The Baltimore Ravens as a team missed out on a trip to the AFC title game and potentially the Super Bowl.
During his team’s 27-25 playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills on a somber Sunday night in western New York, star quarterback Lamar Jackson bemoaned a long list of self-inflicted injuries that will always haunt the Ravens.
Buffalo wiped up Baltimore’s huge lead in total yards, 416-273, by winning the turnover fight 3-0.
Jackson held himself accountable for an interception and a fumble in Bills territory in the second quarter that Buffalo converted into a touchdown.
The turnovers tonight. You know, we can’t have that s—. We lost the game because of that,” he told reporters. “We were doing a fantastic job moving the ball, as you could see. Keep the f—ing ball in your grasp. I apologize for the profanity I used.
Baltimore’s night ended painfully when the Ravens scored a late touchdown with 1:33 left, bringing them within two points of matching the score.
Additionally, Jackson lofted an easy toss to star tight end Mark Andrews, who had lost a crucial fumble earlier in the fourth quarter, suggesting that the Ravens had planned and executed the perfect play.
The pigskin fell harmlessly to the freezing turf of Orchard Park when the veteran squeezed the ball too soon after it had fluttered into his breadbasket.
Jackson and coach John Harbaugh refused to hold Andrews accountable for his two major mistakes, even though Jackson was a severe critic of his team.
When Jackson stated, “I’m not going to put that on Mark,” “He has been fighting the entire season. All season long, he has been accomplishing amazing things. We don’t always get what we want.
One of the most well-liked players on the team is Andrews. He acted quickly to assist a woman in a medical emergency on a Southwest Airlines trip last year.
“Without Mark Andrews, we wouldn’t be here,” Harbaugh remarked. “Mark will handle it fantastically like he always does because he’s a high character person, he’s a tough person and he’s a good person.”
Andrews is on the shortlist of the most famous drops in NFL history because of his botched 2-point attempt.
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Dallas tight end Jackie Smith was wide open in the end zone when Roger Staubach’s
pass hit him in the numbers
and fell incomplete during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 35-31 Super Bowl win in 1979.
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Wes Welker, one of the favorite targets of all-time great QB Tom Brady, dropped a key pass in the
New York Giants’ 21-17 upset
of
New England in the 2012 title game
. The flub famously led to
Brady’s then-wife, Gisele B ndchen
, to rant after the game: My husband cannot f—ing throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can t believe they dropped the ball so many times.
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A wounded-duck pass appeared to float easily into the arms of San Francisco 49ers safety Jaquiski Tartt for a clinching interception of the NFC title game of 2022.
But he dropped it, opening
a door for the Los Angeles Rams to win the game
and then
the
Super Bowl two weeks later
.
Following the game on Sunday, Andrews was unavailable for comment.