BALTIMORE — The MVP chants started early, and they grew louder with each throw and with each score.
By the time Lamar Jackson floated a 4-yard touchdown pass to fullback Patrick Ricard for his fifth touchdown pass of the day, Jackson’s case for the league’s Most Valuable Player award was complete and convincing.
Jackson threw five touchdown passes and the Ravens (13-3) destroyed the AFC East-leading Miami Dolphins, 56-19, for their sixth straight win. With that, the Ravens clinched the AFC North title, the AFC’s No. 1 postseason seeding and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The title is the team’s first snice 2019 and cements the Ravens as the AFC Super Bowl favorite.
Jackson said earlier this week that he isn’t concerned with the league’s MVP race and that he is more focused on winning games. He’s done that more than any other quarterback in the league this season, which is why he has risen to the top of the MVP conversation as well.
Jackson shredded the Dolphins from his first drive to his last. He finished 18-for-21 for 321 yards and matched his career high with five touchdown passes. He also posted a perfect passer rating of 158.3 for the third time in his career.
The Ravens entered this game coming off an emotional Christmas night win at NFL front-runner San Francisco, they were working off a short week and they were short-handed with several starters sidelined. In the opening moments, all of that was apparent.
The Dolphins marched effortlessly down the field on an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to begin the game, and the Ravens very much looked like a defense that was playing without top safety Kyle Hamilton and starting cornerback Brandon Stephens.
But the Ravens answered when Jackson hit running back Justice Hill on a 20-yard wheel route for a score, and they took the lead for good when Gus Edwards barreled over the goal line from 1 yard out for a 14-10 lead. That touchdown came one play after Odell Beckham Jr. made a phenomenal catch along the right sideline. Beckham dragged his feet and made the catch fully extended while falling out of bounds.
On the Ravens’ next possession, Zay Flowers didn’t have nearly that degree of difficulty on the longest touchdown pass of the season by the Ravens.
Taking over from the Ravens’ 25-yard line after a 38-yard field goal by Jason Sanders had cut the Ravens’ lead to 14-13, Jackson found Flowers all alone down the right sideline. Flowers juked two defenders downfield and scooted in for the touchdown and 21-13 lead.
Isaiah Likely added a pair of touchdown catches, including a nifty, one-handed, catch-and-run score that built the Ravens’ lead to 28-13 by halftime.
Likely’s second score boosted the Ravens’ lead to 35-13, which sounded eerily familiar to last season, when the Dolphins handed the Ravens one of the more shocking losses in franchise history. The Ravens last year took a 35-14 lead into the fourth quarter and then melted down as the Dolphins stormed back with four touchdowns for a 42-38 win.
The Ravens exorcised those demons, though, with their patchwork secondary holding the Dolphins to just one touchdown after the opening drive. And by the time backup tight end Charlie Kolar caught his first career touchdown pass, from backup quarterback Tyler Huntley, the Ravens’ dominance in the AFC this regular season was indisputable.
Here are five quick impressions of the win, the Ravens’ 10th in their past 11 games after a 3-2 start:
1. This team has earned every bit of some much-needed rest.
A month ago, the Ravens were considered one of the top teams in the AFC, but skeptics pointed to a rugged stretch of December football that included three straight games against division leaders — at Jacksonville, at San Francisco on Christmas Night and then Miami at home. Any stumbles opened the door for one of the AFC’s other top teams to claim the No. 1 overall seed and first-round bye.
Instead, the Ravens slammed the door on any such thoughts. They outscored those three teams 112-45, and wrapped up their first division title since 2019.
Their reward is some sorely needed rest for several key players. When the Ravens host the Pittsburgh Steelers in the regular-season finale next week, they know the result has no bearing on their playoff seeding.
So there’s no rush to bring back safety Kyle Hamilton (knee), cornerback Brandon Stephens (ankle) or guard Kevin Zeitler (knee/quad), three starters who missed this game. Same for cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who left this game with a calf injury, and linebacker Patrick Queen, who battled through a clear shoulder injury.
With the first-round bye after next week, those players all should get at least two full weeks to heal up. That’s a luxury at this time of year in the NFL, and it’s one that the Ravens have absolutely earned with a 7-1 road record — including two trips to the West Coast, one to Arizona and one to London — and one of the more impressive regular-season stretch runs in team history.
2. Lamar Jackson just won his second MVP award.
Lamar Jackson’s MVP candidacy has been a hot topic this year, in part because he hasn’t put up eye-popping numbers of some other passers. Coming into Week 17, Jackson ranked 15th among quarterbacks in passing yards, tied for 14th in touchdown passes, and seventh in passer rating.
None of those numbers jump off the page. But Jackson again leads all NFL quarterbacks in rushing yardage, and he has played his best of the season down the stretch. Beginning with a big divisional win against Cincinnati in November, Jackson has thrown 14 touchdowns and two interceptions in his past six games.
And while Jackson likes to say he doesn’t play “against” the other team’s quarterback, since he faces the other team’s defense, in the past two weeks, he has squared off against two others in the MVP conversation, San Francisco’s Brock Purdy and Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa, and has decisively outperformed both. No one reasonably watching the past two games could effectively argue either of those players deserve the award over Jackson.
He has operated Todd Monken’s offense seamlessly. It’s been a running attack when it needs to be, but as he showed against the Dolphins, the deep ball is there. His 75-yard touchdown pass to Zay Flowers hit the rookie in stride — though it doesn’t hurt when the Dolphins just flat-out forget to cover the Ravens’ best receiver.
Jackson’s critics — and they never vanish — point out historic seasons by Miami wide receiver Tyreek Hill and San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey, both of whom belong in the conversation. But what Jackson has done over the past month, and how he has led his team to the AFC’s overall No. 1 seed, should erase any doubt.
He said this week that he doesn’t really focus on the MVP race, but he just won it, anyway.
3. Give general manager Eric DeCosta and his personnel staff a game ball.
Just about eight months ago, Baltimore — and the franchise — were on eggshells about the Ravens after quarterback Lamar Jackson publicly asked to be traded in the midst of a contract dispute. There were long days for general manager Eric DeCosta as he tried to shape a roster not even knowing whether his franchise quarterback would be around.
Ultimately, the deal indeed did get done — but so did so many other deals, many of which flew under the radar but have paid big dividends in the Ravens’ run this season.
DeCosta’s signing of receiver Odell Beckham was his splashiest of the offseason, and many thought he overpaid for a 31-year-old receiver coming off a major knee injury. Yet Beckham looked at the cameras at his news conference and said he hoped to play with Lamar Jackson, and DeCosta had to know that a little extra boost in that contract would indirectly factor in Jackson’s equation.
DeCosta also selected Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers with the first pick of the draft, intent on rebuilding that position group and not scared off by the Ravens tortured history of drafting the position. Flowers has made good on that move. With his 75-yard touchdown, Flowers leads the Ravens with 77 catches for 858 yards — easily a Ravens rookie record — and five touchdowns.
Beyond that, though, the under-the-radar moves DeCosta made have made a big difference, and they were on display in this game.
With Kyle Hamilton and Brandon Stephens out, and with Marlon Humphrey sidelined during the game by a calf injury, the Ravens turned to Ronald Darby and Rock Ya-Sin, two summertime free-agent pickups for depth.
Ditto for Kyle Van Noy and Jadeveon Clowney, two veteran edge rushers brought in late who have looked rejuvenated in Baltimore. Van Noy, who didn’t even play for the Ravens until Week 4, recorded his career-best eighth sack against Miami.
There was also the signing of veteran wide receiver Nelson Agholor, who had a key touchdown in the win at San Francisco last week, and the signing of undrafted rookie running back Keaton Mitchell, who gave the running game a huge spark before suffering a season-ending injury two weeks ago.
Yes, the Beckham and Jackson deals made the headlines, but many other less-heralded deals done by DeCosta, after consultation with his personnel staff, are also major reasons why the Ravens are celebrating a division title.
4. Justice Hill is emblematic of this team’s sum-of-the-parts approach.
Justice Hill scored two touchdowns in the Ravens’ first game, but that was hardly enough to vault him high into the rushing rotation, even after J.K. Dobbins went down with a season-ending injury. The Ravens turned to Gus Edwards, and at times Kenyan Drake and and at times Melvin Gordon, with Hill slotting into the mix always somehow, but never in a featured way.
The best pass-blocking running back on the team found his way onto the field on third down, but only five times all season has he had more than five carries. And when rookie Keaton Mitchell burst onto the scene, Hill again found himself nudged down the depth chart.
If the sixth-year back ever groused about his situation, it never showed. He set about going to work, doing what was asked, being ready when his number was called. And much like wide receiver Tylan Wallace, who shined as a punt returner when his number was called, Hill shined against the Dolphins.
Hill finished with three rushes for 48 yards and five catches for 64, including a 20-yard touchdown that tied the game at 7. Even more impressive, though, was his play earlier in that drive. With the Ravens facing third-and-16, Hill caught a pass in the right flat, reversed course, dodged defenders and picked up 18 yards to extend the drive.
Then with the Dolphins hoping to claw back into the game after falling behind 28-13, Hill took the second-half kickoff and raced 78 yards to set up another score. As the Ravens have done all season, they broke the will of their opponent, and that return by Hill was a big part of it.
Hill doesn’t generate a lot of headlines for the Ravens, but his role should not be underestimated. This team has succeeded largely because of the Justice Hills on the roster. Put those parts together, and they make a more impressive, more complete whole.
5. The rest vs. rust debate will begin now.
John Harbaugh didn’t shy away from it. In his postgame news conference, he mentioned the 2019 season, when the Ravens rolled to the AFC’s No. 1 overall seed, rested starters in the regular-season finale, rested during the bye week — and promptly fell flat in a stunning loss to the Tennessee Titans in their first and only playoff game that season.
How the Ravens approach the same scenario this season will be fascinating to watch. Will the Ravens try to play more starters next week for at least part of the game, to keep them sharp? Will he bank on the rest being more beneficial at this time of year than the snaps?
Harbaugh said he has considered the question of whether Lamar Jackson will play at all next week against Pittsburgh — he did not in the 2019 regular-season finale — but said he has not discussed it with Jackson and would not divulge his thinking on it.
He also correctly pointed out that the roster only has 53 players; this isn’t like the preseason when almost all starters can sit out with a 90-man roster. Some starters will need to be on the field.
The strategy will be interesting to watch, but it’s one the Ravens are glad to be in a position to worry about.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox