How the Titans turned the Ravens’ offense into the worst version of itself

The Ravens weren’t the Ravens in their 2020 playoff debut. That’s why their season is over.

Baltimore built a 14-win season and a 12-game winning streak on a run-heavy offense. John Harbaugh’s offense was predicated on slipping the ball through the trenches in a league that had long ago transitioned to high-impact aerial attacks.

On Saturday, an early deficit and a nagging injury to tailback Mark Ingram forced the team to ask Lamar Jackson to throw them back into this game. While the likely 2019 MVP was up to the challenge, he was ultimately done in by the Tennessee defense, a rash of injuries to important weapons across his offense, bad calls on fourth-and-short, and some straight-up drops downfield.

We still saw glimpses of defense-gashing, linebacker-embarrassing Ravens in their 28-12 Divisional Round loss to the Titans — they just never stuck around for long. Jackson still figured out ways to carve up the Tennessee zone defense through the air and blister spy defenders with his feet, but he only found the end zone once. As a result, Baltimore’s epic season is over after just one playoff game.

Now the Ravens have to figure out what went wrong.

The Ravens fielded 2019’s best rushing offense — in terms of both volume and efficiency. Baltimore was the only team in the NFL to rush for more yards (3,296) than it passed for (3,225) this fall. Between the sturdy play of Ingram and the freewheeling runs of Jackson, the club ran the ball on 56 percent of its plays this season — the highest percentage in the league since the 2009 Jets.

That strategy was put to the test early in the team’s playoff debut. After holding the Titans to an opening-drive punt, the Ravens turned the ball over twice (an interception and on downs, more about those later) to give Tennessee the short fields needed to take a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

Those first two drives saw Harbaugh opt for eight runs and four passes (66.7 percent run plays) while following a familiar script. In the nine drives that followed, Harbaugh flipped that to 55 passes and 21 runs (27.6 percent run plays) as his team desperately tried to climb out from a pool of quicksand mysteriously shaped like Derrick Henry’s quads.

This was exactly what Tennessee wanted. The Titans stacked the box against Baltimore in hopes of draining its ground game and forcing Jackson to pick up the slack through the air:

Before Saturday, Jackson had only thrown 30+ passes five times. He’d never thrown more than 43 in a single game. He threw 59 (FIFTY-NINE) times against the Titans. This meant players like Willie Snead (31 regular season catches), Seth Roberts (21), and Justice Hill (eight) were suddenly called upon to be significant contributors in the passing game. This was not a positive for the Ravens.

Not all of those dropbacks resulted in passes either, which had both benefits and drawbacks. Jackson scrambled efficiently to avoid pressure and churn out yards, but those runs also:

a) had a defined ceiling of 20-ish yards downfield,
b) failed to stop the clock throughout a game where his Ravens stared down a 22-point deficit, and
c) often led to long reset times between plays.

After seeing his carries per game drop to 11.7 during the regular season, Jackson ran the ball 20 times for 143 yards. Those are impressive numbers for sure, but the running clock and the team’s inability to run an up-tempo offense out of them meant they wouldn’t be enough to create a historic comeback.

Tucked into those 20 carries were two fourth-down attempts that portended the Ravens’ doom. Baltimore came into the Divisional Round at a perfect 8 of 8 when it came to fourth-and-1 conversions this season. On Saturday, Harbaugh overthought things. The Ravens started off six yards behind the line of scrimmage on the first attempt and moved laterally against a stacked line on the second, and converted neither:

Each of these botched fourth downs led to an immediate touchdown response from the Titans. After converting 17 of 24 fourth-down attempts in the regular season, the Ravens went 0 of 4 on those plays in their one and only postseason game.

Jackson had a perfectly fine game. The final numbers will say he accounted for 508 total yards — including a career-high 365 through the air. His offense turned 11 of its 18 third downs into first downs.

Those are all very, very good numbers. He just wasn’t the tide-changing force that he’d been in earlier wins over the Patriots, Rams, or Texans.

He didn’t get in the end zone until the fourth quarter, becoming the third player — behind Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry — to throw a touchdown pass on Saturday night. He turned the ball over three times. He’d had just eight turnovers total in the regular season.

There were several factors behind his inconsistent play. Jackson got a worse-than-usual effort from his blockers, who struggled to contain a Tennessee pass rush that ranked 17th in the league in sack rate this season and couldn’t bring down the uh, slightly less mobile Tom Brady a week before. Jackson hadn’t been sacked more than twice since Week 5. The Titans got to him three times before the third quarter was over, and that included a strip sack that led to a 20-yard Tennessee touchdown drive moments later.

That doesn’t mean Jackson is blameless for his team’s struggles. His third-quarter interception to Kenny Vaccaro cut off what could have been a vital scoring drive in what was becoming an increasingly hopeless game. It wasn’t the function of poor blocking or a dropped ball — it was simply a bad pass.

He made the wrong decision on those aforementioned fourth-down runs and missed open targets downfield. Jackson was probably good enough to win in several multiverse replays against the Titans — but he would’ve had to have been nearly perfect to beat this version of Tennessee.

Jackson was limited when it came to support downfield. A healthier Ingram would typically be able to take some of the strain from his running game, and he also had an 89.7 percent catch rate and a career-best 8.5 yards per target in 2019. Against the Titans, he had only six carries and two targets while fighting off a strained calf that required attention during the game.

Tight end Nick Boyle, who ranked fourth on the team in total targets, left the game in the third quarter with a lower leg injury. He finished with zero catches. Pro Bowler Mark Andrews, hampered by an ankle malady, failed to have his usual impact. His tip-drill drop in the first quarter set up the interception that gave way to the Titans’ first touchdown.

That wasn’t the only time Jackson was burned by his teammates downfield. Baltimore’s skill players came up with four drops in the first half alone. In all, seven of Jackson’s 59 passes would carom off his wideouts’ hands and to the turf — or worse.

Baltimore exceeded expectations in 2019 behind a curve-shattering quarterback who could do a bit of everything. Jackson’s ability to run like an amped-up Devin Hester and throw like the most efficient passer in the league (his 81.1 QBR led the NFL) helped paper over his team’s other issues — namely a lack of depth at its skill positions.

The Ravens got big plays from their quarterback. They got one amazing catch from Hollywood Brown and an otherwise solid performance. And that was about it.

The Divisional Round was a perfect storm that sunk Baltimore’s Super Bowl hopes. The Ravens were capsized by a stellar outing from the Titans, the unfamiliar territory of playing from behind, and the kind of self-inflicted wounds the team had avoided throughout a 14-2 season.

If this had happened in December, it would have been a valuable learning experience. Instead, it happened in the playoffs — and now Jackson and his teammates will have the whole offseason to think about how to fix their ship for 2020.