Leading OFF
AFC power shift? Nah, just same Mahomes ... and Jackson
BALTIMORE – Won’t Get Fooled Again.
The anthemic rock-and-roll proclamation from The Who was issued more than five decades ago (shortly after the NFL and AFL merged in 1970). But it happened. Jan. 28. When we got fooled.
Again.
Four seasons after leading a record-setting, top-seeded outfit into the AFC playoffs before a divisional-round collapse, this was supposed to be the year Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who will soon make space for a second league MVP award in his trophy case, finally reached the Super Bowl. This was also the year when Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a two-time league and Super Bowl MVP, looked mortal – the highlight throws, gaudy stats and wins coming with less frequency and more difficulty.
Tasked with picking the AFC championship game’s outcome, I was among eight USA TODAY Sports staffers who collectively called it for the Ravens – odd as such anti-Chiefs unanimity rendered.
Yet after the superstar quarterbacks clashed at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium? Great as they both are, perhaps the defining talents of the contemporary quarterbacking generation? Same old Jackson. And same old Mahomes.
The latter adapted, dispersing short passes on Kansas City’s opening possession, a 10play, 86-yard touchdown drive – the capper a 19-yard pass to tight end Travis Kelce. It set the tone for an efficient, nearly mistake-free performance that landed the Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five seasons.
“Pat Mahomes did a great job again, as he normally does,” said K.C. head coach Andy Reid. “But starting the game off with 11 completions, that’s something special, then to manage the game.”
And 241 yards and one TD through the air is definitely game management by Mahomes’ historical bar.
Meanwhile, Jackson, now 2-4 in the postseason, reverted. After showing so much growth as a passer and offensive surgeon all season – including a masterful second half in the previous week’s rout of the Houston Texans – he regressed to the narrative he desperately wants to escape as just another quarterback who can’t win it all. Jackson couldn’t beat or sufficiently feel the Chiefs’ relentless blitz, stripped of the ball on one of the four sacks he absorbed. His end-zone interception lofted toward tight end Isaiah Likely should have never been thrown into triple coverage.
And while you can’t fault Jackson for Baltimore’s inexplicable decision to essentially mothball its top-ranked ground game on a day when it never trailed by more than 10 points, he wasn’t able to rip off the chunk-sized gallops that he so often flashes to put a defense on its heels.
The loss deeply stung the top-seeded Ravens collectively, yet Jackson’s teammates also knew what it meant for him personally.
“I had never seen somebody so locked in and just in their flow and in their era, and I just felt like it was his time,” said Baltimore wideout Odell Beckham. “(But) sometimes things happen in life, and it doesn’t go the way that we plan. It’s just about, what do you do from here?”
Added Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen: “This was (Jackson’s) opportunity to be able to write some of that stuff off and move on to the next thing. That’s why it hurts, because you want to see people like that, teammates that you love and care about, get what they’re supposed to get, and that didn’t happen today.”
But it did happen for Mahomes. Again. He’d never won so few regular-season games (10), passed for so few yards per game in a season (261.4), had such a lower QB rating (92.6) or been able to overcome his average-at-best receivers not named Kelce.
Yet there he was, rolling right, rolling left, spreading the ball to seven different pass catchers – but mostly to Kelce, for 11 of his 30 completions – while committing nary a turnover. (That’s seven straight playoff games without a pick if you’re counting at home.) Mahomes’ biggest throw in the game was his last, a 32-yard hookup with Marquez ValdesScantling at the two-minute warning that effectively punctuated Kansas City’s 17-10 victory.
Now Mahomes heads to his fourth Super Bowl, the first quarterback ever to do that before his 30th birthday. And even if many outside the Chiefs locker room were surprised by that result, Mahomes’ teammates certainly weren’t.
“Nothing impressed me,” running back Isiah Pacheco said of Mahomes’ performance. “That’s what he does – determined mindset, came out here with a goal.”
And now the ultimate prize is in sight.
“I don’t like losing any games,” said Mahomes, who’s now 14-3 in the postseason.
“And now, we’re going to the Super Bowl, and like I said, we’re not done.”
The Chiefs open as slight underdogs to the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers. You’d probably be wise not to let the line fool you.
Again.
BALTIMORE – Lamar Jackson repeatedly described his mindset for the 2023 NFL season as “locked in.” Unfortunately for the presumed league MVP, he’ll remain locked out of Super Bowl immortality – at least for another year.
Jackson had one of his smallest performances in the biggest game of the year as his top-seeded Baltimore Ravens succumbed 17-10 to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game at M&T Bank Stadium.
“No excuses,” Jackson said, dirt and grass still caked to his body during his postgame news conference.
Yet he was cleanly transparent about the disappointment of falling short of his long-avowed goal of winning a Lombardi Trophy, something the Ravens haven’t done in 11 years.
“I’m angry about losing,” said Jackson, who joined the club as a firstround pick in 2018.
“We were a game away from the Super Bowl. We’ve been waiting all this time, all these moments for an opportunity like this, and we fell short.” Surprisingly so.
Jackson rushed for 54 yards, a team high, but Baltimore managed only 81 on the ground altogether – its lowest total of the season and about half its usual output.
Worse, Jackson was constantly under fire from Kansas City’s blitz while trying to pass – sacked four times, stripped of the football once and serving up an interception on a throw intended for tight end Isaiah Likely, who was covered by three Chiefs in the end zone.
“He’s a great player. The whole game plan and the whole focus is on him and stopping him first,” Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill said of Jackson.
“He had a couple big plays, and he is going to have a couple of plays. He’s a great player and an MVP-caliber player. I thought blow after blow, 15 rounds, heavyweight fight – I thought we got the best of them tonight.”
Jackson did pass for 272 yards (many of the empty-calorie variety late in the game) and hit rookie receiver Zay Flowers on a 30-yard touchdown strike in the first quarter.
But after that, Kansas City clamped down and largely rendered the topseeded Ravens into a one-dimensional, mistake-prone team.
Aside from Jackson’s turnovers, Flowers fumbled right before breaking the plane for what would have been a crucial fourth-quarter touchdown that might have cut Kansas City’s lead to three points.
“We’ve just got to put points on the board,” said Jackson. “That’s the thing right now. There’s nothing we could have done better to prepare for the game.
“If we put points on the board … we’d be talking about something else right now.”
Yet despite whatever non-calls the officials didn’t make, mistakes made by teammates or the generally clean and efficient game plan executed by the reigning champion Chiefs, Jackson – quicksilver as he is – isn’t going to be able to evade the growing narrative that he can’t win the big one.
“Honestly, what hurts me the most is that I wanted to get him the recognition that he deserves,” said Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen in reference to his quarterback. “It’s a team sport, it’s a team effort, but that guy was the main guy I was playing for, honestly.
“So much stuff he gets that he doesn’t deserve. This was his opportunity to be able to write some of that stuff off and move on to the next thing. That’s why it hurts, because you want to see people like that, teammates that you love and care about, get what they’re supposed to get, and that didn’t happen today.”
Added Baltimore center Tyler Linderbaum: “Lamar, he made us go. He’s our leader, and we certainly wanted to get it done for him. But we didn’t.”
Jackson’s playoff record now stands at 2-4. Yet this season marked a step in the right direction, Baltimore reaching the title round for the first time with Jackson, who turned 27 this month. Even if it didn’t show in this game, he’s evolved as a passer and matured as a leader.
But this wasn’t his moment. “A player like Lamar, 30 years from now – when we speak of Lamar Jackson playing – and everyone’s going to remember there’s certain moments that define your … career. And this is just one,” said Odell Beckham Jr.
“The greats have all been through tough times, and I don’t think this is gonna stop him from wanting to get to his ultimate goal.”