Lamar Jackson Says He’s Still ‘Puzzled’ Over Loss To Titans In AFC Divisional Round

A little over a month has passed since the Ravens suffered a shocking loss to the Titans in the AFC Divisional Round. Lamar Jackson still can’t believe the 28-12 defeat that ended his first full season as a starter which included the 2019 NFL MVP award.

“I [still am] puzzled, like, just looking at highlights and stuff,” Jackson told Pro Football Talk at the 101 Awards on Saturday. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know what happened.’ Like, we had good plays. We had good drives. We’ll hit a hump one play. They steal the momentum, and it’s, you know, the NFL is like a momentum game. Like, whoever’s got momentum, they’re going to score points. They might come out with a victory, and that’s what it was. We was flat the whole night. That game was not on our defense. I feel like we just didn’t execute on offense. [If] we put more points up, it’d be a great game.”

The Ravens entered the postseason as the favorites to win the Super Bowl, according to CBS Sports. Jackson finished the AFC Divisional playoff game with 365 passing yards, one touchdown and two interceptions with 143 yards rushing. Regardless, the Ravens only scored one touchdown and couldn’t execute consistently on offense. Jackson only completed 52.5% of his passes, the third lowest completion rate in his last 17 games.

The Titans started off fast intercepting Jackson on his first drive and were able to use good field position to their advantage as Ryan Tannehill connected with Jonnu Smith for an improbable catch in the endzone to give Tennessee the early lead. To begin the second quarter, Baltimore turned the ball over on downs. On the very next play, Tannehill hit Kalif Raymond in the middle of the field for a 45-yard touchdown. The Ravens were never able to recover and scored their only touchdown in the fourth quarter.

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“We’ve got to elevate at some point in the game,” Jackson said. “I don’t feel we did that, even though we scored one in the third quarter or something. But it was like when we scored, we didn’t get excited. It was like we already lost. We can’t do that no more. That’s what I’ve seen, including myself.”

Article by Frank DeLorenzo