Ravens rally past Titans; Saints oust Bears
Jackson gets first playoff victory as Henry is limited to just 40 yards
NASHVILLE, TENN. » Lamar Jackson finally has his first postseason victory — and on the road, no less.
Combine that with Baltimore smothering 2,000yard rusher Derrick Henry, and the Ravens look playoff tough.
Jackson ran for 136 yards and a 48-yard touchdown while throwing for 179 more as the Ravens rallied from 10 points down and beat the Tennessee Titans 20-13 Sunday in their AFC wildcard game.
Baltimore also held Tennessee to its fewest points all season.
The Titans ( 11- 6) had the ball and a chance to tie when Marcus Peters intercepted Ryan Tannehill’s pass intended for Kalif Raymond with 1:50 left. After the turnover, the Ravens came onto the field and started waving good- bye to the Titans — drawing a taunting penalty they didn’t mind at all.
“We finished finally,” Jackson said. “We finally finished.”
Tannehill thought Raymond was bumped by Peters.
“It definitely looked like it could’ve been a flag and probably should’ve been, but it wasn’t thrown so here we are,” Tannehill said.
The Ravens ( 12- 5) snapped a string of 21 straight games lost by the franchise in either the regular season or playoffs when trailing by 10 or more. They will play either top-seeded Kansas City or Buffalo in a divisional game set up by how Baltimore stopped
Henry for the first time in three games.
The All-pro ran all over the Ravens with 328 yards rushing combined in the past two meetings. With both Calais Campbell and Brandon Williams back on the Baltimore D-line, Henry had his worst performance this season with 18 carries for 40 yards.
“Our defense was tired of hearing the noise,” Jackson said. “And they did what they were supposed to do.”
Henry credited the Ravens with being the better team.
“This definitely is going to sting probably in my mind for the rest of this year until we suit back up,” said Henry, who missed two key plays following an 8-yard carry early in the fourth quarter after losing
a shoe.
Baltimore also slowed a Tennessee offense that tied for fourth averaging 30.7 points a game and had more offensive yards per game during the season than any team but Kansas City. The Ravens finished with a 401-209 yards edge in total offense.
The Titans lost their first home playoff game in 12 years and now have had three of their past eight postseasons ended on their own field by Baltimore.
“We won the division, hosted a home playoff game,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “Wasn’t good enough today. Our guys competed and battled and came up short.”
Tennessee sacked Jackson five times and got an interception. But the Ti
tans couldn’t slow Jackson enough after halftime. Jackson turned in the sixth 100-yard rushing game by a quarterback in the postseason, and joined Colin Kaepernick with two.
The Titans took a 10- 0 lead with Tannehill tossing a 10-yard TD pass to Pro Bowl wide receiver A. J. Brown. Stephen Gostkowski kicked a field goal set up by Malcolm Butler’s interception.
Jackson set up a 33-yard field goal by Justin Tucker with a 28-yard pass to Marquise Brown. Jackson then tied it by breaking loose for a 48-yard TD run, diving for the pylon.
Rookie J. K. Dobbins made it 17-10 with a 4-yard TD run to open the third. Tucker made a 51-yard field goal for the final margin.