Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is now 3-5 all-time in the postseason, going 2-2 over the past two years. After earning a first-round bye last season, the Ravens advanced to the conference finals but lost to the Chiefs. This season, they held only the third seed. After extinguishing the Steelers in the Wild Card Round, they fell short in Buffalo last night, another early exit.
While he had some heroics, Lamar Jackson focused on himself above all. He threw an interception and lost a fumble in the first half of the game after his best season with ball security. He wasn’t the Ravens’ sole contributor to the giveaways, but he defended Mark Andrews, his career-long go-to receiver.
“Every time we’re in a situation like this, turnovers play a factor; penalties play a factor”, Jackson said, via Ravens beat writer Jamison Hensley. “Tonight, the turnovers, we can’t have that shit. That’s why we lost the game, because as you could see, we were moving the ball wonderfully. Hold onto the fucking ball. Sorry for my language, but this shit [is] annoying. I’m tired of this shit”.
The Ravens scored a potential game-tying touchdown with under two minutes to play. Lamar Jackson connected with Isaiah Likely from 24 yards out to make it a 27-25 game. On the two-point try, however, Andrews couldn’t hold onto the ball in the flat in wet conditions. The Bills recovered the onside kick, and that was it.
Lamar Jackson is actually quite right about the Ravens moving the ball wonderfully. Excluding two turnover-ending drives and the end-of-half drive, they gained 40-plus yards on their other possessions. They even picked up 54 yards on the drive that ended in Jackson’s lost fumble. They found the end zone three times, each time on 73-plus-yard, 7-plus-play possessions.
Of course, the Bills scored three touchdowns on their first four possessions before the end of the first half. They led the Ravens 21-10 at halftime, but Jackson helped cut it to 21-19. They attempted a two-point conversion there to try to tie the game but failed. Ironically, if they’d just kicked the extra point after each of their last two touchdowns, it would have been 27-27. Barring the butterfly effect, of course.
No, the principal difference in the game was the Ravens turning the ball over three times, while the Bills protected the ball. Buffalo scored a touchdown off the Jackson fumble. Andrews’ fourth-quarter fumble led to what proved to be the game-winning field goal. That’s a 10-point swing right there.
In eight career playoff games, Lamar Jackson has seven interceptions and four lost fumbles. He played a clean game last week against the Steelers but made up for it in Buffalo. He also had two turnovers in last season’s conference finals loss to the Chiefs. This marks Jackson’s fifth postseason game with multiple turnovers out of eight, and he is now 0-5 in those games.
