Even after making a host of errors, the Ravens stared down their past playoff frustrations and appeared on the verge of overcoming them when Lamar Jackson threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Likely with 1:33 left in a divisional round showdown at Buffalo on Jan. 19.
Instead, a new page of postseason agony for this franchise was written when tight end Mark Andrews dropped the ensuing two-point conversion attempt near the right front corner of the end zone, and with that, the Ravens fell, 27-25, to end their season.
The third-seeded Ravens had traveled to second-seeded Buffalo looking to get back to the AFC championship game for the second straight season. The highly anticipated matchup featured the front-runners for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in Jackson and Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen.
But the Ravens had to play catch-up most of the night after committing three turnovers that the Bills turned into 10 points. Jackson lost a fumble and threw an interception in the first half as the Bills built a 21-10 halftime lead, and then Andrews lost a fumble — his first in five years — fighting for extra yardage after making a catch in the fourth quarter.
The Bills led 24-19 at the time, and they methodically moved down the field, eating up yardage and time. The Ravens stiffened near the end zone, and the Bills opted for a chip-shot field goal on fourth-and-goal from the 2 with 3:29 left.
Needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion for a tie, and playing without his top target in wide receiver Zay Flowers — who missed his second straight game with a knee injury — Jackson quickly marched the Ravens down the field.
Jackson found Tylan Wallace over the middle for a 27-yard gain into Bills territory, then floated a pass to Andrews down the right sideline for 19 yards. On the next play, Jackson dropped back, surveyed the field behind good pass protection and fired a pass that a sliding Likely caught in the end zone to cut the Bills lead to 27-25.
On the ensuing two-point try, Andrews released toward the right front pylon, and Jackson put the pass right on his hands. The ball clanked off Andrews’ hands and chest as he fell toward the goal line, and the pass fell away incomplete.
The Ravens failed to recover the ensuing onside kick, and the Bills moved on to the AFC title game against top-seeded Kansas City.
This marks the Ravens’ sixth postseason appearance in the past seven seasons, but only once have they advanced past the divisional round.
The Ravens had opened up a 7-0 lead with a systematic opening drive that ended with Jackson firing a 16-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman. That was the seventh touchdown in the past nine games for Bateman.
But Allen and the Bills immediately countered, going 70 yards in 11 plays. They tied the game on a 1-yard touchdown run by running back Ray Davis.
The Bills went ahead for good after Jackson fumbled while trying to wiggle away from pressure. He lost his handle on the ball, and Bills’ linebacker Von Miller scooped it up and raced 39 yards to the Ravens’ 24-yard line. Four plays later, Allen powered over for the first of his two rushing touchdowns and a 14-7 Bills lead with 8:52 left in the half.
The Bills upped their lead to 21-10 at halftime after a 4-yard run by Allen in the closing seconds of the half. That came three plays after a controversial pass interference penalty on Tre’Davious White set up the Bills at the Ravens’ 12-yard line.
The Ravens, who had rolled over the Bills 35-10 in Week 4 behind 199 rushing yards from Derrick Henry, struggled to get Henry going early. He had 21 yards on eight carries in the first half. Yet as he has done so often this season, Henry had a major impact in the second half, and his 5-yard touchdown run cut the Bills’ lead to 21-19 with 1:37 left in the third quarter.
The Ravens, though, missed out on a chance to tie when Jackson’s two-point conversion pass intended for Isaiah Likely was tipped away and fell incomplete.
Tyler Bass added a pair of field goals to extend the Bills’ lead to 27-19 before the Ravens final drive fell agonizingly short.
Here are five quick impressions of the game, which drops Jackson to 3-5 as a postseason starter:
1. A minus-3 turnover ratio will get you beat every time in the postseason.
The Ravens outgained the Bills by more than 100 yards, at 416-273 in total offense. At the beginning of the game, and at the end, and at several points in between, they moved the ball effectively. But too many times in between, they gave the ball away. The Ravens committed three turnovers, and the Bills committed none. Come playoff time, when the opponent is better and the margins are tighter, that will always be a losing formula.
The most frustrating thing is the Bills really forced only one of the turnovers, when Terrel Bernard poked the ball free from Mark Andrews as he worked for extra yardage after a catch. The first turnover came when Lamar Jackson sailed an interception past Rashod Bateman, an easy center-field type catch for Bills safety Taylor Rapp. Then Jackson tried to wiggle away from pressure from Damar Hamlin and appeared to just lose the handle on the ball. Von Miller raced the other way with the ball to set up a Bills touchdown.
The Bills weren’t any more impressive than the Ravens offensively. In fact, Jackson produced better numbers than Allen. Jackson finished 18-for-25 for 254 yards passing and ran six times for 39 yards. Allen completed 16 of 22 passes for 127 yards and ran 10 times for 20 yards. He did rush for two touchdowns. Most important, Allen and the Bills never turned the ball over. Against the error-prone Ravens, that was enough.
2. This will haunt Mark Andrews, but the Ravens aren’t here without him.
Just a few weeks ago, Ravens fans were celebrating after tight end Mark Andrews set the franchise all-time record for touchdowns scored (now up to 51). He and quarterback Lamar Jackson have been a dynamic duo since they arrived in Baltimore together as rookies in 2018, and he’s probably been the Ravens’ most consistent pass catcher during the past seven years.
The thing about sports is that fortunes play no favorites, and the wrong mistake at the wrong time will linger in infamy. Ravens fans still haven’t forgotten or forgiven Lee Evans after he failed to secure a potential go-ahead touchdown catch in the AFC championship game in 2011, or kicker Billy Cundiff after he missed a potential game-tying field goal a couple of plays later — two other pages of Ravens postseason agony.
Andrews is as ferociously competitive as anyone in that locker room, and his performance in this game will haunt him. He dropped a pass and had a catch poked from his hand for his first lost fumble in five seasons. But of course the one people will really remember is the ball off his hands at the corner of the end zone that would have tied the game.
It’s worth noting that even if Andrews had made the catch, the game was far from over. The Ravens would have been in a tie, and the Bills and Allen would have had roughly 1:30 left to try to get into field-goal range. The Bills might have won anyway. But that won’t be remembered. What will be remembered is Andrews dropped the ball. These moments tend to galvanize.
After the game, Ravens players and head coach John Harbaugh vigorously came to Andrews’ defense. Kyle Hamilton said anyone criticizing Andrews should “look in the mirror and really evaluate your thought process.” Jackson said, “It’s a team game,” and lamented his own turnovers.
Andrews is going to be pilloried by fans this week, which is their right, but it’s also accurate to say that they wouldn’t have been playing in Buffalo without him.
3. One Ravens goal-line possession in particular was not Todd Monken’s finest hour.
After Lamar Jackson lofted a 42-yard pass to Rashod Bateman to the Bills’ 2-yard line, the Ravens appeared set to tie the game at 14. They had first-and-goal at the 2, with the most lethal running game in the league. Four plays later, they were kicking a field goal after trying to run once.
Considering this team powered past the Bills the first time these teams played, and have the most elite power back in the game in Derrick Henry, the Ravens’ inability to reach the end zone, and offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s choice to get away from him, merits scrutiny.
On first down, the Ravens did try to run with Henry, and the Bills hammered him for a 1-yard loss. That might have informed Monken’s thinking. On second down, the Ravens tried to pass, but the play broke down and Jackson was sacked back at the 8. Then on third down, Jackson scrambled and threw a hurried pass toward Henry, but the ball fell incomplete and would have been well short of the end zone anyway. Justin Tucker then came on for a 26-yard field goal.
But settling for three points after having first-and-goal at the 2 seemed ominous at the time. The yardage for Henry had been tough to come by in the first half, as the Bills did a terrific job bottling him up. The Ravens, though, with their size, and with their Pro Bowl fullback Patrick Ricard in front of him, should have forced the issue. Yes, the Bills stuffed Henry on first down. Fine, do it again on second down. And again on third down. And again on fourth down if need be. The odds of Henry, running behind Ricard, being held to a total of 2 yards on four straight carries was slim.
Henry started to gash the Bills in the second half and finished with 84 yards on 16 carries. He should have had a couple of more near the goal line.
4. For Jackson and the Ravens, it’s “yeah, but …” until further notice.
John Harbaugh, like countless players and coaches before him, has noted that only one team gets to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, and going on a run to do that takes incredible consistency and execution. To be blunt, the Ravens in the postseason simply haven’t had that. And they haven’t really been close, at least since their 2012 Super Bowl run.
Some years they have battled to claim a final postseason spot, sometimes they have romped to the No. 1 seed. Yet each time since that Super Bowl — and yes, each time in the Lamar Jackson era — the playoff run has ended with an agonizing, error-prone loss. A shocking loss as an overconfident top seed in 2019. A 101-yard interception return by Buffalo in 2020. A 98-yard fumble return by Cincinnati in 2022 (a game Jackson missed). A goal-line fumble by Zay Flowers in 2023. A mistake here, a turnover there.
As much as they wish they could, the Ravens can’t run from their postseason stumbles. Narratives develop throughout time. Even if they start 8-0 or 11-2 next year, the clarion cry will be, “Yeah, but what about January?”
The Ravens own that. It’s up to them to change it, and the biggest problem for them is they have no way to even begin to change that until next January — at the earliest.
5. The offseason begins earlier than anyone had hoped.
By Monday morning, players will meet with their coaches one more time, and then they will head to the locker room to pack up. Some will talk to the media, with large contractor bags on site to load up belongings, and they will almost certainly note how none of them expected to be in that spot at that time.
Roquan Smith noted after the game that every season is different, that players come and go, and he lamented that this group’s story ended in Buffalo.
Now, sooner than they hoped, general manager Eric DeCosta and head coach John Harbaugh will have to start looking to next year’s story. In the next week or so, the Ravens should learn whether offensive coordinator Todd Monken is hired away for a head coaching job. Some shuffling on the staff seems inevitable, as it happens every year.
As always, tough roster decisions will be made. Turnover is inevitable. Tackle Ronnie Stanley took a pay cut before this season and produced one of the best seasons of his career. Now he’s set to hit free agency. Can the Ravens afford to bring him back? Can they afford not to?
Brandon Stephens, Patrick Ricard and Patrick Mekari are among other pending free agents. The Ravens have younger players they’d like to extend before they get close to free agency. The Ravens hoped all these issues and decisions were further down the road. But the offseason is here, sooner than anyone hoped.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox