The Baltimore Ravens earned the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs with a 13-4 record, the NFL’s best during the 2023 regular season. When Baltimore opened the postseason by beating the Houston Texans 34-10, the victory was the Ravens’ ninth by at least 14 points over a team that finished the season with a winning record, the most in NFL history.

But Baltimore’s season ended on Sunday with a 17-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.

A former Daphne High School and Samford standout, Ravens nose tackle Michael Pierce lamented Baltimore’s performance one win short of Super Bowl LVIII.

“I’m just kind of in shock really,” Pierce said. “If we had played our best game, I think I would feel a little better. But at the end of the day, you prepare each and every offseason to win the Super Bowl, put yourself in position and to get in these type of positions, so falling short, it hurts when you have those kind of games where we just didn’t play our best game and didn’t give ourselves a good chance.”

Pierce made two tackles, shared a sack and recorded a tackle for loss on Sunday to end his seventh NFL season.

Baltimore trailed 17-7 at halftime, and even though the Chiefs gained only 98 yards in the second half, the Ravens couldn’t catch up and lost by a 17-10 score for the third time this season.

“This is just on the team,” Pierce said. “As a defense, we had way too many penalties – personal fouls, all that kind of stuff – so it’s a team failure. It’s not on (quarterback) Lamar (Jackson) or the offense or anyone. It’s everybody. That’s how we came in – as a family. That’s how we’re going to go out – as a family. I didn’t play my best game today. Everybody has their own role in this loss. You analyze it, use it, internalize it and start all the way over.”

Baltimore had eight penalties for 95 yards on Sunday.

The problem started on Kansas City’s opening possession, when a defensive-holding penalty on an incompletion immediately preceded quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Travis Kelce for the game’s first points.

Harrison Butker made a field goal for the Chiefs with four seconds left in the first half after Baltimore incurred unnecessary-roughness and roughing-the-passer penalties on the series.

In the fourth quarter, the Ravens’ defense was flagged for roughing the passer, too many men on the field and unnecessary roughness. The latter two penalties came as Kansas City’s offense ran the final 2:34 off the clock.

After having at least one turnover in eight consecutive games, the Chiefs didn’t lose any on Sunday. Baltimore had three turnovers across its previous four games but lost three – two fumbles and one interception – in the AFC Championship Game. One of the Ravens’ fumbles came inches from a touchdown, and the interception came in the end zone.

“Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce – they have great players,” Pierce said. “You scheme yourself, you try to put yourself in position to stop those guys. We got it done, just way too late. Credit to them: They played a great game, especially early. …

“They’re a great offense, obviously – prior Super Bowl champs. But at the end of the day, if we played that game nine times out of 10, I’m pretty sure we’d have less penalties and play a lot better. We just didn’t have our best game today for whatever reason.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.