History Not on Ravens' Side in Season Opener

The NFL schedule makers blessed the Baltimore Ravens with a chance at revenge right away, as they'll open the season on "Sunday Night Football" against the Buffalo Bills in a rematch of last season's Divisional Round thriller.

If they want that revenge, though, they'll have to overcome some major historical trends.

In addition to the playoff rematch narrative, this game also features last season's MVP in Bills quarterback Josh Allen and MVP runner-up in Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Allen narrowly beat out Jackson for the award by a 383-362 voting margin, despite the latter earning first-team All-Pro honors. In the process, he denied the Ravens' superstar his second-straight MVP and third overall.

As NFL.com's Grant Gordon pointed out, this is the fourth-time that the MVP and MVP runner-up have faced off in Week 1, and in all three prior cases, the former came out on top. The latest occasion came in 2001, when Marshall Faulk and the St. Louis Rams defeated Donovan McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles 20-17.

Granted, Allen and Jackson are the first pair of quarterbacks to face off in this very specific scenario, but it's still not a great omen.

For another bad omen, the last seven Week 1 playoff rematches featured the same team winning again. This includes two games last season, where the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Ravens in an AFC Championship Game rematch and the Detroit Lions defeated the Los Angeles Rams in an NFC Wild Card Round rematch.

There are some trends that work in the Ravens' favor. For example, they're an impressive 12-5 in Week 1 under head coach John Harbaugh, so they usually don't have a problem starting fast even if last season was an exception. However, those two aforementioned trends will be tough to overcome.

How much weight one puts into these trends depends on the individual, but it's undoubtedly interesting to analyze.