ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — As Lamar Jackson spoke Sunday night, the Baltimore Ravens quarterback kept slapping his hands as if he was awake but trying to snap himself out of a bad dream.
“I tried to squeeze the ball, it slipped”…SMACK... “out of my hand.”
“Tonight, turnovers, we can’t have that bullshit”… SLAM …”You know?”
“It’s hanging the damn ball. I’m sorry for my language”… SLAM …”but it’s boring. I’m sick of this bullshit.”
It felt like a momentary physical tic born from angry energy. Or a disappointment. Perhaps a combination of disbelief and frustration. And it was definitely appropriate. Almost all of these emotions – and maybe all of them – painted a good picture for the Ravens after a 27-25 AFC playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills it was nothing more than a summary of the mistakes and missed opportunities during the divisional round.
A dropped pass by Derrick Henry wide open with room to run. A bad snap against Jackson that turned into a fumble. Misinterpreted security and costly interception. An extremely rare catch and fumble by tight end Mark Andrews – only to be eclipsed in infamy when he gave up a 2-point conversion that should have tied the game late in the fourth quarter.
When it was finally over, Jackson pointed out that in the process of undercutting, the Ravens never scored on Sunday. They didn’t have to do it. Instead, they operated at maximum efficiency by giving the Bills the ball for free.
Taken as a whole, with all the necessary and cruel context of what could have been, this will end up being yet another addition to the annual media anthology detailing how Jackson’s elite status as a quarterback continues to be hampered by a playoff record. He is now 3-5 in the playoffs, which leaves a nasty wart on his resume that won’t be ignored by his detractors.
Of course, the bashing is rarely accompanied by the fact that one of the Mount Rushmore quarterbacks of our era, Peyton Manning, went 3-6 in his first nine playoff games. Or that during this period of Manning’s futility, we lamented the fact that he sometimes failed to achieve victories in the most important moments, notably in losses to the New England Patriots and Tom Brady.
In that regard, Jackson is not alone in his postseason tribulations. He’s just taking the arrows now because he hasn’t done what Manning did yet. rest of his career: going 11-7 in his last 18 playoff games and winning two Super Bowls in the process. With Sunday’s loss to the Bills – who now advance to the AFC title game to face their own familiar foil in the Kansas City Chiefs – the Ravens are heading home.
They leave with a loss that cannot be entirely blamed on Jackson. He made mistakes. Two expensive ones. But when it came time to take control late in the game, he masterfully led Baltimore on an eight-play, 88-yard drive, punctuated by Jackson throwing a 24-yard touchdown pass that suddenly made a woman squirm. boisterous Bills crowd at Highmark Stadium. their seats, even almost stifling.
On the next play, Andrews’ wild backward swing and his own frozen forearms led to a perfectly catchable ball from Jackson flying off his tight end’s chest and straight into Ravens fans’ nightmares. The groans of disbelief would have been heard all the way from Maryland, had they not been swept away by a Bills crowd that exploded in jubilant relief.
Afterwards, naturally, the pressing question was whether Jackson had a moment to speak with Andrews following this mistake. And, like the teammate and leader he is known to be in the franchise, he put himself in front of the narrative.
“We’re a team,” Jackson said. “S***, in the first half I had two costly turnovers. I didn’t hold the safety – I just knew the coverage and I knew it was a man, I threw a bs interception. It was 7-7 at that point, I think they scored afterwards. I fought back. A fumble. (On the) snap, I tried to make something happen. It was like an RPO game, so I couldn’t really throw the ball to (Isaiah) Likely. The offensive line was on the field. So I was trying to make things happen. I tried to squeeze the ball, it slipped out of my hands. Von Miller picked it up and gained a few yards. I think that earned them points. It’s a team effort.
“(Mark) busted his butt. He’s making plays on that field for us. He failed. Like I’ve said all season, every time we’re in a situation like this, the turnovers play a role, the penalties play a role tonight, the turnovers, we can’t have that, you know that’s why we lost the game because as you can see, we were moving it? ball wonderfully. I’m sorry for my language but it’s boring, I’m sick of this shit.
It was the aforementioned monologue in which Jackson high-fived him. And it didn’t stop there.
“I’m as hurt as Mark,” Jackson said. “We all played a part in the game. It’s a team effort. I’m just not going to blame Mark for this. … We didn’t do what we were supposed to do. Protecting the ball is priority number one. We didn’t do it. Especially me. I am the leader. I have to protect this ball. So I’m hot.
He was not alone. Head coach John Harbaugh also framed this as a team defeat, taking the focus away from Andrews and simply touting the realities of football this season for the Ravens. There you have it: For the vast majority of the season, the Ravens protected the ball as well as any team in the NFL. Sunday night, they didn’t. The reason it happened that day for Baltimore is the fabric of the game that eventually unravels for 31 NFL teams every season.
“It’s football,” Harbaugh said. “That’s how football works. If you want to draw a big cosmic thread, you draw it for every team in the league except the team that wins. It’s hard to win. It’s a big challenge. That’s why the (Kansas City) Chiefs, you have to admire what they did. It’s hard to win playoff games. It’s tough to get to the playoffs. Then it’s hard to win playoff games. You now need to have four playoff wins to win a championship. Then you don’t win, so you leave and you want to start drawing threads. There is no wire. It’s football. This match played out the way it did.
And for the Ravens, the way it happened was a step back from last season’s No. 1 seed and a progression toward the AFC Championship Game. That leaves Baltimore to once again pick up the pieces and face the inevitable what-if about what’s keeping it from getting to the other side of this playoff deadlock. It’s a problem the Ravens addressed this offseason by giving Jackson an elite running back, Derrick Henry, to be his partner and take some of the burden off him.
NOW? Only the Ravens, Jackson and everyone else on this team can figure out what happens next. Just like last season, when the Ravens were haunted by a 17-10 loss to the Chiefs and a costly Zay Flowers fumble. Shortly after it ended, Jackson’s inability to propel the Ravens into the Super Bowl has become the dominant theme of the offseason. And maybe that’s how this one will be remembered too – as much for his turnovers as for the mistakes of the players around him.
Whether that’s the case or not, it’s clear that this one took an emotional toll on Jackson. You could see it in his hustle and feel it in his energy Sunday night. The frustration is there. For the fans. For every part of the team. And most certainly for the quarterback who will likely see this loss attributed primarily to his two turnovers rather than what happened after them. But as frustrating as it may be, it’s the rapprochement that could linger the longest for Jackson.
As he said Sunday night: “I’m tired of being here. We need to validate it. We need to grab this ticket.
SLAM.
