Team closes in on playoff bye as Jackson sets QB rushing mark.
M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE, Thursday, December 12, 2019. Winning an NFL division title may not mean what it used to mean, but that matters little to fans of the Baltimore Ravens. On Thursday night, their team won the AFC North title on national TV, and they got to watch the team win it at home.
With two games left in the regular season, Baltimore is on track for an off-week before it begins this year’s playoffs. And, for the first time in the team’s 24-year history, the team looks poised to be the No. 1 seed in the conference. Both were possible because this ultra-focused team checked off another box Thursday night by topping the visiting New York jets, 42-21, to clinch the AFC North in front of 70,545 happy fans.
It marks the second time in Ravens’ history the team has won two straight division titles, following the same accomplishment achieved in 2011 and 2012. It’s also the Ravens’ 12th playoff berth in 24 seasons and the team’s sixth AFC North title–bringing them to within two of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ eight crowns during the time since the division was created after the 2002 realignment.
Now 12-2 for the first time in its history, the Ravens also won its club-record tenth straight game. And the best news of all on the playoff front is that the team holds head-to-head tiebreakers over two other first-place AFC teams–New England and Houston. It did lose to AFC West champion Kansas City, but even if the Chiefs have to play the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, that contest would probably be located in Baltimore.
The Ravens’ top-two seed will be secured if New England loses at Cincinnati this Sunday. If the Patriots and Chiefs both lose (the Chiefs play at home against Denver), Baltimore will secure the top seed with two games left.
As is always the case after a Thursday-night game, the Ravens now have a ten-day mini-bye week before heading into their final two regular-season games, the first of which will be on the road against Cleveland (Sunday, December 22, 1 p.m). The Browns are one of just two teams to beat the Ravens this year–back in September when the defense struggled mightily–the run defense especially with run-stuffing defensive tackle Brandon Williams out.
A revamped Baltimore defense, which added players such as linebackers LJ Fort and Josh Bynes, and cornerback Marcus Peters, has helped the team take a quantum leap to the top of the division and, in the eyes of most, the top of the entire league as a result.
For Baltimore, Thursday’s win also completed a four-game sweep of AFC East opposition (the Ravens had already taken all four games against the NFC West). Next year, per the schedule rotation, the Ravens play the AFC South and NFC East.
The Jets (5-9), who are 1-6 on the road, have never won in Baltimore (0-6) and are now 2-9 lifetime against the Maryland-based team. But this team had won four of its last five games–even though none of those teams matched-up with the Ravens. But, to the Jets’ credit, they went 6-for-9 on third-down plays in the first half and gained just over 300 yards in total offense, getting a blocked-punt touchdown in the process.
Jets second-year quarterback Sam Darnold regressed against the rugged Ravens defense, just as Buffalo’s Josh Allen did last Sunday. Darnold had a paltry QB rating of 65.2 on 18-for-32 passing, but he did get two touchdown passes.
The Ravens, on the other hand, set a new team single-season point-scoring record with three games to spare. Averaging 33 points per game–12 more than their lifetime per-season average–got another excellent game from hobbled quarterback Lamar Jackson. Jackson is now the first player in league history to have at least 2500 passing and 1000 rushing yards in a single season.
The Ravens rushed for 218 yards, exactly 100 more than last week at Buffalo, as they try to top the 200-yard per-game average for a single season for the first time since the 1978 New England squad did so. New York had the second-best run defense coming into the game, allowing just under 79 yards per contest.
Despite an injured quadriceps muscle incurred in the win at Buffalo, Jackson threw five touchdown passes in a game for the third time this year, matching efforts in Miami and Los Angeles. He also tied Vinny Testaverde’s club touchdown pass record, set in 1996 when Testaverde made his first Pro Bowl. And, with a first-quarter five-yard run around right end, Jackson set a new single-season quarterback rushing record. He ran for 86 yards and played to a 134.4 rating Jackson broke the Michael Vick record, established in 2006.
The record-breaking run came on a drive that produced the team’s NFL-leading eighth opening-drive touchdown. Mark Ingram scored from six yards out and, then, Miles Boykin gathered in a five-yard scoring pass.
But Justin Tucker missed the conversion after the second score on aa surprisingly bad night for the special-teams units. Along with a blocked Sam Koch punt that was run back for a touchdown and several long returns allowed, it was Tucker’s second PAT miss of the year, the third of his career, and the fifth in team history.
Mark Andrews and Marquise Brown would subsequently haul in scoring passes as the Ravens showed their poise. The Andrews score was set up on a long pass to Brown that was interfered with in the end zone, putting the ball at the Jets’ 1.
Free-agent pickup Seth Roberts’ touchdown catch made it 35-7, but the Jets would rally thanks in part to BJ Bello’s score off the blocked Koch pun. The 14-year punter has now had one blocked in each of the last two seasons after going nearly five full seasons without having that happen even once.
But no mistake would slow down these Ravens. Ingram caught Jackson’s fifth touchdown pass to close the scoring. That would end Jackson’s time on the field, and backup Robert Griffin III entered to give Jackson his start on a ten-day min-bye week. Jackson can do so knowing that he has now beaten the other four teams that passed him over in last year’s first round.
On this night, the Jets had no hope of shocking Baltimore fans the way they did 50 years and 11 months to the day after Super Bowl 3. But that was then, and this is now. The Thursday win checked one more box for Baltimore in a season that has seen many boxes checked.
The question now is how many more checked-boxes await.
