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The Baltimore Ravens are shifting on to the AFC Championship recreation after a dominant 34-10 win over the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson delivered an MVP-worthy efficiency on offense, whereas the Ravens protection utterly shut down rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud and the Texans offense.
Listed here are three takeaways from the Ravens’ massive win.
1. Lamar Jackson has a signature playoff efficiency
The large narrative coming into Saturday’s recreation for the Ravens was the actual fact they had been solely 1-3 within the playoffs with Lamar Jackson as their beginning quarterback whereas his passer score had dropped 30 factors from his profession common season efficiency (from 98 within the common season right down to 68 within the playoffs).
Properly, Jackson and the Ravens put all of that to relaxation on Saturday.
Jackson was not good, but it surely was by far one of the best playoff recreation he has performed in his profession ending the day by going 16-for-22 with 152 yards, two landing passes, 100 yards speeding, two speeding touchdowns and most significantly, zero turnovers.
Not solely did Jackson have very pedestrian numbers in his playoff profession general, he had thrown extra interceptions (5) than touchdowns (three) in his postseason profession going into Saturday. He wanted a recreation like this, and he delivered in an enormous method. Now he has the Ravens again within the AFC Championship recreation for the primary time because the 2012 season and is only one win away from reaching his first Tremendous Bowl.
The Ravens will host the winner of Sunday’s Buffalo Payments vs. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs recreation subsequent Sunday.
2. Texans made big mistake earlier than recreation even started
Houston didn’t do a lot proper on Saturday, and its errors started earlier than the opening kickoff.
The Texans gained the toss, and as an alternative of deferring their determination to the second half they determined to take the soccer and attempt to ship a message with their offense.
As a substitute, they went three-and-out, gave the ball to Baltimore and allowed the Ravens to march down the sector for a 53-yard Justin Tucker discipline aim to open the scoring. That call would loom giant within the second half. The Texans had managed to wrestle all the momentum away from Baltimore within the second quarter and went into the half with a 10-10 recreation. However due to their determination to take the opening kickoff, Baltimore bought the soccer to start out the third quarter. That was when the sport utterly flipped in Baltimore’s favor. A giant kickoff return out towards mid-field gave the Ravens prime discipline place and resulted in a go-ahead landing on a Jackson run just some performs later.
Baltimore by no means let up after that and took full management of the sport.
Would the sport have gone otherwise if Houston began the second half with the ball? Perhaps not. However there is no such thing as a denying what it did for the Ravens.
3. Ravens protection is dominant
As spectacular because the Ravens offense was on Saturday, the protection was the true story. They had been dominant in each sense of the phrase, utterly shutting down the Texans’ working recreation and continuously pressuring Stroud. They didn’t sack him, however he was by no means comfy within the pocket and continuously attempting to scramble to make performs on the run. It didn’t work.
The Ravens completed the common season with the No. 1 scoring protection within the NFL they usually seemed the half on Saturday.
The one factors Houston managed got here on a 51-yard discipline aim and a 76-yard punt return by Steven Sims. Aside from that, the Texans offense was non-existent.
Much more spectacular for Baltimore is it did that with out the companies of certainly one of its high cornerbacks, Marlon Humphrey.
With that protection the Ravens are going to be a extremely tough group to knock out this postseason if Jackson performs the best way he did on Saturday.
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