Lamar Jackson showed just in time to save the Baltimore Ravens season.
Filled with dramatic twists and changes in the game, the 47-42 victory saw Jackson emerge from the locker room late in the fourth quarter and lead a heroic comeback against the Browns in Cleveland. Jackson completed four passes for 38 yards to go into the field goal range for Justin Tucker, who struck out the 55-yarder with two seconds left to advance Baltimore 8-5.
“It makes my job so much easier and the job of crime so much easier,” Jackson said of Tucker. “We don’t have to hit a touchdown. Some coaches don’t trust their football; we have our confidence in ourselves. We had to position him to kick the field goal, and then the automatic duck – the rest he did.”
Jackson missed most of the fourth quarter. In his absence, the Ravens improved from 34-20 to 35-34.
With two minutes left, Ravens backer Trace McSerley had a left knee hook, and Jackson was back on the field. In his first play, Jackson dribbled to his right and attacked a receiver nicknamed “Hollywood” (Marquis Brown) for a 44-yard touchdown. It was Jackson’s first career forward touchdown pass in the final two minutes of control.
“We continued with Trace and at that point there was no sign of Lamar coming back,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “I did not know he was sidelined at the time. I owe it to our coaches – they did a great job of getting him out … situations, this game with all things … if you wrote a movie about it, people would not believe it. They say it’s not going to happen. Reality is more alien than fiction, or whatever it is. It’s here – it’s just crazy. “
Asked if he would have gone back if McSerley had not been injured, Jackson replied, “I’m still coming out of anything. It’s crisis time. It’s a win or go home for us now.”
Then, Browns (9-4) responded 1:04 left-back with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Kareem Hunt from Baker Mayfield.
Jackson, who set the Monday Night football record for rushing yards in an earlier game (124), is back with his hands. He completed four consecutive passes to get Tucker in the field goal range.
“Of course, there’s a lot of emotion – there’s a lot of emotion that goes into any field goal, but it’s going to be different, especially in the game,” Tucker said of his winning kick, one thing he learned in his nine years in the league before admitting, “Emotions are insignificant.”
“You have to focus on the act of kicking the ball, not the result,” Tucker continued. “We were able to do it well for a long time. We were able to do it tonight.”
The Ravens added a defense in the final play.
According to the ESPN Football Power Index, the Ravens now have an 86.5% chance of making the playoffs for a third season. Baltimore would have crushed a loss, which is only a 37.9% chance.
“It’s a game that will go down in history, so we’re proud to be a part of it and very proud of our players,” Harbaugh said.
The wild rally came eight days after Jackson returned from the Reserve / Govt-19 list. He tested positive for the corona virus in symptoms such as Thanksgiving and experienced fever, which led to sleep for most of his 10-day isolation.
Seven teams are 8th in the Ravens in the AFC playoffs, but they are positioned for a strong finish. Baltimore’s remaining three games are against Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals 8-30-1 (.218).