Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce provided enough offense, and their defensive teammates slowed down Lamar Jackson enough as the Kansas City Chiefs knocked off the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game at M&T Bank Stadium.

The Chiefs, the reigning NFL champions, will make their fourth Super Bowl appearance in the last five seasons after Sunday’s win.

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker said that the attention being paid to his pregame interaction with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce is silly, dismissing it as “gamesmanship” and the product of an “intense” environment before the AFC Championship Game.

Cameras caught Tucker having words with both Mahomes and Kelce during warmups, the exchange culminating with Kelce tossing Tucker’s helmet aside.

“The way it works is each team’s kicker goes to the other team’s designated warmup area on the field. For me, it’s usually 90 minutes before kickoff. I’ve been doing the exact same thing for 12 years, never really had a problem with anybody,” Tucker said Monday as he and his teammates cleaned out their lockers a day after a season-ending 17-10 loss to the Chiefs. “That’s just kind of the way we’ve always done it and the way kickers around the league have always done it. I saw Patrick there trying to warm up and get some dropbacks.

“He asked me while I was on the ground stretching, if I could move my helmet. So I happily got up and I moved my helmet out of the way. At least, I think it was enough out of the way. And then Travis comes over and just kicks my stuff and he throws my helmet. I just thought it was all some gamesmanship, all in good fun. But it seemed to be taken a little more seriously.”

Tucker said he was fine letting the incident go, but he seemed miffed at the perception that he was trying to interrupt the Chiefs’ pregame workout

“It’s not like I’m out there trying to be problematic,” he said. “I’m just trying to get ready for the football game just like they are. And that’s all I’ve got to really say about that.”

Tucker said he doesn’t remember an opponent taking umbrage with his pregame routine before.

“At the end of the day, we’re all professionals just trying to get ready for the football game,” Tucker said. “Those are two of the best players that have ever played the game at their respective positions. They’re just trying to get ready for the football game. It’s really whatever to me, man. I’m just trying to get ready for the football game.”

(Photo: USA Today)

BALTIMORE — While they stood and sang, he sat in silence. While the music thumped and the cigar smoke filled the air and his teammates danced amid the delirium of a fourth trip to the Super Bowl in five years, Patrick Mahomes retreated to a plastic chair in the corner of the visitor’s locker room at M&T Bank Stadium and exhaled.

The elation was there, sure, but at this moment, the best football player on the planet wore a look of utter relief. For five minutes, he stared at his phone with a grin on his face.

Even after the midseason slog and all those drops by his receivers, after he spent weeks biting his tongue in front of the microphones only to finally erupt on the sideline, after his Pro Bowl tight end started showing his age and the pundits started to wonder if the champs still had the mettle to make another playoff run — this one would have to come on the road — one truth remains inevitable: this is still Patrick Mahomes’ league.

He’s Michael Jordan in his prime, the roadblock so many of his peers can’t find their way around when it matters most. Jordan spent the 1990s crushing the title hopes of his counterparts — Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone — worthy Hall of Famers in their own right. That’s what Mahomes is doing right now, leaving the likes of Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson asking themselves when their time is going to come. And if this guy’s ever going to get out of the way.

“It’s hard to describe someone that good,” Kansas City general manager Brett Veach said Sunday night, an hour after the Chiefs gutted out a 17-10 win over the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, their fourth conference title in Mahomes’ six seasons as a starter. “He’s a legend. He’s a blessing.”

BALTIMORE — Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs put their championship-caliber mettle on display once again Sunday, knocking off the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the AFC title game.

Reid, Patrick Mahomes and company are headed for their fourth Super Bowl in six seasons not because they boasted a prolific offensive attack or breathtaking fireworks display. No, they punched their ticket to Las Vegas because Reid and his staff won their chess match with John Harbaugh and his Ravens assistants and positioned their squad to pull off the grittiest victory of this budding dynasty’s history.

The Chiefs, long known for lighting up scoreboards with dizzying and dazzling heroics from Mahomes, didn’t even score in Sunday’s second half. Instead, they drew heavily on experience and also leaned on the most dominant defense Kansas City has fielded in the last six seasons. That defense delivered a performance that largely neutralized presumed NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and one of the league’s most imposing offensive attacks of the 2023 season.

But as a whole, the Ravens found themselves on the losing end after succumbing to pressure early and failing to overcome crippling mistakes late.