Jackson winless no more, leads Ravens past Titans

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 wild-card 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 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 (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.

SAINTS 21, BEARS 9

NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees will get to celebrate his 42nd birthday by preparing for a playoff game that will also feature the one active NFL quarterback older than him.

Brees completed 28 of 39 passes for 265 yards, connecting with Michael Thomas and Latavius Murray for touchdowns, and New Orleans defeated Chicago in an NFC wild-card game.

Alvin Kamara rushed for 99 yards and added a 3yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter after sitting out the regular-season finale and not practicing this past week because of COVID-19 protocols.

The victory for the Saints (13-4) and Brees, who turns 42 on Friday, sets up a divisional-round meeting next weekend in the Superdome with Tampa Bay and 43year-old QB Tom Brady.

The Bears (8-9) put forth a scrappy performance defensively that prevented the Saints from building more than a one-touchdown lead until Murray’s 6-yard catch- and-run score made it 14-3 late in the third quarter.

That score resulted from a big Bears mistake: Safety Eddie Jackson, lined up for an apparent blitz, jumped offside on fourthand- 3 from the Bears 13yard line.

Two plays later, Brees was scrambling to his right when he spotted Murray waving for the ball. Brees got it there with a short touch pass over onrushing linebacker Khalil Mack, and Murray sprinted straight to the goal line, diving through converging tacklers to reach the end zone.

Brees’ first touchdown pass came in the opening quarter on an 11-yard throw over the middle to Thomas, back from a three-game absence to help heal a nagging ankle injury.