Texans defense unable to corral Ravens 'magician' Lamar Jackson in playoff loss

BALTIMORE — Zay Flowers called his quarterback “a magician.” Texans pass rusher Jonathan Greenard said Lamar Jackson “was just himself.”
They basically were saying the same thing.
The Ravens quarterback, a runaway favorite to win his second NFL MVP award, was just his usual magical self in picking apart the Texans defense to the tune of 100 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground to go along with 152 passing yards and two more touchdowns through the air in Baltimore’s 34-10 rout of the Texans in Saturday’s AFC divisional playoff.
His performance against the Texans means Jackson is the first player in NFL history to do all this in a single game: run for at least 100 yards and two touchdowns, throw for at least 100 yards and two scores, and record better than a 100.0 passer rating.
“Lamar is a magician. Like, you’re going to see him there, then you’re going to see him in the end zone,” said Flowers, who had four catches for 41 yards. “So I’ll call him a magician, because you never know where he’s going to be.”
It was the second time the Texans saw Jackson this season, but he was better Saturday than he was in the season opener when he failed to run or pass Ravenfor a touchdown and was limited to just 38 yards on the ground.
“He was just himself,” Greenard said of Jackson’s performance the second time around. “He took what we gave him; he made plays when he needed to. I mean, a guy like that, he’s seen us already and saw how we wanted to attack him. We had his number for a little bit, and then he just started to make more plays.”
The Texans were able to flummox Jackson a bit in the first half by dialing up the pressure and sacking him three times. They showed Jackson a 75 percent blitz rate, according to Next Gen Stats, which is a career high for him. However, he completed 13 of 18 passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns against that blitz. In the second half, Jackson released the ball more than a second quicker against the blitz than he did in the first half.
When the Texans did create pressure on Jackson but didn’t bring him down, he was able to break free for key runs or just to create more time to find an open receiver.
“He’s an outstanding player,” Texans linebacker Blake Cashman said. “When you give the guy space and time — and he’ll create time — he’ll make you pay.”
The frequent blitzing didn’t catch the Ravens off guard, because they’d seen it, although not as frequently, back in Week 1.
“They were having success the first half with blitzing us,” said Jackson, who added that he gave his team an “inappropriate” halftime speech when they went into the locker room tied. “They were doing their thing, but we watched a lot of film. We were prepared. We just made little mistakes protecting the blitz and getting the ball out on time. By the second half, I felt like we were doing what we were supposed to do.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh credited offensive coordinator Todd Monken with making halftime adjustments to help Jackson get the ball out quicker in the face of oncoming rushers.
“It wasn’t so much hold the ball and try to push the ball downfield, which Lamar did a good job with,” Harbaugh said. “Once Lamar was able to sit back there and just pick (the defense) apart and get the ball out quick, he just did a great job with that and then took control of the game.”