⏩ Ravens 20, Titans 13: Baltimore’s win is a giant load off Lamar Jackson’s shoulders.
NASHVILLE — 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 48yard touchdown and threw for 179 more as the Ravens rallied from 10 points down and beat the Tennessee Titans 2013 Sunday in their AFC wildcard game.
Baltimore also held Tennessee to its fewest points all season.
The Titans 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 goodbye 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 snapped a string of 21 games lost by the franchise in either the regular season or playoffs when trailing by 10 or more. They will play either topseeded Kansas City or Buffalo in a divisional game set up by how Baltimore stopped Henry for the first time in three games.
The AllPro 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 Dline, 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 8yard 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 this season and had more yards per game during the season than any team but Kansas City. The Ravens finished with a 401209 yards edge in total offense.
“This may be the best win I’ve ever been associated with,” said Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh, who won a Super
Bowl eight years ago and now has eight road playoff victories, surpassing the career mark of Hall of Famer Tom Landry and Tom Coughlin. “Our tackling was strong, all the outside backers. That kind of physicality.”
The Titans lost their first home playoff game in 12 years and now have had three of their past eight postseasons ended on their field by Baltimore.
Tennessee sacked Jackson five times and got an interception, but the Titans couldn’t slow Jackson enough after halftime. Jackson turned in the sixth 100yard rushing game by a quarterback in the postseason, joining Colin Kaepernick with two.
The Titans took a 100 lead with Tannehill tossing a 10yard TD pass to Pro Bowl wide receiver A. J. Brown. Stephen Gostkowski kicked a field goal set up by Malcolm Butler’s interception.
“We didn’t get rattled,” Jackson said.
The 2019 NFL MVP set up a 33yard field goal by Justin Tucker with a 28yard pass to Marquise Brown. Jackson then tied it by breaking loose for a 48yard TD run, diving for the pylon.
“It’s the best run I’ve seen by a quarterback,” Harbaugh said. “It just got us back in the game. We needed points at that point.”