Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Houston Texans by a score of 34-10 in their Divisional Round playoff matchup on Saturday, punching their ticket to the AFC Championship Game.
But the score doesn’t exactly tell the full story.
The first half was hardly a dominant one for the Ravens, as they were tied 10-10 with the Texans heading into halftime.
That prompted a fiery locker room speech from Jackson, who did not elaborate too much on exactly what he said to his teammates.
“It’d be inappropriate if I said it,” Jackson said, via Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports. “We really wasn’t doing anything to that defense. They was playing great and the offense was playing great as well, but we wasn’t doing our job. In the second half, we went and put points on the board. We started moving the ball, moving the chains, and started looking like ourselves.”
That’s for sure.
Baltimore scored 24 unanswered points in the second half, with 17 of those points coming in the fourth quarter.
“When the leader talks, you listen,” said tight end Isaiah Likely, who caught a touchdown pass from Jackson during the final frame.
Jackson went 16-for-22 with 152 yards and a couple of touchdowns while also carrying the ball 11 times for 100 yards and a pair of scores.
It represented a massive breakthrough performance for the 26-year-old, who had previously gone just 1-3 in the playoffs while posting some rather paltry numbers.
Lamar Jackson and Co. will now await the winner of the Kansas City Chiefs-Buffalo Bills matchup which takes place on Sunday.
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