The Baltimore Ravens had just one playoff win since drafting QB Lamar Jackson in the first round in 2018. They were 1-3 with him, and it served as a cross for them and for him to bear. It was the proof that he wasn’t good enough. Proof, even, that he wasn’t really a quarterback at heart.
Now he has two, and the Ravens are hosting the AFC Championship Game against the defending Super Bowl winners, the Kansas City Chiefs. They are favored to win in the early betting lines but not by much. They are not taking anything for granted.
Jackson had comfortably the best postseason game of his career, going 16-for-22 passing for 152 yards and two touchdown passes. He rushed for 100 yards on 11 carries and two more touchdowns without throwing an interception, becoming the first player in NFL history in the playoffs or the regular season to put up that particular configuration of numbers.
In his previous four postseason games combined, Jackson had just one touchdown pass and one touchdown run. He threw two touchdown passes in his first postseason game as a rookie back in 2018, meaning that he doubled his scoring total in one game compared to the previous four.
It was also the first time that he didn’t turn the ball over. He threw at least one interception in each of his first four games, five in total. He also fumbled a total of five times in that span, losing two of them. Although he was sacked three times against the Houston Texans, he never put the ball on the ground.
Now he is past the Divisional Round for the first time. And the Ravens set an NFL record this season with 10 wins against teams with a winning record, by the way. In consecutive weeks, they took down the NFC’s No. 1 seed in the San Francisco 49ers and then locked up the top seed in the AFC by defeating their challenger, the Miami Dolphins.
Of course it didn’t come easy getting here. Even in their first playoff game, it wasn’t until the second half that things turned into a rout. It was 10-10 at halftime, partially thanks to former Pittsburgh Steelers returner Steven Sims recording a punt-return touchdown.
But it was all Ravens in the second half, Jackson rushing for two touchdowns and passing for another to TE Isaiah Likely on a well-thrown ball. A Justin Tucker field goal capped it with a score of 34-10, defeating a team that had embarrassed the Cleveland Browns a week earlier.
Next weekend’s contest in the conference finals will be the greatest test yet of Jackson’s career. Not only is it the biggest stage he has yet reached, he will be asked to go toe-to-toe with the player many consider the greatest in the game today in the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes.
Scoring a win over Mahomes and going to the Super Bowl would do much to erase much of the narrative surrounding him about what he is and is not capable of doing. Of course, actually winning a Super Bowl title would be even bigger. Right now he’s just recorded his second career postseason win in Year Six. This is a legacy season; what will that legacy be?
