Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens game: Live updates and Taylor Swift in the audience

Eyes are on Kansas City in primetime tonight as the Chiefs and Ravens face off — with Taylor Swift back at Arrowhead to watch.

The Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs are playing at Arrowhead Stadium in the 2024 NFL season opener. The Chiefs look to defend their back-to-back Super Bowl titles the last two seasons.
The game is airing on NBC and streaming on Peacock. (TODAY and Peacock share a parent company, NBCUniversal.)
The Ravens and Chiefs last faced off in the AFC Championship last NFL season. Chiefs took the win, 17-10.
Taylor Swift is in the audience! Considering her attendance at Chiefs games last season to support her beau Travis Kelce, that’s no surprise.
Wait, isn’t Taylor Swift on tour?! Which Chiefs games could she attend this season?! Swift is indeed busy touring this fall but has a break until she picks back up in Miami on Oct. 18. So there are plenty of games she could attend between now and then.

Why kickoffs look different this NFL season
Scott Stump

Get ready to add the term “landing zone” to your football vocabulary.

Teams have been acclimating during the preseason to what the NFL calls the new “dynamic kickoff” rule as they try to figure out what works best.

An area known as the landing zone has been created, which is between the receiving team’s goal line and its 20-yard line. Here are some of the new rules surrounding it.

If the ball is kicked short of the landing zone or out of bounds, it will automatically be placed on the receiving team’s 40-yard line.
Any kick that hits the landing zone and then bounces into the end zone must either be returned or downed, so teams can’t just let the ball bounce into the end zone and get an automatic touchback if it hits the landing zone first. If the return team downs the ball in the end zone, it goes to the 20-yard line.

If a kicker booms one out of the back of the end zone on the fly, the return team gets the ball at the 30-yard line. Under previous rules it had been placed at the 25-yard line, so it’s penalizing kicking teams another five yards if they kick the ball out of the end zone.
Teams can only attempt onside kicks in the fourth quarter, and they have to declare they are doing it to the officials, which takes away the surprise element.

Chiefs respond with their own touchdown moments later

Shortly after the Ravens put a score on the board, the Chiefs responded with their own touchdown. Mahomes passed to wide receiver Xavier Worthy, who ran the ball into the end zone.

Ravens score first touchdown of the season

The Baltimore Ravens’ Derrick Henry scored the first touchdown and extra point of the season, putting the score at 7-0.