homers this year.
Ward made it a point to improve his chase rate, draw more walks and get on base more frequently, everything the Dodgers asked of him. He also passed the broadest patience test.
“The plate discipline, being a better hitter … he’s done all that,” Roberts said. “He’s improved his defense. But honestly, for me, just not to let his lack of opportunity in the big leagues deter him. That’s easy when you get frustrated and let it affect performance, and he hasn’t done that.”
If anything, Ward said, the waiting made him better.
“I used it to keep going. ‘OK, if I’m not there yet, what do I have to do to get there?’” he said. “‘What part of my game do I need to work on to keep getting better?’
“I used it as fire to keep working.”
That will be the Dodgers’ assignment too.
In the finale of the four-game series Monday, the Dodgers are expected to start left-hander Justin Wrobleski (2-0, 2.12) against Colorado left-hander Jose Quintana (0-1, 5.63).
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LAS VEGAS – Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.
While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.
The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”
Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.
WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”
Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.
“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”
Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.
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