The Baltimore Ravens are on a mission in 2024, with just one acceptable vacation spot: lifting a 3rd Vince Lombardi Trophy in Las Vegas at Tremendous Bowl LVIII on February 11.
The Ravens have been victorious on their two earlier journeys to the Tremendous Bowl – to cap the 2000 season and, most just lately, the 2012 marketing campaign underneath present head coach John Harbaugh – however additional success has eluded them within the decade plus since, and that is regardless of six journeys to the postseason and three AFC North titles in that point.
5 of these playoff visits (and all three division wins) have include this yr’s likely-league-MVP Lamar Jackson at quarterback, however till beating the Houston Texans 34-10 final weekend, their star quarterback’s playoff return was a paltry 1-4 report.
Since Jackson was drafted in 2018, Baltimore’s 66 common season wins are second solely to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ 75, however the place Patrick Mahomes and their AFC Championship opponents this Sunday have differed is success within the postseason – with Mahomes already having been to 3 Tremendous Bowls, successful two of them, equal to Jackson’s playoff win complete.
Previous to this season, the Ravens had been averaging simply 13 factors per sport by means of Jackson’s playoff profession, the second-lowest mark by any quarterback with not less than 4 playoff begins previously 30 seasons, forward of solely Andy Dalton’s 0-4 playoff report containing just one landing move and 6 interceptions.
Jackson, by comparability, had 4 complete touchdowns, seven turnovers and a 68.3 passer score within the postseason previous to the Texans sport – a passer score drop off practically 30 factors from his regular-season profession.
Baltimore’s playoff struggles in fact cannot all be laid at Jackson’s door. It is a crew sport in any case, and it hasn’t been all dangerous for the dual-threat QB, with him operating for 136 yards, together with a shocking 48-yard TD, in his first profession playoff win versus the Tennessee Titans within the 2020 wild card spherical.
He adopted that up with one other 100-yard dashing effort in his newest postseason success story towards Houston in final week’s divisional spherical, prepared his crew over the road with three second-half scores (4 for the match) after the sport was all tied up at 10-10 at half-time.
The crew’s turnaround and dominance within the second half was supposedly triggered by a passionate, expletive laden half-time crew discuss from Jackson.
“It would be inappropriate if I said it,” he mentioned of his speech when addressing reporters after the sport. “A lot of cursing,” he added.
“We wasn’t really doing anything to that defense… they was playing great. And their offense was playing great as well.
“However we wasn’t doing our job with our unit till the second half. We went to place up factors on the board, began transferring the ball, transferring the chains, and began trying like ourselves.”
That’s certainly how the Ravens started to take care of the break towards Houston, the offense which ranked fourth in scoring through the common season placing up 24 factors.
It was a efficiency extra paying homage to that which we might grown to count on from the Ravens as they secured an NFL-best report of 13-4 in 2023, with Jackson returning career-best marks in completion proportion (67.2), passing yards (3,678) and yards per try (8.0) that appears sure to safe him a second league MVP award.
Forward of successful the award for the primary time in 2019, although, Jackson mentioned: “It’s okay, but I’m trying to win the Super Bowl… that’s a team award and that’s what I want. I’m not worried about MVP.”
And that is nonetheless very a lot the case for Jackson. However, to even make the Tremendous Bowl, not to mention win it, first he and the Ravens need to discover a well past Mahomes and the Chiefs, who’re making their sixth-straight AFC Championship Sport look.
“I don’t like competing with him at all,” Jackson mentioned forward of his newest conflict with Mahomes.
And you may see why: the pair have squared off 4 instances beforehand, with the Chiefs going 3-1 in these contests – prompting Jackson to name the crew “his kryptonite” after shedding their first three conferences, previous to a wild, 36-35 win in Week Two of the 2021 season.
The defending champions overcame the tough circumstances of Buffalo final weekend – Mahomes victorious in his first profession street playoff sport – they usually definitely will not be fazed by going into Baltimore as they give the impression of being to finish their Tremendous Bowl goals this Sunday too.
“If you’re down to the (Philadelphia) Eagles in the Super Bowl, down to the (San Francisco) 49ers too by 10 points with six minutes left to go, and you come back to win those types of games, there’s no more pressure with anything anymore,” former NFL quarterback Chris Simms mentioned on Professional Soccer Speak this week. “That’s as pressure packed as it gets.
“The Chiefs present up in these moments, whereas the Ravens are nonetheless pulling down obstacles to point out that they do not collapse within the conditions – final week (towards Houston) went an extended method to dispelling that.
“The Ravens are probably the best team in football when you look at the whole year… but it’s the Chiefs and Mahomes.”
Jackson might not ‘like’ competing towards Mahomes, however he is aware of that seeing the again of him and the Chiefs is crucial for him to succeed in his final aim.
“To be a champion, you’ve got to go through a champion,” he mentioned. Vegas and the Vince Lombardi awaits.
Watch the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tackle the Baltimore Ravens within the AFC Championship Sport this Sunday, with kickoff at 8pm stay on Sky Sports activities NFL; the San Francisco 49ers then host the Detroit Lions within the NFC Championship Sport from 11.30pm; watch Tremendous Bowl LVIII stay on Sunday, February 11