Baltimore makes its first postseason appearance since 2014.
Sunday, December 30, 2018, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE. When President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, his successor Gerald Ford declared, “Our long national nightmare is over.” For Baltimore football fans, a locally-based demon has also been exorcized.
The Ravens got a late, clutch defensive play from linebacker CJ Mosley, who intercepted a fourth-down pass to hold off the visiting Cleveland Browns, 26-24.
The win gave the Ravens its fifth AFC North title and secured the team’s 11th postseason berth–its first since 2014.
Had the Ravens failed to win, it would have marked a fourth straight year without a postseason appearance. That would have tied a team record set in the team’s first four years of existence (1996-99).
“I was emotionally spent,” head coach John Harbaugh said. ‘I told defensive coordinator Don Martindale that I was worthless in the fourth quarter. I didn’t help anybody in the fourth quarter.”
As the Browns drove downfield needing only a field goal to win, they had two completions upheld via replay and drove into range. Visions of Antonio Brown’s goal-line stretch in Pittsburgh two years ago and Tyler Boyd’s fourth-and-12 touchdown catch for Cincinnati last season danced through Ravens’ fans heads.
But the noisy 70,925 in attendance (the team’s 189th straight sellout, including postseason) would go home happy this time.
When Mosley tipped Baker Mayfield’s pass to himself and secured the ball, he enabled the Ravens to grab a division crown, a playoff spot, the team’s 30th win over Cleveland in 40 meetings, and the franchise’s 200th regular-season win.
Even though playoff game dates/times were not immediately announced, it is believed that the fourth-seeded Ravens (10-6) will host the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Chargers at 4:30 p.m. next Sunday.
It will mark the Ravens’ first home playoff game since beating Indianapolis on Wild Card Weekend in 2012–the year the franchise won the second of its two Super Bowls. The Ravens have hosted only five postseason contests in their history. This time it will be against a distant, yet familiar, foe. The Chargers were a victim in the Ravens’ 6-1 post-bye stretch run.
To get there, the Ravens once again relied on a run-oriented offense keyed by quarterback Lamar Jackson (14-for-24, 179 yards, sack, 81.8 rating). The running game worked, too, to the tune of 296 net yards–the third-most in a single game in team history.
The Ravens ran for 159 or more yards in each of their last seven games, possessing the ball for an average of over 36 minutes per game, They held it for 38:30 against Cleveland.
Jackson, who also ran 20 times for 90 yards with two touchdowns, was engaged with Mayfield in a duel of first-round quarterbacks and Heisman Trophy winners. Mayfield (23-for-42, 376 yards, three touchdowns, three interceptions, 79.1 rating) blinked early, throwing an interception (to Jimmy Smith) on his first pass of the day. But the Ravens could not capitalize on the early takeaway, getting only a Justin Tucker 38-yard field goal.
Again playing the part of the devil-may-care gunslinger, Mayfield answered by finding Antonio Callaway for 38 yards, then hitting a streaking Breshad Perriman down the seam for a 28-yard touchdown and a 7-3 lead. For the first of two occasions, slot corner Tavon Young acted as if he was to have had safety help on the play, but none came.
Mayfield ended the season with an NFL rookie record 27 touchdown passes, breaking the mark set by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson. He had at least one scoring toss in all 13 of his starts. His problem on Sunday is that he didn’t have the running game that Jackson had to support him.
Gus Edwards and Jackson keyed a 69-yard, seven-play jaunt that ended when Jackson pulled a classic zone-read move, faked a handoff, and bolted 25 yards up the middle for a go-ahead score–the Ravens’ first offensive touchdown in 22 drives against the stubborn Browns.
On the next drive, Kenneth Dixon (117 yards, 12 carries) and Edwards (76 yards, 12 carries) combined for 59 yards in rushes. Then Jackson followed left tackle Ronnie Stanley and left guard James Hurst as they pulled to the right on an eight-yard touchdown. Dixon added another 37-yard run to set up a Tucker field goal to make the lead 20-7.
The Ravens seemed to be in complete control when Smith snagged his second interception on a ball Young tipped. It was the Ravens’ first two-pickoff performance since Corey Graham did it against the New York Jets five years ago.
But the game’s biggest turning point soon followed. After Willie Snead’s 25-yard catch put the ball near the Browns’ goal line, Jackson tried to dive over and break the plane for a score. But Browns safety Jabrill Peppers knocked the ball free, scooped it up, and seemed to be on his way for a 99-yard touchdown.
The officials’ whistles blew, rendering the play dead, nullifying any score or any replay availability. But it was ruled that Jackson did not break the plane and that the Browns had the ball.
The Browns must have felt cheated, especially since a subsequent long pass to Landry (102 yards, five catches, touchdown) bounced off his helmet and, then, Greg Joseph missed a 46-yard field goal try. The Ravens led 20-7 at the half, and things were still mostly going their way as they tried to reverse a trend that had seen them lose five of their last six regular-season finales.
The only win in that stretch came–you guessed it–at home against Cleveland in 2014. But it looked as if even that coincidence would be rendered moot as Landry got free of Young for a 48-yard score and a Maxx Williams holding call nullified a Jackson touchdown run.
Tucker’s 44- and 23-yard field goals kept Cleveland at bay, but Mayfield–author of two of the three 300-yard passing performances against the Ravens this year, drove the Browns 75 yards in nine plays and hit Callaway (79 yards, four catches, touchdown) from one yard out with 3:24 to go to bring the visitors to within two points.
As well as the Ravens ran the ball and controlled the clock, they could not do so at this critical point, going three-and-out and very nearly fumbling it away when Jackson’s pitch-out to Ty Montgomery hit the ground.
Martindale then deployed his most aggressive defensive scheme, showing Cleveland a cover-zero look for four straight plays, and rendering their final drive fruitless.
It meant that the Ravens and their fans could finally exhale. The demons vanished.
**************************
AFC PLAYOFF
Teams are listed by seed, team, overall record, division record, and conference record.
DIVISION CHAMPS
z-1. Kansas City, 12-4, 5-1, 10-2
x-2. New England, 11-5, 5-1, 8-4
x-3. Houston, 11-5, 4-2, 8-4
x-4. Baltimore, 10-6, 3-3, 8-4
WILD-CARD PARTICIPANTS
y-5. Los Angeles Chargers, 12-4, 4-2, 9-3
6. Indianapolis, 10-6, 4-2, 7-5
y – clinched playoff berth
x – clinched division title
z – clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs
AFC WILD CARD WEEKEND
Saturday: Indianapolis at Houston, 4:35p, ESPN
Sunday: Los Angeles at Baltimore, 1:05p, CBS
NOTE: In the Divisional (second) round, the top seed will play the lowest surviving seed from Wild Card Weekend, while the second seed will play the highest surviving seed from Wild Card Weekend.
