Ravens’ wild- card win over Titans shows growth
Wild- card win over Titans showcases corrections from past failures
The Ravens allowed their worst fears in the door as they fell down10- 0 to the Tennessee Titans in the AFC wild- card round Sunday. But with a combination of Lamar Jackson’s timely brilliance and a punishing, focused defense, they put their playoff failures behind them. Here are five thingswe learned:
The Ravens met their ghosts head on, and theirwinwas far more satisfying because of it.
The Ravens needed less than15 minutes of game time to invite all theirworst fears into the alreadyunwelcoming environs ofNissan Stadium.
They did notwant to concede an early lead to the Titans, who’d stepped on their necks12 months earlier in a humiliating playoff upset. Sure enough, the scoreboard read10- 0 with1: 43 left in the first quarter.
Lamar Jackson did notwant to start his day with an interception, as he had in that 28- 12 defeat last January. Sure enough, he misfired badly on an early downfield shot to Miles Boykin, gifting the ball to Titans cornerbackMalcolm Butler.
The Ravens defense did not want to be knocked on its heels by Tennessee’s great playmakers, DerrickHenry and A. J. Brown. Sure enough, Brown outran and outmuscledMarlonHumphrey three times on Tennessee’s first touchdown drive.
The same pit that had swallowed them a year ago looked awfully wide and awfully hungry.
But these Ravenswere shaped by harder things than victory. Most of them had lived with the disappointment of last season as a constant companion. They had all lived with the frightening unknowns created by a COVID- 19 outbreak andwith the very real possibility that theymight not return to the playoffs at all.
Whowere they to be rattled by another adverse scenario?
“Nobody even blinked,” coach John Harbaugh said after he emerged froma joyous and relieved postgame locker room.
Thiswas not just another good performance froma team that’swon 26 games over the past two seasons. The particulars— Jackson’sHoudini- level escapes against a defense expertly designed to contain him, a remarkable display of focus and blunt force againstHenry— were impressive enough. But the context elevated everything. This was the opponent that had haunted and annoyed them like no other. For a quarter, everythingwent wrong. And instead of tumbling into their personal hell, the Ravens pulled out their best stuff.
Harbaugh, whowon10 playoff games and a Super Bowl in his first seven seasons, feltmoved to call it themost satisfying victory of his career.
Defensive end DerekWolfe, who played an essential role in the stand against King Henry, spoke of howevery snap feels precious to this group, which has conducted so much of its business over Zoom links and frombehind masks.
All of it paid off inNashville as the Ravens performed their stirring exorcism.
Lamar Jackson reminded us that a good plan is not always enoughagainst a great player.
Itwas not hard to pinpoint the moment when the story flipped. Jackson dropped back to pass on third- and- 9 with the Ravens trailing by seven. Titans defenders converged on him fromboth sides. No. 8 darted out of the maelstromand into open space, swerved around safetyKevin Byard without decelerating and beat threemore would- be tacklers to the right edge of the end zone. Tie game.
“It’s the best run I’ve ever seen froma quarterback,” Harbaugh said.
Did it change the psychological tide? “I really don’t know,” Harbaugh said, his grin peeking out frombehind his mask. “But it made me feel a lot better— I can tell you that.”
Jackson has trained us to expect these moments over the last 2 ½ seasons, so it was ridiculous on some level thatwewondered if he could do it in the playoffs. As ESPN analyst Louis Riddick said in a conversation lastweek, Jackson’s talent and competitivewillwere too great to remain bottled forever.
Make no mistake; theTitans came in with a smart plan. They used cornerback Desmond King to spy on the edge against Jackson, and their discipline kept him from getting loose until his 48- yard touchdown scramble. Even after that, they swarmed him when he tried to puncture the middle of their defense on designed keepers. But you can contain Jackson on 75% of his carries and still lose because of what he does with the other 25%.
As usual, he did not produce overwhelming numbers through the air. But he did enough damage on outside throws, particularly toMarquise Brown, to quiet another familiar strain of criticism.
The Ravens have gifted, decorated players up and downtheir roster, but all of them will tell you the team rises and falls with Jackson. Since his earliest games as a starter, they’ve believed.
Humphrey, for example, said he expected to beat the Titans as soon as Jackson finished sharingwords of determination with his teammates on Saturday evening.
Because of their faith, they took personally the barbs tossed at Jackson for his 0- 2 playoff record. “I’m happy formyself, but I’m almost more happy for Lamar, you know?” Humphrey said. “I knowit’s a team game, but it seems like whenever it’s a loss, it’s always just his fault.”
The release of two years’worth of pressure on the reigningMost Valuable Player provided catharsis for the entire locker room. “I’m super proud of him,” Brown said. “Just to get thatmonkey off his back.”
The Ravens’ grand design on defense paid off.
With so much focus on Jackson, itwas easy to forget howthe Titans destroyed the Ravens at the line of scrimmage last season.
General manager Eric DeCosta geared his offseason efforts toward making sure thiswould not happen again. He traded for 6- foot- 8, 300- pound run obliterator Calais Campbell and signed the 6- 5, 285- pound Wolfe as a bookend. If backs such asHenry were to gash the Ravens in 2020, they would have to defeat mountains of determined beef.
With Campbell and nose tackle Brandon Williams injured for the Ravens’Nov. 22 matchup against the Titans, we didn’t see a fair test of this resistance plan. Don“Wink” Martindale’s defense held the advantage for three quarters but ceded control toHenry in the deciding moments.
So the playoff rematch shaped up as a genuinemystery. Would the Ravens have answers for an elite offense built onHenry’s relentlessness and quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s complementary deep strikes?
Martindale’s crewanswered with one of the best all- around performances in the history of a franchise built on defense. Wolfe, Campbell andWilliams built awall up front, and outside linebackers Pernell McPhee andMatthew Judon held the edges with real ferocity. Henry had surpassed100 yards10 times this season and led the league in runs of more than10 yards. His longest gain against the Ravenswent for 8.
“Physical,” Wolfe said when asked to explain the plan. “Physical, physical, physical.”
“He didn’t really get great momentum downhill,” Harbaugh said. “Then, wewere able to hit him withmultiple helmets and take him back, and that’swhat you have to do.
No one had stoppedHenry to this degree, but the Ravens knew itwould not be enough if Tannehill turned them into marionettes with play action. Instead, after A. J. Brown’s initial burst of productivity, their defensive backs and linebackers cut off Tannehill’s downfield looks, holding him to 6.3 yards per attempt, down from7.9 in the regular season. Jimmy Smith’s return fromweeks of nagging injuries helped as did the maturation of rookie linebackers Patrick Queen andMalikHarrison.
The Ravens never seemed to tire or stop barking out presnap adjustments toTennessee’s designs. They delivered a masterpiece of focus and force.
Marquise Brownwas the most productivewide receiver on the field, removing an essential advantage for the Titans.
AsA. J. Brown used his 226- pound frame and 4.49 speed to outdoHumphrey in the first quarter, itwas easy to imagine another offseason of lamentations over the Ravens’ talent deficit at wide receiver. Thiswas a popular theme as analysts previewed Sunday’smatchup. Many expected the Titans to frustrate Jackson, again, by daring him to target his receivers along the sidelines.
Jackson took that dare, throwing nine of his 24 attempts toMarquise Brown, who finished the day with seven catches for109 yards, better thanA. J. Brown and Corey Davis combined. Eightweeks ago, when the Titans beat the Ravens, the receiver knownas “Hollywood” caught zero passes whileDavis andA. J. Brown combined for nine catches and175 yards.
“He’s come up big for us, man,” Harbaugh said of hisNo. 1wide receiver. “He’s made so many plays. He’s come up big for us; catch- and- run plays, over- the- top plays — he has.”
Brown’s 5- foot- 9,180- pound frame will always limit his ability to post up opposing defensive backs and break tackles. But he used his quickness to get open and pick up vital yards after the catch against theTitans. Hewas also terrific in the Ravens’ playoff loss last year, suggesting his nickname amounts to more than youthful bravado.
With no tortured history at play, the Ravens can look forward to a terrific matchup in Buffalo.
If the Ravens thought theywere headed to Kansas City to slay another albatross, the Cleveland Browns shredded that storyline as quickly as they shredded the Steelers on Sunday night. Aswe stared, gobsmacked, at the epic flameout in Pittsburgh, compasses tilted north, toward a matchup with the ascendant Buffalo Bills.
This has to be a favorable drawcompared with PatrickMahomes and the defending Super Bowl champions, right? Think again. The Bills outplayed the Chiefs and every other team in the AFC over the last two- thirds of the season. Josh Allen has all the arm and leg talent his loudest draft advocates touted, and he’s done remarkable work tightening up his mechanics and judgment. He and formerMaryland star Stefon Diggs forged the NFL’s most prolific aerial connection of 2020.
The Ravens just played their best defensive game of the season, but they’ll have to be every bit as good against a Buffalo offense that finished second in scoring, second in total yardage and first in third- down efficiency.
Where does a Ravens fan find hope? Well, Allen relies heavily on Diggs ( 127 catches on a whopping166 targets), and the Ravens coveredNo. 1receivers better than any team remaining in the playoffs. On defense, Buffalo allowed opponents to average 4.6 yards per carry and just gave up 472 total yards in a narrowwild- card victory over the Indianapolis Colts.