Those darn zebras

 Now that was a finish. 

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson running around out there in Kansas City ... last crumbs of the clock disappearing fast ... the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Chiefs hanging on by their fingernails to a W that had looked bank-vault safe not all that long before ...

And now Jackson stops and whirls the ball toward the end zone.

And Isaiah Lively goes up and catches it with a Chiefs linebacker draped across his back like Burberry overcoat, as time expires.

The official signals touchdown, which makes the score 27-26, Chiefs. The Ravens are already lining up to go for two and the dramatic comeback win. And then ...

And then, the touchdown is reviewed.

And it's waved off because Lively's big toe, and not much else (if even that), was out of bounds at the back of the end zone.

Chiefs 27, Ravens 20. Game of inches. All that.

It was a grand curtain raise to open the NFL season, and it showed us a couple of things: It's going to take a hell of an effort to keep the Chiefs' hands off the three-peat, and if someone does it's as likely to be the Ravens as anyone.

The two teams that played for the AFC title in January are even better now, the Chiefs maybe exponentially so. They've added speed to an offense that needed it in wideout Xavier Worthy, a crimson blur who scored one touchdown on an end-around and another on a pass from Patrick Mahomes, who was as magical as ever.

Completed 20-of-28 passes for 291 yards and a score. Even completed a pass to himself when one of his throws was batted back toward him and he out-jumped two Ravens to grab the rebound.

And speaking of the Ravens ...

They're better, too. Jackson threw for 267 yards and ran 16 times for 122 more. And he'll be able to that a lot more because the Ravens now have Derrick Henry in the backfield with him, the NFL's most load-y load and a guy who'll run right through you if you get distracted too much by Lamar.

Mr. Inside and Mr. All-Side. That's what opponents have to deal with now when they play the Ravens.

They're gonna be fun to watch this fall, and so will the Chiefs, who always are. Unfortunately, because this is the NFL, you're gonna have to watch the game officials, too.

As night follows day, the zebras were a big part of the proceedings again, because what would an NFL game be without people hollering "That wasn't holding!" and throwing stuff at their 86-inch TV screens? The Ravens disputed the overturned TD, of course, but the zebras also seemed inordinately concerned about the Ravens' offensive formations, which were deemed illegal on more than one occasion.

I'm not gonna say the zebras were wrong, mind you. I'm just saying the Chiefs were flagged six times for 45 yards and the Ravens seven times for 64 yards, with the usual number of big plays being called back. No one can defend a first-down completion/run better than Stripes.

So there was that. But there was also this: Even if it came down to an official's call, it was still a hell of a show.

Onward to tonight, and to the next 65 weeks or whatever it is.