Offensive coordinator Todd Monken and head coach John Harbaugh came under fire for abandoning the run despite trailing most of the game to Patrick Mahomes and the eventual Super Bowl champions. Quarterback Lamar Jackson rushed eight times for 54 yards, but with Gus Edwards as the No. 1 running back, Baltimore backs carried six times for 23 yards in the defeat.
The reversal Saturday during the Ravens’ 28-14 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC wild-card playoff game couldn’t be starker. Signed this offseason in a suppressed running-back market, Derrick Henry carried 26 times for 186 yards and two touchdowns. The Ravens signed the former Tennessee Titan with a game like this in mind: cold (the kickoff temperature was 32 degrees with a wind chill of 23), against a physical opponent like Steelers.
Baltimore ran on 24 of its first 32 plays. That wasn’t necessarily part of the plan, as Jackson scrambled on several pass plays, but “there’s a lot of people out there happy about it right now,” Harbaugh said after the game.
The Ravens head coach was adamant that the coaches and players are willing to do whatever it takes and that there is no one particular way to win.
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“We’re not like a West Coast system,” Harbaugh said. “We’re just the Ravens system.”
There was one person who definitely enjoyed the effort on the ground, Harbaugh said.
“My dad’s proud,” he said, referencing longtime college coach Jack Harbaugh, who was known for his rushing attack at Western Kentucky.
Jackson, of course, adds some “flavor” to it all, John Harbaugh said. He had 11 carries by halftime and finished with 81 rushing yards on 15 attempts, with a long of 20 yards.
Jackson went to the run early, carrying on five straight plays to jump-start the Ravens on a 95-yard touchdown drive on their first offensive possession. He took some hits early and said he didn’t expect to carry the ball that often in the early going but that’s how the game played out. At one point, he was kneed in the back but said he was OK and that the pain didn’t affect him, despite the broadcast catching him grimacing. Jackson wrapped it with a heat pad between drives.
The effect of Henry on the Steelers’ defense is self-explanatory, Jackson said. After the game, he said he didn’t have the proper words before offering his perspective.
“I believe everyone sees it. I just hand the balls off,” Jackson said while clapping to mimic him handing the ball off, “Ten yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, and I’m just chilling. Then they tackle him and I go and I’m just fresh. It makes my job a lot easier. We just piggyback off each other.”
For Jackson, he might as well bring out the recliner and grab a box of popcorn after handing the ball off to Henry.
“You ever watch ‘Cars’?” Jackson asked.
The two-time MVP – perhaps on the verge of winning his third – compared Henry to the movie’s main character, Lightning McQueen, zooming past the competition to describe his vantage point on the field while Henry is outrunning the 11 players on defense.
“It looked like a movie, bro, I’m not going to lie to you,” Jackson said. “I’d rather be watching it than being on the other side.”
Baltimore ran it on all 13 plays during a second-quarter touchdown drive.
“As a fullback, to be able to run the ball like that, means we’re physically imposing our will on them,” Patrick Ricard said.
He added: “It’s obviously a good feeling, it means we’re doing the right things – we’re moving the chain, eating up the clock, having our defense sit on the bench. I think it’s one of the hardest things to do, especially in the playoffs. … It’s something we can keep building on.’
Three of the Ravens’ four longest plays came on the ground – not totally unexpected with top wideout Zay Flowers sitting out with a knee injury. But the Steelers knew their AFC North rival was going to establish the run. There was simply nothing they could do to stop it.
“It’s the best job in the world blocking for Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson,” center Tyler Linderbaum said. “It’s our job to go out there and play as hard as we can. It’d be a disservice to go out there and not play hard with those guys in the backfield.”
Wide receiver Steven Sims, pressed into action with Flowers on the bench, even carried once for 15 yards on a jet sweep. But watching the tandem of Henry and Jackson dominate was “special.”
“It’s just like, whatever you can do to contribute to it, to help, to add to their greatness,” he told USA TODAY Sports.
On first down, Henry ran 18 times for 148 yards. The Ravens converted on third down at a 66.7% (10-for-15) rate, and 16 of their 29 first downs came on runs. Meanwhile, the Steelers ran for 29 yards and 11 attempts.
An early highlight was Henry taking a direct snap in the Wildcat formation while Jackson ran a fake sweep as a decoy. Henry barreled his way for 34 yards to set up the game’s first touchdown and delivered a vicious stiff-arm to Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in the process.
“He has that big-play ability,” Linderbaum said. “Any time a run’s called, it’s our job to block our assignments and let him do the rest.
“He’s a Hall of Fame back. The things he’s able to do, his size, his speed.”
Of their 72 plays from scrimmage, Baltimore ran it 50 times for 299 yards on the ground.
“Having 300 yards rushing on you is worse than having 300 yards passing,” Steelers safety DeShon Elliott said. “They definitely put belt to butt today.”
On Henry’s 44-yard touchdown run, which extended Baltimore’s lead to 28-7 in the third quarter, Jackson faked keeping the ball long enough to draw the linebackers toward him and opened up a massive lane through the middle of the Steelers’ defense. All Henry had to do was outrun everyone; at 260 pounds, he was a sight for his teammates to behold.
“When you see ‘DH’ running at 260, outrunning all the (defensive backs), outrunning every angle they take, I mean, that’s just always insane,” tight end Isaiah Likely said.
The chemistry in the backfield is what everyone else sees, Likely said, but he observes it every day in the relationship between the quarterback and running back.
“They’re just a great duo to have, whether on the field or off the field,” he said. “Off the field, you always see them together, laughing, joking.”
For Henry, who tied Hall of Fame running back Terrell Davis’ playoff record with four games of more than 150 rushing yards and set a new Ravens rushing high, it’s one win on the way to a larger goal.
“We’re not going to get too ahead of ourselves and go off the walls about how great we are,” Henry said. “We’re going to stay level-headed.”
On Saturday, it was the Steelers who were leveled by Henry and Jackson.