With speed and resilience, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson took revenge on the postseason and silenced those who doubted he could win when it mattered most.
In the Ravens’ 20-13 triumph in Tennessee, Jackson won the first playoff game of his career and reciprocated last year’s loss to the Titans.
The current NFL MVP changed the game with a 48-yard touchdown at the end of the second quarter, the second longest post-season touchdown by a quarterback, and recovered from an early interception to record the greatest return on his career. Jackson recovered the Ravens from a 10-0 deficit after being 0-6 in his career when he lost by double digits.
“It feels great,” Jackson told Lisa Salters of ESPN. “I’m glad we did that.”
The Ravens now have to wait for the Sunday night game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns to see where they are going for the AFC divisional round. If the Steelers win, Baltimore will face Kansas City Chiefs, the Super Bowl champions. If the Browns win, the Ravens will visit the Buffalo Bills in second place.
Jackson’s postseason failures were the main plot of this game. He scored 0-2 in the playoffs after a 28-12 loss to the Titans last year, when Baltimore was the AFC seed and a 10-point favorite.
So Jackson and the Ravens were left behind 10-0 in the first quarter after a bad move on the field resulted in an interception, creating a field basket from the Titans. Unlike last season – when the initial errors snowballed – Jackson recovered by hitting 16 from 21 to 178 yards the rest of the way.
“We remained focused. We were not affected. My coaches were not affected,” Jackson told Salters. “I played a stupid interception – sorry – an idiot. But we kept fighting and made it happen.”
With 136 running yards, Jackson became the second quarterback in the Super Bowl era to total 100 running yards and score a touchdown in a playoff game, joining Colin Kaepernick.
Jackson produced one of the most memorable beginnings of an NFL career. He was the youngest quarterback to win the NFL MVP last season. He became the fastest defender to win 30 games in NFL history when he landed a playoff spot at the end of the season (his 37th game).
Now he finally got a victory in the postseason.