BALTIMORE — The road to a division title was bumpy for the Baltimore Ravens, who started 0-2, faced a schedule packed with playoff teams and had to rally from a two-game deficit with four to play.
Having overcome all that, Lamar Jackson is looking ahead to the most important challenges of all — in the postseason.
“I’m focused on the wild-card game, I’m not going to lie to you,” Jackson said. “I’m cool with what’s going on today. I’m cool, don’t get me wrong, but my mind’s on something else.”
Jackson threw two touchdown passes, and the Ravens won the AFC North for the second straight season, clinching the division with a 35-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Saturday.
Now the Ravens (12-5) will try to reach the Super Bowl for the first time with Jackson. They open the playoffs at home against either the Los Angeles Chargers or Pittsburgh Steelers. Baltimore was two games behind the Steelers in the division before closing with four consecutive victories.
Cleveland (3-14) ended a dreadful season with six straight losses. Both Bailey Zappe and Dorian Thompson-Robinson took snaps at quarterback in the finale. Neither could move the ball much, and Zappe had an interception returned 26 yards for a touchdown by rookie Nate Wiggins for the game’s first points.
The biggest concern coming out of this game for the Ravens was the health of Pro Bowl receiver Zay Flowers, who left in the second quarter with a right knee injury.
Jackson threw TD passes to Mark Andrews in the second quarter and Rashod Bateman in the third, finishing a spectacular statistical season that might be good enough to earn him a third MVP award. Jackson finished the season with 4,172 yards passing, 41 touchdown passes and four interceptions. He became the first quarterback to reach 4,000 yards passing with 40 TD passes and four or fewer interceptions.
Jackson also finished the season with 915 yards rushing, becoming the first player to throw for 4,000 yards and rush for at least 800. His passer rating of 119.6 wasn’t quite high enough to break the single-season record of 122.5 held by Aaron Rodgers.
Zappe threw for 170 yards with two interceptions. His 16-yard scoring pass to Jordan Akins made it 21-10 in the fourth, but the Ravens answered with 70-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Derrick Henry.
Henry, who turned 31 on Saturday, added a 43-yard scoring run late in the fourth. He finished the season with 1,921 yards rushing and a franchise-record 16 touchdowns on the ground.
Cleveland has now gone 28 consecutive games without allowing a 300-yard passer. Jackson finished 16 of 32 for 217 yards.
“I respect this game, these players do. It’s a privilege to play, it’s a privilege to coach,” said Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, whose team was a 20-point underdog shortly before kickoff according to BetMGM. “If they’re keeping score, we’re going to compete to the end.”
Garrett shut out
Cleveland’s Myles Garrett entered the game tied for the NFL lead with 14 sacks, but although the Browns pressured Jackson at times, nobody could sack him. Garrett did have a tackle for loss.
Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson, who also came into the day with 14, moved ahead of Garrett with an early sack in the Bengals’ game against Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
“Lamar is a very difficult quarterback to sack, but Myles played the run and battled,” Stefanski said.
Hefty highlight
Ravens defensive lineman Michael Pierce, listed at a rotund 355 pounds, picked off a pass late in the fourth — his first interception in nine NFL seasons. He had some room to run but gave himself up with a fairly nimble slide before being mobbed by teammates.
“The most amazing play in NFL history right there,” coach John Harbaugh said.
Tested
Although the Ravens finished against the last-place Browns, Harbaugh said they should be well prepared for the postseason. In fact, unless Miami snags the final wild card, Baltimore will have already faced every other team in the AFC playoff field.
“Same level of competition that we’ve been playing against,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve played all the teams in the playoffs.”
