With possession inside the two-minute warning, the Baltimore Ravens finished a Mark Andrews drop shy of overcoming their single largest halftime deficit of the 2024 season. The Ravens fell to the Buffalo Bills 27-25 despite outgaining Buffalo by nearly 150 yards, ending their prolific offensive season short of the AFC Championship.
After setting a franchise record for fewest turnovers in a season, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens coughed up the ball to Buffalo three times. Jackson (18-for-25 passing, 254 yards, two touchdowns and an interception) threw an early pick to Taylor Rapp in the first quarter, then fumbled away the ball on a Damar Hamlin strip sack the next offensive drive. With just under nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Jackson connected with an open Andrews, who had the ball punched out and recovered by Terrel Bernard. Buffalo scored a combined 10 points in the drives following the turnovers.
TB IN THE CLUTCH!!!
📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/Q4yPvYIyCx
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 20, 2025
Baltimore is now 0-12 in franchise history when losing the turnover battle in the playoffs and 18-2 when turnover margin is at least tied. Their minus-3 turnover margin in the loss is tied for a franchise-worst in postseason games and the sixth time in franchise history they’ve hit the mark in the postseason. They last went minus-3 in the turnover battle in last year’s Kansas City game.
Baltimore was able to hold Buffalo to a field goal on the next drive and orchestrated a six-play, 88-yard touchdown drive to cut the deficit to two points with 1:33 to play. The Ravens went for two, but Jackson was unable to connect with an open Andrews at the corner of the goal line. Andrews had four drops through the entire 2024 season.
The two-point conversion is no good 😳
📺: #BALvsBUF on CBS
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus and Paramount+ pic.twitter.com/s1DAo0tdm1— NFL (@NFL) January 20, 2025
Baltimore finished the game 7-for-10 on third down conversions and 1-for-1 on fourth down conversions. The Ravens averaged 5.9 yards per rushing attempt while posting the seventh-most rushing yards in a playoff game (176) in franchise history. Baltimore outgained the Bills offense 416-273, holding Josh Allen to 16-for-22 passing and just 127 yards through the air.
After a season where Baltimore posted the third-most regular-season yards in NFL history and Jackson put up the fewest turnovers for a quarterback with 40-plus passing touchdowns in history, their playoff run ends shy of a Super Bowl berth. Baltimore is now 3-5 in the playoffs since 2018 with Jackson as the starting quarterback, making the AFC Championship just once in that span. He will finish what could be his third MVP season in six years with 13 combined touchdowns and 11 combined turnovers.
Turnovers came at the worst time
You can’t expect to lose the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, commit three turnovers and not get in the end zone when you have a first down on the opponent’s 2-yard line, then win a playoff game on the road against a good team. It’s as simple as that.
Jackson did things that he hadn’t done all year with the turnovers. The Ravens, who had the best run defense in football, couldn’t stop the run. The offensive line looked overwhelmed at times. This has been the story for Jackson and the Ravens in all their recent playoff losses. They get taken out of their game and bury themselves in mistakes. Credit to them for the third-quarter rally, but they dug themselves too deep of a hole against a really good team. — Jeff Zrebiec, Ravens beat writer
How can Baltimore get over the hump?
The biggest offseason question for the Ravens’ decision makers is what they need to do to get their team over the hump in a loaded AFC. Obviously, that’s a hard question to answer and solve, but Baltimore and its quarterback has nothing left to prove in the regular season. The Ravens have made the playoffs in six of their past seven years, but they haven’t won more than one game in any of those postseason trips. They’ve advanced to the conference championship just once.
Obviously, they’ll have different areas on their roster that they’ll need to fortify. However, the biggest issue is finding a way to go from a great regular season and transfer that into being a great postseason team. — Zrebiec
Offensive line a priority in 2025
The team that walked off the field Sunday will likely look very similar to the one that’s on the field for Week 1 of the 2025 regular season. Most of the key Ravens are under contract for next year. If there is an area that general manager Eric DeCosta will have to solidify, it’s the offensive line. Three of the Ravens’ top six offensive linemen — starters Ronnie Stanley, Patrick Mekari and reserve Josh Jones — are free agents. The Ravens are always looking to add youth and talent to their offensive line. It feels like a must this offseason. — Zrebiec
Required reading
(Photo: Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo)
