Ravens’ long list of mistakes get best of them in AFC Championship loss to Chiefs

BALTIMORE — The karmic gods of taunting exacted revenge on Zay Flowers at the worst possible time.

About one minute after finishing off a 54-yard catch by drawing a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for standing over L’Jarius Sneed to talk trash and throwing the ball at him, Flowers was on the verge of redemption as he dove head-first toward the goal line.

A fourth-quarter touchdown would’ve given the Ravens a chance to overcome a 10-point deficit Sunday in the AFC Championship game.

And then Sneed punched the ball loose, Trent McDuffie recovered the fumble in the end zone and those missing six or seven points loomed large in a 17-10 loss to the Chiefs.

“I thought I [scored], honestly,” Flowers said, “but I’ll learn from my mistakes.”

It will be a costly lesson. But not one that Flowers should be alone in learning.

After his team advanced to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years, Chiefs defensive star Chris Jones still called the Ravens “the best team in the NFL.” So, why didn’t the best win?

The Ravens committed eight penalties for 95 yards, including five that gave first downs to the Chiefs and two that essentially gift-wrapped three points at the end of the first half.

An unnecessary roughness on Kyle Van Noy and a roughing the passer on Travis Jones accounted for 30 yards on a 55-play drive ending in a 52-yard field goal.

An offensive holding penalty took the Ravens out of field goal range in the third quarter.

And the defense made another big mistake late in the fourth, lining up with too many players on the field when trying to use Baltimore’s final two timeouts and the two-minute warning to get one more possession.

“As a defense, we had way too many penalties, personal fouls, all that stuff,” nose tackle Michael Pierce said. “If we play that game nine times out of 10, I’m pretty sure we’d have less penalties and play a lot better. We just didn’t have our best game today for whatever reason.”

But Flowers’ fumble will be the lasting image of an opportunity-so-close that was squandered no matter how many teammates tried to share in the blame.

“Those are my brothers,” Flowers said of the support he received. “They are going to ride with me no matter what.”

John Harbaugh didn’t blame the rookie for a rookie mistake.

“We coach two hands when you reach for the end zone,” Harbaugh said. “He had two hands on the ball.” 

For a team used to leading — the Ravens trailed for only 9.7 percent of the time in their first 17 meaningful games of the season — it seemed that playing from behind was a source of fluster.

Actually, maybe the mind games started before the game, when the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce were messing with kicker Justin Tucker’s field-goal operation in warm-ups.

“You can talk to me all you want,” linebacker Patrick Queen said. “So, if you want to do that, we can rumble, we can tumble. Bring it. But the game is still the game. That’s our type of game, actually. That’s what we do.”

The Ravens lost at their type of game.