After a record-breaking season ends early, John Harbaugh concedes that Ravens ‘didn’t play our game’

Of those 16 carries, however, three were scrambles by Jackson, further skewing a run-pass ratio that had favored the ground game all season. Edwards, whose first carry went for 19 yards, finished with just three carries, and Harbaugh acknowledged that he Ravens "want Gus carrying the ball." The game, he said, "didn't play out the way we wanted it to play out. We didn't play our game."

Harbaugh said the matchup came down to “critical downs” where the Titans, the AFC’s sixth seed, executed and the Ravens, double-digit favorites, did not: Jackson threw a rare interception that glanced off the fingers of tight end Mark Andrews; Tennessee subsequently scored its first touchdown on a third-and-goal play from the 12-yard line. The Ravens couldn’t convert on “fourth-and-a-foot” early in the third quarter; Henry broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage three plays later for a 66-yard gain.

A drive-capping Titans touchdown extended their lead to 21-6 inside M&T Bank Stadium, where only a year earlier fans had watched the home team trail late in an AFC wild-card game. The Ravens went on to lose to the Los Angeles Chargers then, too, in what was Jackson’s first playoff start.

“The dynamic changes,” Harbaugh said of the two-touchdown deficit. “I think we shifted gears at that point in time. We knew we had to score points. Maybe a couple of series. They weren’t exactly giving us the ball back right away, either. That’s a team that controls the clock. I considered how many possessions we were going to have, and the decision was made to open it up, and let’s go try and win the game.”

The Ravens couldn’t. Jackson became the first player in NFL history to throw for more than 300 yards and rush for over 100 yards in a playoff game, but he threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in Ravens territory. It was an uncharacteristic night from the NFL’s presumptive Most Valuable Player and its most efficient offense: 0-for-4 on fourth down, 1-for-4 on red-zone trips and 44 rushing yards by running backs.

Harbaugh was unflustered as he spoke after his third straight playoff loss, and when he addressed reporters again Friday, wearing a button-down shirt and holding a pile of notes, he remarked again on how much he had enjoyed the season. He was optimistic about next year, too. This offseason could reshape the defense, as last year’s did, but the Ravens are better positioned to absorb free-agent losses than they’ve been in recent years.

“Our guys are tough, they're resilient,” Harbaugh said. “We're going to start from the beginning. When we come back ... we'll be talking about building the foundation and starting to stack one good day after another. That's what we'll do and try to build the very best team that we can and be the very best team we can be this next season. We'll see where it takes us. Are we capable of winning the whole thing next year? Absolutely. Without question. Now we've got to go do it.”

The Ravens enter the offseason as healthy as they’ve been in Harbaugh’s tenure, and the team will head to Orlando, Florida, next week with up to a dozen Pro Bowl players participating. Some of them, Harbaugh might not see again in a Ravens uniform: Guard Marshal Yanda has not decided whether he’ll return for another season in Baltimore, and Matthew Judon, unless he’s designated with the franchise tag, will enter free agency as a highly coveted outside linebacker.

But the Ravens have a young and talented core, especially on offense. And in Jackson, they have a dual-threat weapon whom coaches and teammates say is as talented as he is humble. When Jackson visited Harbaugh on Wednesday, the coach recalled, he was asked where he needed to improve.

“Without getting into what they are specifically, he nailed it, the priority list, in the exact same order that Greg [Roman] and I nailed the priority list when we were talking on Monday,” he said. He added: “I think it’s really interesting to look at Lamar Jackson because if you look at the progress he made in the last year — the same question I think you might have asked last year, ‘How’s he going to get better going forward?’ He did a good job, right?”

For all that his team had accomplished this season and everything it might do in 2020, Harbaugh conceded that the past week was a “gut shot." He had not looked at the tape from Saturday’s loss as thoroughly as he might later this offseason. The game was painful, disappointing. This was the Ravens’ season — until they couldn’t play their game.

“That’s just the way the league works: Everyone runs the race, but only one wins the prize," Harbaugh said. "That’s the way the National Football League is set up. That’s what we love about it, that’s what we respect about it, that’s what makes it so hard.”