Lamar Jackson wasn’t in a temper to rejoice.
Positive, his Baltimore Ravens had simply clinched the AFC North with a Week 18 victory over the Cleveland Browns, however Jackson arrived on the postgame podium nonetheless in uniform, relatively than carrying certainly one of shirts or hats commemorating the division crown.
“I’m focused on the Wild Card game. I’m not going to lie to you,” Jackson stated. “I’m cool with what’s going on today. I’m cool, don’t get me wrong, but my mind’s on something else.”
That one thing else is the one factor lacking from Jackson’s in any other case illustrious résumé.
The 28-year-old quarterback is on a Corridor of Fame trajectory, having already gained two MVP Awards together with numbers by no means seen earlier than within the NFL.
In 2024, Jackson turned the primary participant to throw for 4,000 yards and rush for 900 yards in the identical season. He additionally turned the primary participant to throw greater than 40 landing passes and fewer than 5 interceptions in the identical marketing campaign.
He’s 70-24 as a starter in his seven common seasons.
However Jackson enters Saturday evening’s Wild Card sport in opposition to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a 2-4 file in his playoff profession. He has thrown six landing passes in opposition to six interceptions in these video games, and his 75.7 postseason passer score is 26.3 factors decrease than his regular-season mark.
He’s the one two-time MVP in NFL historical past who hasn’t gained a Tremendous Bowl. He hasn’t even made it to at least one.
That’s the narrative Jackson is making an attempt to vary.
“I’d just be too excited,” Jackson stated Tuesday of his previous playoff video games. “That’s all. Too antsy. I’m seeing things before it happened, like, ‘Oh, I got to calm myself down.’ But just being more experienced, I’ve found a way to balance it out.”
However the stress Jackson faces will not be distinctive to him.
Buffalo Payments quarterback Josh Allen, too, nonetheless seeks his elusive first championship. A hoop would validate the profession of Allen, whose 76 wins, 262 complete touchdowns and 30,595 complete yards are probably the most ever via seven NFL seasons.
His 28 passing touchdowns and 12 dashing touchdowns in 2024 marked the fifth consecutive season that Allen totaled no less than 40 touchdowns.
And whereas his statistics paled compared to Jackson’s, most bookmakers count on Allen to win his first NFL MVP Award this 12 months after main the Payments to a 13-4 file and an AFC East title regardless of a lesser supporting forged.
Allen, 28, enters Sunday’s sport in opposition to the Denver Broncos with a 100.0 passer score and 21 landing passes in opposition to 4 interceptions in 10 playoff appearances.
However Allen is simply 5-5 in these video games and, like Jackson, has by no means reached a Tremendous Bowl.
“There’s two things I can control: It’s my attitude and my effort,” Allen stated Wednesday. “And what everybody else says, that’s their own prerogative.”
A lot in the best way Tom Brady’s annual excellence restricted Peyton Manning’s postseason upside, Patrick Mahomes‘ dynastic run with the Kansas City Chiefs has proven problematic for the other AFC quarterbacks of his era.
Last year, Jackson completed just 54.1% of his passes in a 17-10 loss to Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game.
Allen is 0-3 in the postseason against the Chiefs.
In the last five years, the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls and reached another. The Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow is the one AFC quarterback to defeat Mahomes throughout that stretch, however he went on to lose in Tremendous Bowl LVI and has not been again.
This 12 months’s AFC playoffs once more run via Kansas Metropolis, the place Mahomes is 12-2 in his playoff profession. This season, the Chiefs went 15-1 in video games began by Mahomes — with the lone loss coming in Buffalo in Week 11 — to clinch the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Kansas Metropolis wouldn’t face Baltimore or Buffalo till the AFC Championship Sport, making Mahomes seemingly the ultimate dragon Jackson or Allen must slay to achieve the Tremendous Bowl.
Earlier than then, Jackson and Allen stand in one another’s methods. Wins by each this weekend would pit Baltimore in opposition to Buffalo within the divisional spherical — the identical spherical during which Allen’s Payments beat Jackson’s Ravens, 17-3, in 2021 of their first playoff assembly.
“We know what’s at stake,” Jackson stated Tuesday. “It’s win or go home.”
