Baltimore silences chatty Jets, 10-9
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Jets were shut down and shut up.
Not exactly the way the NFL's big-talking reality TV stars wanted to start their season.
"We're obviously not going to go undefeated this year," coach Rex Ryan said, "but our goals remain the same."
All that Super Bowl chatter? The Baltimore Ravens certainly had something to say about it, grabbing the spotlight Monday night with a hard-knockin' 10-9 victory.
"We didn't have the 'Hard Knocks' show," Ravens running back Ray Rice said. "HBO is not going to win the Super Bowl."
Neither is sloppy play, an inept offense and an inability by Ryan's big, bad defense to stop the Ravens on third down.
"We're a better team than this," cornerback Darrelle Revis insisted.
Well, the Jets need to get better in a hurry. They have a short week to prepare for the rival New England Patriots, who looked as though they don't intend to give up their hold on the AFC East anytime soon with a 38-24 victory over Cincinnati on Sunday.
"It's a disappointment for us as a team," Revis said. "We wanted to win this game to be 1-0 going into the Patriots game feeling good. Right now, we just have to go back to the drawing board."
The Jets were called for a whopping 14 penalties, costing them 125 yards, had just 176 yards of total offense and made only six first downs, tying a franchise low set in 1976. They were 1 for 11 on third downs, not converting their first until 57 seconds were left in the game.
Mark Sanchez also was held to just 74 yards passing, the second-lowest total of his young career.
While the Jets opened their new $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium with plenty of hype and hope, the Ravens rocked them with enough big plays — they were 11 for 19 on third down — to silence them for a week.
"Anytime you challenge a warrior, a warrior is always going to respond," Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said.
Baltimore also served notice that it might also be for real in the AFC, winning a tough road game in a meeting that was predictably filled with chippiness.
"We felt pretty confident with the game plan we had and the way we prepared," said Anquan Boldin, one of the Ravens' new wide receivers. "It felt like we could come in and get a victory."
Willis McGahee squeaked into the end zone from 1 yard out with 6 seconds left in the first half to give the Ravens a 7-6 lead. Billy Cundiff's 25-yard field goal midway through the third quarter made it 10-6, and with the way the Jets' offense was going, that was all the Ravens needed.
Nick Folk, the Jets' new kicker, accounted for all of New York's scoring and made it a one-point game early in the fourth quarter. But that was all the Jets could muster.
"We weren't at our best today," Ryan said, "but that's a credit to the Ravens."
Chiefs 21, Chargers 14
At Kansas City, Mo., Jamaal Charles' 56-yard touchdown run and Dexter McCluster's team-record 94-yard punt return gave Kansas City a two-touchdown lead and the Chiefs held San Diego on four downs inside the 6-yard line in the final minute for a 21-14 victory Monday night.
Playing most of the game in a pounding rain, the Chiefs turned it into the confidence-building coming-out party they had been hoping for since the schedule came out in April. By beating the four-time defending AFC West champions, they proclaimed an end to a three-year period that was one of the darkest in team history.
Philip Rivers thoroughly outplayed Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel and drove the Chargers to a first-and-goal from the 4. But a pass was incomplete, Darren Sproles lost 2 yards and another pass sailed high. Then with 39 seconds left, Rivers missed again.
