September 18, 2021
By Fred Liggett
NFL fans have come to know the NBC Sunday Night Football opening very well in recent years as popular singer Carrie Underwood tells us she has “Been waiting all day for Sunday night.” Chiefs fans will hear this song a lot throughout the 2021 season thanks to the team’s three appearances on the most popular show in America. The first appearance is this week as the Chiefs also play their first prime time game of the new season by visiting the Baltimore Ravens.
The Chiefs and Ravens know each other well having just played in primetime last season at the same venue, M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Chiefs fans will recall the team storming out to an early lead and coasting to a 34-20 road win. When they take the field the Chiefs will find familiar faces as former Chiefs Justin Houston and Sammy Watkins are now starters for the Ravens. Another former Chief, Marcus Peters, is also a Raven but has been placed on injured reserve. For Ravens fans it’s a chance to welcome back Orlando Brown who was traded during the off season to the Chiefs for a number of draft picks.
The Chiefs are hitting the road with a dose of momentum after opening the season with a come from behind 33-29 victory over Cleveland. Later in the week the NFL named Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes as the AFC Offensive Player of the Week. When the Chiefs hit the practice field on Wednesday to prepare for this week’s game the team happily announced the return of starting Safety Tyrann Mathieu. The Chiefs also expect to see DE Frank Clark return to game action though as of this time unsure just how much.
The host Ravens the story of 2021 has not started off too well. The team suffered a pair of season ending injuries to two starters then saw in their opener last week at Las Vegas Left Guard Tyre Phillips leave with an injury that has now landed him on injured reserve. The Ravens were thought of as a team to threaten the Chiefs standing at the top of the AFC but these injury woes have put the Ravens back on their heels just one week into the season. Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh and starting QB Lamar Jackson are veterans to the NFL game but even they know starting off at 0-1 and now being shorthanded at home against the Chiefs is not a good situation.
When the schedule came out many NFL followers could see this being a loss for the Chiefs but timing has a lot to do with success and the Chiefs will find some more this week in Baltimore. The Chiefs are 4-0 under Head Coach Andy Reid against the Ravens and the team is on a franchise record streak of 11 straight road wins. Expect to see under the bright lights of primetime television a healthy group of Chiefs to keep those streaks alive with a road win against the Ravens. In the end it will have been worth it for Chiefs fans to wait all day for this Sunday Night. That’s What I REID Into It for this week.
