After a tough first half, the Baltimore Ravens ultimately prevailed 31:10 against the Houston Texans in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs and are back in the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 2012. The outstanding man was once again quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Texans @ Ravens: At a glance
- With four touchdowns, Jackson was once again the most important man on the Ravens’ side and set a career best with his performance.
- The Texans received a lot of support from their defense, especially in the first half, which played variable and gave the Ravens a lot of trouble at times. However, since there was basically nothing coming from their own offense, the resistance collapsed at some point after the break.
Texans @ Ravens: The Analysis
The Texans won the coin toss and wanted the ball. However, a quick 3-and-out followed and the Ravens did better and took the lead with a 53-yard field goal from Justin Tucker. As a result, the Texans needed something to get going offensively. It wasn’t until the third attempt that things really started to move forward, after several penalties had put us out of field goal range. Kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn equalized with a 50-yard field goal in the first quarter.
The Ravens responded with their best drive to date over eleven plays, which ended with a short touchdown pass from Lamar Jackson to Nelson Agholor. And as the Texans offense continued to falter, special teams had to pull the coals out of the fire. And how: Steven Sims carried a punt 67 yards to a touchdown and equalized the score before halftime. The Texans got better now and managed a few chunk plays through the air. However, they still couldn’t get into the red zone and had to kick again – but this time Fairbairn missed from 47 yards in strong winds. In the final 32 seconds, Jackson got two more sacks and the score was 10:10 going into the break.
In the second half the tide turned again. After a good kickoff return from Devin Duvernay, the Ravens started at their own 45 and made a few chunk plays, especially through Isaiah Likely. For the Texans, linebacker Christian Harris was injured after a strong first half. Ultimately, Jackson was very lucky that Jalen Pitre dropped an interception in the end zone and gave the Ravens another chance. Jackson took advantage of this with a 15-yard touchdown run.
The Texans tried to answer again, but after a trick play – a kind of reverse that led to a pass from Stroud for loss of space – ultimately all that was left was another punt. As a result, the Texans took their foot off the gas again when it came to blitzing, which resulted in Jackson dismantling the defense. Accordingly, he found Isaiah Likely after play action for a 15-yard touchdown to make the decision. Six minutes before the end he finally put the lid on it himself with another touchdown run.
The Ravens are in the AFC Championship Game for the first time since the 2012 season and will host the winner of the Kansas City Chiefs @ Buffalo Bills duel (Monday night, 12:30 a.m. live on RTL).
Houston Texans (#4) @ Baltimore Ravens (#1)
Result: 10:34 (3:3, 7:7, 0:7. 0:17) BOXSCORE
Texans @ Ravens: Key stats
- The Ravens had 23 net passing yards in the first half. Those were their fewest in any half of a game this season.
- The Texans received eight penalties for 50 yards before halftime. That was the most in a half by a playoff team since 2000.
- Sims’ punt return touchdown was the Texans’ third non-offensive touchdown of these playoffs. That tied the record for most in a playoff season set by the Packers in 2010. They won the Super Bowl back then.
- This result ended a sad series for the Texans: They also remained winless in their fifth away game in the playoffs. They remain the only current NFL team without an away win in the postseason.
- In the end, the Texans received eleven penalties for 70 yards, most of which were on the offense, which was repeatedly undisciplined, especially pre-snap. The Ravens had three penalties for 15 yards.
- The Texans didn’t make it into the red zone once, while the Ravens were 4-5 there.
The star of the game: Lamar Jackson (quarterback, Ravens)
For the second time in his career, Jackson had a game with two touchdown passes, two rushing touchdowns and no interceptions. It was also his third playoff game with at least 100 rushing yards – a record for a quarterback. Jackson was once again the Ravens’ offense for a long time and carried his team into the championship game.
The flop of the game: Offensive Line (Texans)
Given the circumstances, the Texans defense did a pretty good job keeping their team in the game as long as possible. But at some point the offense should have done something. But that didn’t work at all because she was already completely dominated by the opponent on the line. The run game was completely off and although Stroud was rarely blitzed, he was constantly under pressure. In addition, almost every O-liner incurred at least one (pre-snap) penalty, which made life even more difficult for the offense.
Analysis: Texans @ Ravens – that stood out tactically
- The Texans defense had an interesting, up-and-down day against the Ravens offense. They started with seven men in coverage, which Jackson answered with short passes. And when the Texans played man, which they did surprisingly often, he sometimes used massive gaps to run. Especially in the second quarter, the Texans started to blitz a lot – in over 70 percent of the dropbacks in the first half – and were successful. Jackson hardly had any time to pass and his running routes were also better closed because Christian Harris in particular was then used as a spy.
- The Ravens, on the other hand, hardly flashed before the break and only hesitantly turned on the tap after the break. However, they still mostly managed to create pressure and disrupt Stroud. Apart from the explosive plays, which usually ended up with Schultz or Collins, he was relatively inaccurate with his passes.
- The Texans had identified a clear weak point in the Ravens early in the game: linebacker Patrick Queen in coverage. Various matchups were created against him and were usually successful. Of course it wasn’t decisive in the game because passes in his direction were naturally underneath.