MIKE BURKE

Allegany Communications Sports

The season began with tight end Isaiah Likely being out of bounds by a toe on a two-point conversion try that would have tied the season-opener in Kansas City against the Chiefs. The season ended with tight end Mark Andrews dropping a pass going into the end zone on a two-point conversion try that would have tied the Baltimore Ravens with the Buffalo Bills with 1:33 left in the AFC divisional playoff game.

Perfect bookends to yet another season of coming up short for the Baltimore Ravens.

The Ravens outgained the Bills 416-273 and gained 23 first downs to Buffalo’s 20. They became the first team in NFL history to rush for more than 175 yards, to complete 70% of its passes, average over 10 yards per pass, convert 70% on third downs and have no punts or missed field goals all in the same regular- or postseason game and still lose the game.

For Baltimore, it was Play it Again, Sam, as the Ravens committed three turnovers to the Bills’ zero, meaning that in the team’s six playoff losses in the last seven years they have turned the ball over 15 times to the opponents’ two.

Another January theme revisited: Why do the Ravens get to the postseason by running the ball and then stop running the ball in the postseason? Why did Derrick Henry come off the field after his best run of the night? Henry looked as surprised as the rest of us were.

Why didn’t the Ravens run Derrick Henry once when they had first and goal from the Buffalo 2 and ended up settling for a field goal? Why did the Ravens run Derrick Henry just 16 times in the game?

“I don’t second-guess any of that,” said head coach John Harbaugh.

Then what was the point in the Ravens even acquiring Derrick Henry?

Truthfully, The Ravens did run for 176 yards on 30 carries, which is pretty good even if well short of the 271 they rolled up in September against the Bills. But give the Bills defense credit for that..

As a matter of fact, offensive coordinator Todd Monken used the run to control the third quarter as the Ravens rallied to within 21-19 and if not for Andrews’ fourth-quarter fumble, the Ravens likely would have continued to run the ball.

There are times, such as last year’s loss to the Chiefs in the AFC title game, when it’s on the coaching staff. In this case, it’s on some of the team’s top players who just didn’t perform well enough, although it is difficult to understand having the very best rushing quarterback and not calling any designed runs for him.

Mark Andrews, the best tight end in franchise history, fumbled the ball on a potential go-ahead touchdown drive and then he dropped the game-tying two-point conversion. Shades of Lee Evans in New England, but Andrews, too, has a history of poor playoff outings, as does quarterback Lamar Jackson, who committed two bad turnovers in the first half, one of which led to a Buffalo score.

Yet Jackson was cool, calm and collected on that final drive. He didn’t have his top two wide receivers and was pushed back to the 12-yard line to start the drive, but scrambled for 8 yards, and completed passes of 3, 3, 27, 4 and 19 yards, capped off by a 24-yard TD. And, he was on the money for a game-tying, two-point conversion and it was dropped.

It’s been the theme of the entire season – Kansas City, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Pittsburgh: the only team that can beat the Ravens is the Ravens. And they have great success doing so at all of the most inopportune times.

They’re so talented that despite their mistakes, they move the ball with ease against every team in the league, and still managed to have Sunday’s game and the fate of their season in their hands. But then it all fell out of Mark Andrews’ hands.

Even if Andrews had made the catch, Buffalo would have had 1:33 and two timeouts to try to win it in regulation, which, truthfully, you would have had to like Josh Allen’s chances of doing just that; but the sad truth for the Ravens is they’ll just never know because they didn’t give themselves the chance to find out.

The saddest truth is they’ve never known because things like this happen in Baltimore every January.

And this just in: The Buffalo Bills have already been called for roughing the passer against the Chiefs in this Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT

 

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