Jackson gets breakthrough win Chargers’ L.T. deserved

It was the kind of sound playoff performance Marty Schottenheimer sought from his favored San Diego Chargers but never got.

No turnovers or missed field goals.

Sound football across most of the game.

A closing flourish worthy of the higher seeding, locking up a 34-10 victory.

Watching Saturday as the favored Baltimore Ravens nailed all of those fundamentals — similar to the regular-season efforts of Schottenheimer’s best Bolts teams — I thought of the 2004 and 2006 Chargers clubs losing as favorites in their playoff openers.

Frustrating themselves and locals, the “Martyball” Bolts were unable to fully replicate the rugged and efficient form that, similar to these Ravens, had earned them a home-field playoff opener. They made too many miscues before nearly 70,000 fans in Mission Valley.

Cutting something of a Schottenheimer-like figure entering

Saturday’s game was Ravens star QB Lamar Jackson, and I’ll be frank about this:

I didn’t want Jackson to suffer a defeat like that from which ’06 Chargers stars Antonio Gates and Donnie Edwards said would always bug them.

Jackson is the league’s presumptive MVP. His ’23 regular season that was comparably impressive to the ’06 Chargers going 14-2 and leading the NFL in sacks.

But the Ravens’ 1-3 record in Jackson’s playoff games, including two opening losses as a home favorite, put the QB under a Schottenheimer-level microscope Saturday.

Propelled by their lines’ dominance and four touchdowns from Jackson, the Afc-leading Ravens rewarded a crowd of 71,018.

They overcame a wobbly second quarter by outscoring the fourth-seeded Texans (10-9) in the second half, 24-0.

Looking every bit the No. 1 seed

and the favorite to win next month’s Super Bowl, they bullied Houston’s fronts, protected the football, created explosive gains and got bookend field goals of 53 and 43 yards from Justin Tucker.

They shook off any lingering bye-week rust in the second half, outgaining Houston 234 to 58.

What level of exhilaration and relief does a No. 1 seed feel when it finds its “A”

game and pulls away to such a dominant victory?

Jackson provided a glimpse in the fourth quarter.

He ran for a touchdown, sprinted beyond the end zone and proceeded up a stadium tunnel before teammates mobbed him.

I thought of Ladainian Tomlinson.

Given how many hits he took in pursuit of a Super Bowl, it’s a bummer that Tomlinson was deprived of a similar breakthrough in the ’06 club’s playoff loss 17 years

ago before 67,536 fans in Mission Valley.

Like Jackson, Tomlinson was a 27-year-old star coming off an NFL MVP season.

And like Jackson on Saturday, he responded well to the level of football going up.

Forgotten in San Diego’s 24-21 loss that January day as a five-point favorite against Bill Belichick’s Patriots is that Tomlinson rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns and caught two passes for 63 yards.

The worst part about

that defeat, said Gates, years later, was this:

He and teammates were certain the Chargers would’ve gone on to beat the Colts in the AFC title game and then the Bears in the Super Bowl.

The Ravens reaped not only a victory but teaching moments.

Blocking well, the Texans returned a punt 67 yards for a touchdown to tie the game, 10-10. In the same second quarter, Houston’s varied blitzes and spying of Jackson led to three consecutive three-and-outs for Baltimore’s offense.

But the second-half surge figures to make the Ravens even more formidable going forward.

At 14-4, with lopsided victories over several playoff teams, there’s nothing f luky about coach John Harbaugh’s club.

The franchise appears headed to its third Super Bowl and third Lombardi Trophy, and first with Jackson.