BALTIMORE — Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was the N.F.L.’s most dominating player this season, which is why he is the prohibitive favorite to win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award. But as the postseason approached, Jackson’s attention quickly turned to trying to deliver similarly stellar results in the playoffs, especially since he had played poorly in his playoff debut last season in an upset home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Jackson will have to wait until next season to get a chance to win his first playoff game.
In an erratic, often nightmarish performance, Jackson threw two interceptions and fumbled once as the visiting Tennessee Titans upset the heavily favored Ravens, 28-12, to advance to the A.F.C. championship game next weekend against the winner of Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.
The Ravens, who compiled a 14-2 regular season record, were the top seed in the A.F.C. The Titans, who have won nine of their last 12 games including the postseason, are the lowest A.F.C. seed.
It was the second consecutive road victory for Tennessee, which shocked the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots a week ago in Foxborough, Mass. It is the first time the Titans have won two playoff games in the same season since the 1999-2000 season when Tennessee lost in the Super Bowl to the St. Louis Rams. As was the case against New England, the Titans relied on running back Derrick Henry, who rushed for 195 yards on 30 carries. Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who started the season as a backup, threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.
For the Ravens, Saturday night’s defeat was not only a second successive playoff defeat but the third in their last four playoff games going back to the 2012-13 season when Baltimore defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.
Jackson, because of a largely meaningless fourth-quarter rally, managed to compile more than 400 yards of offense on Saturday. But almost from the start of the game, he seemed out of sync and repeatedly made mistakes in key moments.
Here’s how the Titans beat the Ravens:
Baltimore fails on fourth down again, and that should do it.
Lamar Jackson led the Ravens 64 yards down the field, but their drive sputtered to a halt on the Tennessee 16. Needing a touchdown to stay in the game, Jackson threw incomplete on fourth and 5, and the Titans took over the ball on downs.
Barring an enormous collapse, Tennessee is headed to the A.F.C. championship game.
Baltimore scores its first touchdown, but is still down 28-12.
Baltimore scored its first touchdown with 11:04 left in the fourth quarter, a 15-yard toss from Lamar Jackson to tight end Hayden Hurst. After the touchdown, Baltimore went for a 2-point conversion but failed, so the Ravens are still down three scores at 28-12.
The Ravens looked better that drive, marching 88 yards down the field on 10 plays — and finishing it off. The highlight was a ridiculous 27-yard run by Jackson, who made multiple Titans defenders look foolish. But Tennessee didn’t give up any other big plays, and forced Baltimore to burn nearly four minutes from the clock to score.
Tennessee takes back over on offense, and you will surely see a steady diet of runs by Derrick Henry.
Interception, Titans!
Another drive-killing turnover for the Ravens, this time an interception by Titans safety Kenny Vaccaro. Lamar Jackson has now thrown two interceptions and lost one fumble, and he twice failed to convert on fourth-and-short.
This isn’t quite the same as last year, when Jackson played poorly in the playoffs and the Ravens lost to the Chargers, but it’s close. Absolutely nothing is going right for the Baltimore offense.
The fourth quarter will start with Tennessee on offense near midfield with a 22-point lead.
The Titans score. Again. They’re leading 28-6.
Ryan Tannehill is the first quarterback to score a rushing touchdown in this game, diving in from 1 yard out to put Tennessee up three scores. The Titans took six plays to march just 20 yards into the end zone.
If there is a silver lining for the Ravens, it is that the collapse has been swift. They still have 19 minutes to get back into this game, but they’re going to have to start scoring, fast.
Tennessee scores again with some razzle-dazzle, and Baltimore fumbles.
Holy cow, the Titans scored on a jump pass from Derrick Henry — yes you read that right — to Corey Davis. The play was a direct snap to Henry while backup quarterback Marcus Mariota was on the field. (Could anybody see that coming?)
Tennessee leads 21-6, and Lamar Jackson is captured by CBS’s cameras swearing on the sideline.
That drive was all Henry. Before throwing the touchdown, he picked up 78 yards rushing, including 66 yards on one lung-busting run. After being held in check in the first half, Henry now has 134 rushing yards.
And then, on Baltimore’s first play after going down 15 points, Lamar Jackson held onto the ball for too long and fumbled. Tennessee has the ball and needs just 20 yards to start turning this game into a rout.
Baltimore’s offensive players are dropping like flies.
If Lamar Jackson is to lead a comeback for the Ravens, he may have to do it by himself.
Baltimore’s leading rusher, Mark Ingram, has been on the sideline icing his left calf and working it with a massager. He first injured the calf last month.
Tight end Mark Andrews, the team’s leading receiver, has played very little with just two catches for 28 yards, and is presumably hobbled by his ankle. He was listed as questionable on the injury report this week.
And finally, tight end Nick Boyle seemed to injure his left ankle early during the second half. He has yet to reappear in the game.
Here’s what we learned in the first half.
The Tennessee defensive line held firm against Baltimore’s running attack, limiting the Ravens to just 61 yards on 16 carries, an average of 3.8 yards per carry that is well below what Baltimore achieved during the regular season. Mark Ingram, Baltimore’s starting running back, seemed to reinjure his calf, and was seen on the sideline with ice wrapped around his left leg.
Tennessee’s bend-don’t-break secondary worked, giving up several big throws down field but preventing the Ravens from scoring any touchdowns. Derrick Henry, who led the N.F.L. in rushing this season, uncorked one 27-yard run for the Titans but was otherwise contained. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was not, however, and let fly two long touchdown throws.
The Ravens had plenty of opportunities in the first half. But when the Titans weren’t stopping them, they were stopping themselves by allowing an early interception, a turnover on downs and several costly penalties.
As stunning as the first half was, the story of the game could change in just seconds. The Ravens receive the ball in the second half down 8 — one throw from Jackson and they’re right back in it.
Baltimore kicks another field goal, ends the first half down 14-6.
The Ravens got within four yards of their first touchdown of the game but settled for another field goal and will go into the second half trailing, 14-6.
Lamar Jackson ran a two-minute drill, marching 91 yards down the field behind 54 receiving yards by Marquise Brown. But he simply ran out of time, and with 3 seconds left in the half, the Ravens opted to kick.
They will receive the ball to open the second half, with a chance to tie the game.
The Ravens kick a field goal to finally get on the board.
Baltimore’s offense is still sputtering, but at least it scored its first 3 points of the game on a 49-yard Justin Tucker field goal.
The Ravens took over on their own 10-yard line, and with their feared running game all but nonexistent, faced long distances on third down three times. Lamar Jackson saved the day on the first two, extending the drive with passes to Marquise Brown and Mark Andrews. But he wasn’t able to conjure magic for a third time, and the Ravens settled for the field goal.
They were the first points the Tennessee defense — which was not particularly stout during the regular season — had allowed since the first half against the Patriots last week.
Tennessee takes a two-touchdown lead, 14-0.
On the first play of the second quarter, the Tennessee defense stuffed a Lamar Jackson run on fourth and 1 to force a turnover on downs. On the second play of the quarter, Ryan Tannehill threw a 45 yard strike down the middle of the field to wideout Kalif Raymond, who was running all alone.
The crowd at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, which was so loud early in the first quarter that it caused Tennessee to absorb a delay-of-game penalty, has gone deathly silent.
The Ravens have twice faced deficits of at least 14 points this season. They lost both of those games — their only two losses on the season.
Tennessee capitalizes, scoring the game’s first touchdown.
The Titans made good use of a short field following an interception, scoring on an acrobatic, one-handed catch by Jonnu Smith in the side of the end zone. After a quick review by replay officials to make sure Smith got two body parts down, the touchdown was upheld. Greg Joseph converted the point after to make the score 7-0 Tennessee.
Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill was made the starter halfway through the sixth game of the season. Since Week 7, the only quarterbacks in the league to throw more touchdowns than him were Lamar Jackson and Drew Brees.
Baltimore’s first drive ends in an interception.
After a Tennessee punt, Baltimore was moving methodically down the field. But a Lamar Jackson pass bounced off Mark Andrews’s hands and straight into the arms of Kevin Byard, the safety for the Titans. Byard returned the pick 31 yards, and Tennessee gained another 15 yards after a personal foul by Jackson.
Jackson threw just six interceptions this season, his last one in Week 14. The Titans have the ball on the Ravens’ 35 yard line, close to field-goal range.
The Ravens are healthy and gamblers like them.
The Ravens are more or less completely healthy for the game. Running back Mark Ingram and tight end Mark Andrews were both listed as questionable on the injury report during the week, but are on the active roster for the game.
The Titans will be without wide receiver Adam Humphries, who sat out the past five games with an ankle injury, and linebacker Jayon Brown, who injured his shoulder in the victory over the Patriots.
Most sports books have the Ravens as 10-point favorites, and gamblers have been backing them.
Bill Cowher learned during the pregame show that he made the Hall of Fame.
Minutes before the start of the game, CBS studio analyst Bill Cowher — who won one Super Bowl in 15 seasons coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers — learned he was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Cowher was selected by a panel for a 15-member special class to be enshrined as part of the league’s celebration of its 100th anniversary.
Pennington reported from Baltimore, while Draper reported from New York.
Source: Football - nytimes.com
