They are saying you need to “act like you’ve been there before.” Nicely, this model of the Baltimore Ravens, and any version of the Detroit Lions, hadn’t — in order that they acted as such. The Chiefs and the 49ers have, and it confirmed.
For the Lions and Ravens, and all of their followers, it’s going to harm for a really very long time. It’s purported to when it signifies that a lot, however particularly while you play such an enormous position in your individual demise.
“I’m not frustrated at all,” Lamar Jackson said after the game. “I’m angry about losing. We are a game away from the Super Bowl. We’ve been waiting all this time, all these moments, for opportunity like this and we fell short. But I feel like our team, we are going to build this offseason, going to get right, get better, grind and try to be in this position again — but on the other side of victory.”
See, that’s the factor about Jackson and the Ravens beneath his watch — an excessive amount of speaking, not sufficient execution.
“Every day I think about the Super Bowl,” Jackson said in 2020. “It’s been on my mind since the first game of the season. When I got drafted, I told Baltimore that’s what I was gonna do. I wanna be like the (Tom) Brady of my era.”
Quotes like this come again to hang-out you while you’re about to win your second MVP and nonetheless haven’t made it to a Tremendous Bowl, and while you had your finest likelihood so far, you misplaced to the man who’s already on his method to being the “Brady of your era.”
What we noticed on Sunday in Baltimore wasn’t only a Kansas Metropolis group that was lifeless set on making it to the Usher live performance, however a Ravens group that simply flat-out choked. The offense that appeared so unstoppable was pedestrian in opposition to the Chiefs’ underrated protection. Jackson threw an idiotic interception and misplaced a fumble. Huge receiver Zay Flowers made a number of silly and emotional choices, as he fumbled into the tip zone, received a pricey unsportsmanlike penalty for taunting (whereas dropping), and minimize his hand on the bench after slamming it in frustration.
Every week in the past, the Ravens have been the No. 1 contender. On Sunday, they appeared like frauds. However they weren’t the one ones.
One of many Detroit Lions’ claims to fame/infamy is that they have been the primary group to go 0-16 and are one of many few NFL franchises which have by no means made a Tremendous Bowl. They have been so shut on Sunday as underdogs on the street, up large. After which, they blew it.
“We’re not going out like this,” San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan said about his group’s mentality at halftime. “Guys didn’t want today to be the last day. We put ourselves in a hole. They played like it in the second half and we were able to get the ball to bounce the right way, and we made up for what we did in the first half.”
Detroit tied the file for the most important blown lead in an NFC title recreation, as they gave up a 17-point lead. All 17 of these factors have been scored in an eight-minute span throughout the third quarter. The Lions received smacked within the mouth popping out of the locker room, and Dan Campbell’s choice to go for it on fourth down — twice — when he was in discipline objective vary got here again to chunk him.
“It’s easy hindsight. I get it. I get that, but I don’t regret those decisions, and it’s hard,” said the Lions head coach, who has a historical past of being overly aggressive in these conditions. “It’s hard because we didn’t come through, and it wasn’t able to work out, but I don’t. And I understand the scrutiny I’ll get — that’s part of the gig — but it just didn’t work out.”
If soccer was blackjack, Campbell is the form of man who may have two kings and nonetheless inform the supplier to “Hit me!” And sooner or later, we’ve to surprise if he’s making an attempt to win video games or show some extent. One reply appears extra apparent than the opposite.
The NFL virtually had a storybook ending on their palms, because the Lions and Chiefs opened the season, and have been on monitor for a rematch within the finale — till the “same ole Lions” confirmed up within the second half. And now we’ll be pressured to cope with much more Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce protection as a result of Baltimore and Detroit couldn’t get it achieved, as we’re now getting a replay of Tremendous Bowl 54. At the very least the halftime present received upgraded.
