
Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith, always direct, summed things up like this: “It sucks.” In frigid Buffalo on Sunday night, the third-seeded Ravens lost to the second-seeded Bills, 27-25, ending Baltimore’s season in a game the team had so many chances to win. Here are five takeaways from the brutal AFC divisional round defeat—something we’ve sadly seen before.
Mark Andrews needs a hug or something.
You hate to see it. Mark Andrews—Mr. Reliable, Lamar Jackson’s longtime “safety blanket,” the Ravens all-time leader in touchdown receptions, a guy who literally helped save a woman’s life earlier this year—was part of not one, but two crushing, game-changing plays that you could say cost the Ravens a win.
He dropped a potential game-tying pass on a two-point conversion after the Ravens completed an eight-play, 88-yard scoring drive with 1:44 left. And on the Ravens previous drive, which also looked like it could have ended in a (go-ahead) score, Andrews fumbled for the first time since 2019.
Social media almost immediately lit up with relentless harsh words and memes about the final play, in particular. So, yeah, suffice it to say, he could probably use a hug.
“There’s nobody that has more heart and cares more or fights more than Mark,” coach John Harbaugh said Sunday night. “We wouldn’t be here without Mark Andrews.”
The two-point play drop will go down in Baltimore sports lore for the wrong reasons (and remind people of another missed catch in the 2019 playoffs against Tennessee), though it wasn’t as simple of a grab as it may have looked. The pass wasn’t entirely on target, but we’ll spare you the video replay and CBS announcer Jim Nantz screaming: “The ball was dropped!”
As for the fumble, Andrews was punished for an extra effort when he could have just gone down to the turf. After catching a 16-yard pass from Lamar in the middle of the field, Andrews—who had five receptions for 61 yards in the game—tried to juke linebacker Terrel Bernard and Bernard punched the ball from Andrews’ left arm.
It was the Ravens’ third turnover of the night, and reminiscent of another gut-punch in last year’s AFC title game on wide receiver Zay Flowers. And it was uncharacteristic of Andrews, who had four drops all year. He had two in this game alone, plus the fumble.
Andrews didn’t talk to reporters after the game, but teammates spoke up for him. “Any other situation, Mark holds onto the ball,” fellow tight end Isaiah Likely said.
If only Lamar’s first half didn’t happen.
There was a first-quarter interception—an ugly floater in the face of a blitz that sailed above Rashod Bateman near the right sideline and was easily caught by Bills safety Taylor Rapp. “[It was] a B.S. interception,” Jackson said. “I saw it was man coverage. I just didn’t get my eyes on the safety. If I got my eyes on the safety, there wouldn’t been no interception.”
Then there was a second-quarter fumble, where Lamar simply dropped the ball under pressure after a bad snap from center Tyler Linderbaum. “I was trying to make something happen, tried to squeeze the ball, it slipped out of my hand,” Jackson said, and he lamented the decision. “[I needed to] just go down. It’s a playoff game.”
These were the kind of mistakes that Lamar more often made in previous years, when he didn’t put together 40-plus touchdowns and only four interceptions. Barely halfway into the second quarter of Sunday night’s game, he had two turnovers for the first time all season. The extra possessions tilted the game in Buffalo’s favor early and put the Ravens in an early hole. The second giveaway led to a Josh Allen quarterback sneak that gave the Bills a 14-7 lead.
It looked like “antsy” Lamar in the first half, but he appeared more poised for all of the second half, most notably connecting on five straight passes before the 24-yard touchdown strike to a sliding Likely in the front of the end zone to pull the Ravens within two points late. Jackson had 254 yards passing and 39 rushing. But potential late-game heroics wouldn’t have been necessary if he had played a cleaner first half. If that happened, the result might have been more like the Ravens’ comfortable 35-10 Week 4 win against Buffalo at home.
As much as you didn’t want to see the turnovers, neither did Lamar.
We hadn’t seen or heard him this mad after a game in a while. “Tonight, turnovers, we can’t have that s***. That’s why we lost the game,” he said in a postgame press conference. “We were moving the ball wonderfully. It’s hold on to the f***** ball. This s*** annoying. I’m tired of this s***.”
What does he feel like he needs to do to avoid this feeling again? “Protect the ball. If we protect the ball, we’re still on the field. I believe we’re driving down the field [and] putting up points…Protecting the ball. That’s the No. 1 priority, and we didn’t do it. Especially me. I’m the leader.”
As he spoke, he slapped the back of one of his hands into the palm of the other in frustration. “I got to protect the ball,” he said. “So, I’m hot.”
A frustrated Lamar Jackson referred to his own turnovers when asked about Mark Andrews:
"Tonight — the turnovers. We can't have that [expletive] ... That's why we lost the game ... hold on to the [expletive] ball. Sorry for my language." pic.twitter.com/iC7C4JJzon — NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 20, 2025
The defense gave the Ravens a chance.
Despite the turnovers, the Ravens were still within striking distance the entire game. That was thanks to their defense, which stopped the Bills quick on their first two drives of the second half and handed the offense the ball, down only 21-13. After that, Derrick Henry (84 yards on 16 carries) started to heat up, ripping off runs of 17 and 15 yards, and a five-yard touchdown that pulled the Ravens within two. They didn’t convert that two-point attempt, either, when a Lamar pass was tipped inside.
On the ensuing drive, the Ravens defense stepped up again, holding the Bills to a field goal that made it 24-19 early in the fourth quarter. Even after Andrews fumbled, the defense again kept the Bills out of the end zone, stopping Allen on a third-and-goal run to force another field goal and give the Ravens another chance to tie the game.
The Ravens held Allen to just 127 passing yards and allowed 273 total. In the meantime, the offense gained 416, but again…the three giveaways doomed them. The Ravens became the fourth team in NFL history to lose a playoff game without punting.
A Super Bowl remains elusive for Lamar and company.
The good news: The Ravens have reached the postseason in six of seven seasons since Jackson took over as starting quarterback in 2018. The bad news: For the third time during that span, the Ravens’ season ends two wins short of a Super Bowl appearance, and the Allen-led Bills have now beaten Baltimore twice in the AFC divisional round in games in subfreezing Buffalo four years apart.
But Jackson could very well win his third NFL MVP award when it is announced just before the Super Bowl in a few weeks. Voting was done before this game, meaning whatever the result between Allen and Lamar—the two frontrunners—on Sunday night wouldn’t matter. But another individual award is little solace for Lamar, who has been fixated on winning a Super Bowl from the moment the Ravens drafted him.
The closest he and the Ravens have gotten to the Super Bowl since then was last year’s AFC title game appearance in Baltimore against the eventual champion Chiefs, who will now host the Bills in this year’s AFC championship next weekend. The Ravens last played for—and won—an NFL title at the end of the 2012 season with Joe Flacco at QB.
“We’re right there,” said Jackson, whose playoff record is now 3-5 in seven seasons. “I’m tired of being right there.”