Ravens’ season of expectations ends in AFC Divisional Round originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The end for the Ravens was a fitting and soul-crushing one.
A bad snap by center Patrick Mekari forced quarterback Lamar Jackson to rush back to his own goal line and collect the loose football as Bills defenders closed in. Jackson picked it up and flung it as far as he could to the sideline as he was drilled into the turf at Bills Stadium. It didn’t matter that he got the ball away, or that he prevented a safety.
There was a flag for intentional grounding and Jackson was injured and put into concussion protocol as bad soon met worse for a Ravens team that completely collapsed down the stretch at key moments in the game.
Their 2020 season began with Super Bowl aspirations, but ended with a familiar gutpunch in a 17-3 loss to the Bills in the AFC Divisional Round.
The Ravens couldn’t get out of their own way in the playoffs once again, as mistakes, both mental and physical, cost them time and time again.
There were bad snaps, as Mekari's snapping cost the Ravens all night long. There were special teams errors, as two Justin Tucker missed field goals. Punter Sam Koch had a bad punt in the first quarter to give the Bills excellent field position, which led to three points.
There were dropped passes, missed blocks and missed deep shots as the offense couldn’t get off the mat all night. Tucker’s missed kicks in the first half kept the Ravens off the board, as he hit the left and right uprights on back-to-back kicks with the wind in Buffalo swirling to prevent a Ravens’ halftime lead.
The Bills missed a kick as well, as the first half was a surprising low-scoring affair. But that came back to bite the Ravens, as they didn’t capitalize when they could have, and as it turns out, when they needed to.
The game didn't start off the rails, as the Ravens began the game with authority when they marched down the field and into Bills’ territory on their first drive of the game. The drive stalled, Tucker missed a field goal, and the tone of the night was set.
Baltimore’s defense played remarkably well and allowed just 120 first half yards and three first half points to the league’s third-best passing attack and second-best scoring offense. The problem was, the Ravens were tied at halftime.
After a Bills touchdown to open the second half, the Ravens marched into the red zone and appeared primed to tie the game, or at the least cut the lead to four points. Then Jackson didn’t see Taron Johnson, who stepped in front of a pass and took it back 101 yards the other way for a Bills touchdown to put them up 17-3.
Then, Mekari had a bad snap and Jackson left the game with a concussion to end the Ravens’ season.
Quarterback Tyler Huntley, an undrafted free agent rookie, entered the game to try and pull a miracle, but missed a deep shot to Marquise “Hollywood” Brown down the field as the Ravens just didn’t have the same spark sans Jackson.
The Ravens entered this season with Super Bowl expectations and, despite a regular season filled with adversity, made the playoffs at 11-5 on a five-game winning streak and one of the hottest teams in football.
But once again, they fell flat in the Divisional Round of the playoffs as their season ended in bitter disappointment, for which they have no one else to blame.
