Lamar Jackson was in no hurry to exchange pleasure after leading the Baltimore Ravens to their first playoff game in six years – and the first win in the playoffs since becoming Ravens’ first fullback. Jackson ran off the field and into the locker room as soon as the bell rang in Baltimore’s 20-13 victory over the Tennessee Titans, a victory for which Jackson was largely responsible.
Jackson did not even bother to shake hands with his opponents, but was still upset about the Titans players stepping on the Ravens logo from the win in the regular season in November. The Ravens restored the favor this time, something Jackson did not participate in – but his teammates made sure Tennessee received the message.
‘I feel it was just disrespectful to see what happened before the game last time we played those guys, and they stood on our logo and saw how they did it with us [head] Coach, “Jackson told reporters after the game.” It was just disrespectful because we treat all our opponents with respect. It was not a reason for us to shake hands and stuff like that. We’ll be the bigger man, so we’ll walk off the field. I feel like we were the bigger guys. ‘
Jackson acted against the Titans defense by winning his first game by ten plus points. He scored 17 of 24 for 179 yards, without any touchdowns and intercepted one for a score of 74.8 in the win, while rushing 136 yards and giving an attack. Since starting 1-for-3 for seven yards with an interception (and Baltimore down 10-0), Jackson has gone 16-for-21 for 172 yards with a 99.7 rating and he has 14 tackles for 134 yards and had a touchdown.
Jackson’s 48-year rush in the second quarter was the second-longest finish by a quarter in playoff history, behind Kaepernick’s 56-yard rush in the 2012 playoffs against the Green Bay Packers (NFC Division Round). Jackson’s 143-meter rush is the second best for a quarter in the playoffs, which resulted in very large runs throughout the course of the afternoon.
The last one happened to be his best one of the day – for obvious reasons.
“My favorite run was the kneeling,” Jackson said. ‘I did not really have a favorite run [other] than to kneel at the end. ‘