Lamar Jackson shines again as Ravens throttle Dolphins, clinch No. 1 seed

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BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Ravens remained on a major roll and quarterback Lamar Jackson tightened his grip on what would be his second MVP award with a passing performance about as sharp as they come.

Jackson and the Ravens, looking more dominant by the week, ensured that the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC will go through Baltimore. The Ravens clinched the conference’s No. 1 playoff seed by beating the Miami Dolphins, 56-19, before a delighted crowd Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen a more impressive performance in a game,” Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said. “I’m not sure I’ve seen a more impressive performance in a season to date. And obviously we have a lot more to do. We have a lot of work to do in front of us. But this is a mature football team and they understand that.”

Jackson threw for five touchdowns and posted a perfect passer rating of 158.3. The Ravens extended their winning streak to six games and upped their NFL-best record to 13-3. They’re two games ahead of the Dolphins, who dropped to 11-5, atop the AFC standings with one weekend remaining in the regular season. Harbaugh now will have the option of resting key starters, if he chooses, in next Sunday’s regular season finale here against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“To step up and play the way they have and put an exclamation point on it — triple exclamation points on it — with a performance like this, pretty much a well-rounded, perfect performance like that after the opening bell… it says [a lot] about who they are,” Harbaugh said of his players.

The Ravens will be the AFC’s No. 1 seed for the first time since the 2019 season, when Jackson won his first NFL MVP and the Ravens went 14-2 during the regular season. They promptly were ousted from that postseason by losing a divisional-round game at home to the Tennessee Titans.

These Ravens expect things to go far better as they seek the franchise’s first Super Bowl title since the 2012 season. They will have the conference’s lone opening-round postseason bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

“We’ve been the underdog all season, even the offseason,” Jackson said. “We’d like to keep it that way and just keep that mind-set.”

The Ravens could face the Cleveland Browns and quarterback Joe Flacco, a former Super Bowl MVP for Baltimore, in the divisional round, if the seedings hold.

“We remember ’19,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, it’s not something we’re going to forget.”

The offseason contentiousness of Jackson seeking a trade amid a contract dispute with the Ravens seemed like a distant memory Sunday. He threw two touchdown passes to tight end Isaiah Likely and one each to rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers and running backs Justice Hill and Patrick Ricard. That was part of an 18-for-21, 321-yard display of passing mastery.

“His performance was even better than last week,” Harbaugh said. “He played really a great football game. I mean, he played a perfect football game in terms of the passing game. He was just on point.”

Jackson added 35 rushing yards, although there was relatively little need on this day for him to display his improvisational genius. Even his teammates enjoyed watching the show.

“I was like a little kid at the movie theater, except I didn’t have popcorn,” Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith said. “It was pretty sweet, man.”

The Baltimore defense intercepted Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa twice and sacked him three times. Tagovailoa did throw two touchdown passes in a 22-for-38, 237-yard outing. But the Dolphins, like all Ravens opponents lately, were overmatched.

“It’s just staying consistent,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s what this league is about, is who can be consistent the longest. And we weren’t able to put good drives together for a long period of time. So we’ve just got to be better.”

Tagovailoa left the game early with what the Dolphins described as an injury to his throwing shoulder. He said afterward that his shoulder was “good, just sore.” Miami pass rusher Bradley Chubb was taken from the field on a cart in the game’s final minutes after suffering a knee injury.

The Ravens honored their former running back, Ray Rice, in a pregame ceremony. Many of the fans cheered as the team introduced Rice as a “Legend of the Game.” The team released Rice in September 2014, hours after video surfaced of a domestic violence incident in which he was involved. Rice was seen striking his then-fiancée, now his wife, in an Atlantic City casino and dragging her from an elevator. He has spoken to Ravens players in subsequent years about accountability.

The Ravens were coming off a 33-19 triumph Monday night over the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., in which they staked their claim to being the NFL’s top team. Jackson won his quarterback duel with the Niners’ Brock Purdy in lopsided fashion and became the clear MVP front-runner.

But there was little time for the Ravens to savor that victory. This was a rematch of a thrilling game here early last season in which the Dolphins overcame a 28-7 deficit to beat the Ravens, 42-38. Tagovailoa threw for 469 yards and six touchdowns in that game. Dolphins wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for 22 catches for 361 yards and four touchdowns. This time, Waddle was on the Dolphins’ game-day inactive list because of a high ankle sprain.

There were frequent “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants Sunday as Jackson and the Ravens took control of the game virtually from the outset. Jackson threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone.

The Dolphins kept pace for a while. Each team scored an opening-possession touchdown. The Dolphins had to settle for a field goal after Hill bobbled the ball on what should have been a touchdown catch, not securing possession until he was out of bounds in the back of the end zone. The Ravens scored 28 of the game’s next 31 points. Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. made a great catch along the sideline, challenged unsuccessfully by the Dolphins, to set up a touchdown run by tailback Gus Edwards.

The Dolphins got a field goal but the Ravens responded immediately with a 75-yard touchdown catch and run by Flowers. Smith’s interception of a Tagovailoa pass led to Jackson’s 35-yard touchdown connection to Likely, who made a superb one-handed catch, on a fourth-and-seven play. A long return of the second-half kickoff set up another Jackson-to-Likely touchdown, this one from seven yards.

The Ravens never let up and continued a season-long trend in which they not only have beaten good teams, but dominated them.

“I’m not sure exactly how to define it,” Harbaugh said. “But I think you know it when you see it, right? That’s pretty remarkable…. It’s amazing. It’s something that they’ll have for the rest of their careers…. But there’s a lot of work to be done still. And we’re looking forward to the challenge.”