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In the Ravens' 34-10 Divisional Round victory against the Houston Texans, Baltimore's MVP front-runner proved his mettle by scoring four touchdowns in total—152 yards via the air and 100 yards on the ground—eliminating any thoughts of his postseason shortcomings.
"You know I heard that," Jackson said in the post-match commotion around his lone playoff victory. "I don't even need to hear it; I've seen it. I perceive it. Yet things are as they are. It doesn't really matter what other people think. My goal is to prevail. Every time I go onto the field, I strive to give it my all every single day. It's a different squad; those people merely used to have our number."
Houston first persisted, forcing a 10–10 score at the break. An surprisingly aggressive DeMeco Ryans defense blitzed Jackson repeatedly in the first half. Jackson ended the second quarter with 23 net passing yards and three sacks, which probably alarmed him considering his past mistakes.
Rather, throughout the second half, he resisted giving in. In the last two quarters, Jackson equaled his defense's shutout attempts by scoring on four consecutive drives, including ones of 53, 93, and 78 yards.
According to NFL Research, he became the first player in NFL history with two or more passing touchdowns, two or more rushing touchdowns, 100 or more yards on the ground, 100 or more yards through the air, and a 100 or higher passer rating. He also scored on each Baltimore trip to the end zone.
"I had high expectations for Lamar, but he has exceeded my expectations this season," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said to the media. It's more crucial than ever right now. Since the beginning, he has been confined. He uses that word, and we've all kind of taken it too literally. He is the one who oversaw everything."
The difference between this accomplishment and Baltimore's prior performance in this same situation made it even more amazing.
The Ravens had an outstanding season in 2023, but their playoff performance as the AFC's top seed, with Jackson certain to be the future AP Most Valuable Player, served as a stark reminder of the team's deficiencies in 2019 and beyond.
In the Divisional Round of the 2019 playoffs, the Titans thoroughly defeated the top-seeded Ravens and their undisputed MVP candidate, Jackson, at home. This was Jackson's second straight one-and-done playoff loss.
Jackson failed in his most recent postseason game before tonight, managing only three points in another loss, despite Baltimore's success in the 2020 playoffs.
Jackson had a 3:5 throwing touchdown to interception ratio, a 55.9 completion percentage, a 68.3 passer rating, and an average of 1.8 turnovers per postseason game, in addition to his 1-3 playoff record as a starter.
Jackson blasted those stats out of the water in his sixth playoff start, much as the Ravens finally blew the Texans out of the stadium.
He accomplished a 121.8 passer rating, a 72.7 completion percentage, and 0 turnovers.
According to Next Gen Stats, Jackson had the fourth-highest success percentage of his career—65.6%—on his 22 dropbacks versus the Texans. He also successfully countered Houston's blitzing. Jackson completed 13 of 18 passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns against extra rushers while facing a career-high 75% blitz rate.
"They were having success in the first half with blitzing us," he said. All blitz and zero, going about their business. However, we saw a lot of movies. We were ready. We were only making little errors in timing the ball out and guarding the blitz. However, in the second half, I thought we were carrying out our assigned tasks."
After his 8-yard touchdown run to make the score 31-10 against the Texans, he celebrated by sprinting an additional 10-15 yards into the tunnel, a la Bo Jackson.
Jackson became the only quarterback in history to lead his team in running during a season and move beyond the Divisional Round with his outstanding performance, which also propelled the Ravens into the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 2012—the year Baltimore last won a Super Bowl
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Jackson gave a redeeming performance to quell the last of the dissenters.
But the work is far from done. Jackson won't dwell on this victory for too long, nor will he allow his thoughts to jump forward to Super Bowl LVIII before next Sunday's AFC Championship Game.
"We must complete," he said. "Not in the dance yet, still in the playoffs. I'm excited about the next week. I won't even consider the Super Bowl until we've taken care of business."
