Last week in Buffalo, as the Kansas City chiefs thawed out in the visitors’ locker room, minds turned to Maryland.

It’s said that, among Andy Reid’s players, conversation switched from the Bills to Baltimore and, in particular, the weather: Patrick Mahomes and Co wanted to know if they were in for another Sunday freeze.

As it turned out, they were met by rain and dark skies but M&T Bank Stadium was ablaze – a storm of noise and emotion. At one point during this pulsing AFC Championship Game, a call went out over the speaker system: a fire had been reported and an evacuation was ordered.

That didn’t stop this game and, unfortunately for the Ravens, nothing could halt the march of these Chiefs. This is a special team and the defending Super Bowl champions have now survived both the cold and the cauldron.

They have come to the boil at the perfect time and they need not worry about catching a chill on the next leg of this journey. They are headed for the desert in Las Vegas and a fourth Super Bowl in five years.

For the Ravens, their wait for a shot at football’s biggest prize will head into a 12th year. By the end, many of the fans and much the life had drained out of this place.

Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson had predicted a ‘heavyweight’ tussle with Patrick Mahomes: the MVP in waiting and the finest quarterback of the last half decade going ‘toe-to-toe’. It proved a fascinating battle and the slippery Jackson produced flashes of magic. The only problem? Unlike in boxing, football has no rules against strangling your opponent. And for long periods on Sunday, the Ravens starved: they had possession for nearly 15 minutes less than Kansas City. And when they did, the Chiefs defense did not yield.

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With the ball, Mahomes was masterful – particularly early on. He controlled this game while, on the sidelines, Jackson grew increasingly irate. The Ravens defense eventually battened down the hatches but, by then, the Chiefs’ lead was 10 and that proved enough. Travis Kelce was outstanding – he made NFL history with 11 receptions and the opening touchdown.

Forget the circus that now follows the tight end around the country, Kelce remains a headline attraction on his own. Time and again he was free to dig Mahomes out of a hole. Jackson, meanwhile, has now lost four of his five meetings with the Chiefs quarterback. His wait for a first Super Bowl goes on. Being named MVP will be scant consolation after a season that promised so much.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh was asked earlier this week if he had a message to the 71,000 supporters who had secured their spot at the Ravens’ first AFC Championship Game here since 1971.

By Thursday, the cheapest seat cost $764; one supporter splashed out $73,000 on a pair. Michael Phelps was among the crowd. So was Taylor Swift and the Kelce clan. And yet the coach’s rallying cry, Harbaugh insisted, was not too different from what he would tell his players: get some rest and have a good pre-match meal. Well, no one could accuse Ravens supporter of forgetting to fuel up.

On Sunday morning, flags flying from the windows of cars around downtown Baltimore had begun to fray in the wind and the rain. But still supporters poured on to the lanes and into the lots around M&T Bank Stadium. They sheltered under marquees and beneath the overpass. They lit Cuban cigars before midday.

The atmosphere had begun to bubble long before navy seals dropped out of the skies and Jackson emerged through the smoke to chants of ‘M-V-P’. All because Baltimore believed this was the day he would prove wrong those who wrote off this quarterback and this city.

The Ravens had already exorcised some demons from 2019, when Jackson was named MVP and Baltimore secured the No 1 seed, only to fall in the divisional round. They had already dominated both the 49ers and Lions.

But this was a different challenge: against a team blessed with the suffocating swagger of inevitability and a coach who has known the Harbaughs for four decades. Winning these games has become routine in Kansas City.

Not much fazes Mahomes, Kelce and Co. But Justin Tucker did manage to ruffle features in the warm-ups: the kicker’s attempt to practice near the visitors prompted Kelce to chuck his helmet and Mahomes to kick away his stand.

Those two then teamed up again, during an ominous first drive that saw Mahomes marshal his team down the field and finished with Kelce in the end zone. This place was stunned into silence and, with nearly half of the first quarter gone, Jackson had been afforded only three snaps. It turns out he didn’t need many more to re-light the blue touch paper.

After the Chiefs forced another immediate fourth down in Baltimore territory, the quarterback took matters into his own hands. He spotted a hole and rushed for 21 yards. Two plays later, Jackson free himself from the clutches of Leo Chanal and then dropped a 30-yard touchdown pass into the path of Zay Flowers.

The issue for Baltimore was giving Jackson enough time to weave his magic. With 10 minutes to go in the first half, the Ravens had managed just nine attacking plays in less than four and half minutes. The Chiefs, by contrast, had enjoyed 26 snaps in nearly 15 minutes. By then, the visitors were ahead once more thanks to Isiah Pacheco’s score – after Kelce had kept the drive alive with crucial diving catch. So much for this Ravens defense swarming Mahomes.

Instead it was Jackson who was swallowed up for the game’s first turnover: Charles Omenihu got to the quarterback and forced a fumble deep in Baltimore territory. Not once but twice, however, Jackson flirted with catastrophe but escaped unharmed.

First, his fumble went unpunished after Pacheco was stopped short on fourth down. And then, on the Ravens’ next drive, Jackson’s pass was deflected into the air and caught by… Jackson. It was one way to make a first down.

It was just rather unfortunate that, too often in the first half, the quarterback failed to find his wideouts: at the half, he was Baltimore’s second leading receiver with 13 yards and Baltimore was fortunate to be only 10 points down. It took until the final minute of the third quarter before the home team threatened to eat into that lead.

After a period of attrition and stalemate, Jackson found Flowers with a 54-yard bomb. Incredibly, though, the drive came to nothing. First, Flowers was penalized for taunting. That cost Baltimore 15 yards. Moments later, with Flowers destined to score, L’Jarius Sneed forced a fumble at the one-yard line. It was an outstanding play.

The next time Baltimore had the ball in the endzone, Deon Bush was there to pick it. With less than three minutes to go, Tucker’s 43-yard field goal brought the Ravens to within a score. But penalties continued to cost Harbaugh’s team. Since 2013, the Ravens are the only NFL team not to have overturned a half-time deficit of 10-plus points. In truth, that run rarely looked like ending here. Unlike the Chiefs’ relentless march to glory.