Mike Preston: Ravens at Chiefs to kick off the 2024 NFL season? Bring it on.

BALTIMORE — As far as Baltimore fans are concerned, the NFL couldn’t have picked a better opener to the 2024 season than having the Ravens travel to Kansas City to play the Chiefs on Sept. 5.

Maybe someone will come up with a name like the “Revenge or Avenge Bowl” as the bitter feeling still lingers in town from the 17-10 AFC championship game loss to two-time defending Super Bowl champs on Jan. 28.

Fans still talk about it like the game was yesterday. They want to know why running backs Gus Edwards and Justice Hill ran the ball a combined six times for 23 yards, or why quarterback Lamar Jackson preferred to throw 37 passes instead of using open running lanes.

They want to know why offensive coordinator Todd Monken abandoned the running game and how coach John Harbaugh allowed it to happen.

Unless truth serum is discovered and administered, we’ll never get all the answers. But at least they can give fans some satisfaction as soon as possible: Just beat Kansas City in the season opener.

True, it’s only one game, and it’s not where you start but rather where you finish. But in Baltimore, at least the fans now have something to look forward to after four months of anger.

Regardless of what any coach says, the opener is always a big deal. It’s the culmination of a never-ending offseason of trades, additions and subtractions from free agency and the draft, weight lifting, minicamps, training camps and so on, all played out in one week.

If your team wins, the entire organization exhales. If they lose, it’s like carrying around a serious case of indigestion for another week.

Plus, this is Kansas City. The Chiefs have one of the loudest stadiums in the league, complete with old throwback music and some of the country’s best barbecue. They even have the best dancing mascot in the league in K.C. Wolf.

They could become the first team to three-peat, something that wasn’t accomplished by the Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers (twice), San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos or New England Patriots, who all won two titles in a row at one point in the league’s long history.

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