By Tiffany Williams & DJ Harding –
Sunday night the Baltimore Ravens hosted the Kansas City Chiefs at M&T Bank Stadium for the AFC Championship game, and the Ravens, who had a 13-4 regular and were first in in the AFC North, they ended their postseason 1-1, losing to the Chiefs 17-10.
Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh on Friday said, “It’s a game. That’s the bottom line. It’s a football game. It’s against a very good team.” Well indeed the Ravens played a very good team with the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, who finished the night with six carries for 45 yards with a long of 16 yards. Mahomes finished the game with 226 passing yards on 21 of 38 passing with two touchdowns.
In the first quarter Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce to get this first TD of the game for Kansas City. Isiah Pacheco grabbed a 2-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter for Kansas City, and then with just four seconds remaining in the second quarter, Harrison Butker 52-yard field goal.
Baltimore had just two scoring drives. In the first quarter Lamar Jackson connected with Zay Flowers for the to grab their only passing/receiving touchdown, and in the fourth quarter Justin Tucker made a 43-yard field goal.
Lamar Jackson was 20-of-37 passing for 272 yards, one TD and one interception, adding a team-high 54 rushing yards on 8 carries.
Jackson became the first Raven in franchise history to throw for a first down, rush for a first down and reel in a catch for a first down in a single postseason game.
Roquan Smith’s game-high 16 tackles marked the most by a Raven in postseason play since Hall of Famer Ray
Lewis’ 17 on January 12, 2013 in the Divisional Round at Denver. Smith’s ten tackles including three solo in the first half marked the most by a Raven in any half of a postseason game in franchise history
Zay Flowers recorded 5 catches for 115 yards marking the eighth 100-yard receiving game in Ravens postseason history. His 115 yards stand as the third most by a Raven in a single playoff game. Flowers became just the second rookie in Ravens history to register at least 100 receiving yards in a playoff game, joining Marquise Brown who had 126 on January 11, 2020 against Tennessee.
In the second quarter, Arthur Maulet had to be evaluated for a head injury, but later returned to finish the game.
Following Sundays loss, Ravens head Coach John Harbaugh said, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and to not harm you, plans to give you hope in the future. Wait for the Lord and be strong.”
Harbaugh was asked after a loss like Sundays what was his message to the players, and he said, “I was proud of them. I’m proud of the season that they had. I feel like it was a team that had a lot of challenges. I don’t think it was a team that was too highly touted coming into the season by the pundits and the prognosticators and all that, and I think they proved a lot of people wrong, all year. The quarterback made a statement all year.
When asked why the offense wasn’t able to put its best foot forward, Harbaugh said, “We just weren’t able to … We had a couple opportunities to score down there. We didn’t get the touchdowns. It was really a defensive struggle if you step back and look at the whole game. They were able to score the points, and we weren’t.”
When asked about the sixteen rushing attempts and how it wasn’t what the Ravens normally do, Harbaugh said, “It was that kind of a game, I’d say. That’s the way it worked out.”
When asked about Lamar, Harbaugh said, He’s had a great season. His performance today was all heart. He fought. He went out there and gave it everything he had, so I don’t think that’s anything that I’d be disappointed in.”
Odell Beckham Jr. following the game was asked about seeing the season come to an end so soddenly, and he said, “It’s kind of how life goes. The toughest part is it ended and not having an opportunity to see the men that you work so hard with in this room to have the opportunity to play in the game that we all dream of as kids. Going up against an incredible team, incredible champions, it was championship football today, and they came out on top.”
When asked what this team has meant to him, Beckham said, “It’s been everything for me. Sitting out a whole year, coming here, seeing these guys, seeing the way they prepare, seeing the way that they fought – it’s been so much to my life. Apart from my son and family, football is something that I’ve dedicated my entire life to, so, it sucks to come up short. Not everything goes the way that you want in life; you’re going to have adversity, [and] you’re going to have moments of letdown, but you’ve just got to keep your head [high] and continue to fight.”
When he was asked about his future, Beckham said, “To me, if there is anything I felt about myself – regardless of anybody’s opinion or anything like that – is that I know that I can still play football, and I know that I still have [stuff] in the tank. It’s just unfortunate – the way that it went today – because, to me, it’s so much bigger than one person in this room; it was [about] just being able to have that moment with these guys you’ve worked so hard with. So, for me, as far as my future, [I’ll] just take a step back, breathe for a second, pick [my] chin up, just know that life goes on, and we’ll figure out what’s next after that.”
“It’s crazy. We had some opportunities out there. We’ve just got to take advantage of them, Ravens Quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “Can’t turn the ball over, fumble, throw an interception or stuff like that. That gave them opportunities to put points on the board and win the game. We get in that red zone, and it’s been our touchdown all season. We’ve just got to finish, and we didn’t do a good job on finishing. The defense did a wonderful job and held a great offense to 17 points. We’ve got to execute. We scored one touchdown, and that’s not like us. That was early on in the year. There are no excuses, though. We’ve got to take advantage.”
When asked if he felt like the team was trying to do too much and battle back at times, Jackson said, “No. We’re trying to win. I don’t think you’re doing too much when you’re trying to win out there.”
When asked he was more frustrated or hopeful, Jackson said, “I’m not frustrated at all. I’m angry about losing. We were a game away from the Super Bowl. We’ve been waiting all this time, all these moments for an opportunity like this, and we fell short, but I feel like our team is going to build. This offseason, we’re going to get right, get better, grind and try to be in this position again but on the other side of victory.”
Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid on Sundays win for the Chiefs said, “My hat goes off to the Ravens and the city of Baltimore. You’ve got a great football team. We appreciated your hospitality. It’s a great environment to play in. Then how about the Chiefs? I mean, what a great deal that was. I thought our guys played hard, aggressive football. It always starts with the offensive and defensive line. They came out with a purpose here and played their hearts out. Pat Mahomes did a great job again, as he normally does. But starting the game off with 11 completions, that’s something special, then to manage the game. Kind of thrown by the side is him taking a sack there at the end as opposed to trying to fit the ball in. He took the sack, kept the clock running. Good things happened there at that particular time.” He added, “We were able to get a lead, and we were able to maintain that lead and did it with great personality there, as they’ve done throughout the season. My hat goes ought to Spags [Steve Spagnuolo], to Nags [Matt Nagy], and to [Dave] Toub for the jobs that they’ve done as coordinators putting things together. Most of all keeping the hope up when things weren’t going as well. MVS [Marques Valdez-Scantling] is a picture of that. People coming down on him everywhere, he keeps it right there and does a great job with it. Just phenomenal. That kid, he’s taken a beating here, and he was able to just hang in there and battle, so… Anyway…”
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