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To secure their first Super Bowl victory since 2012, the Baltimore Ravens will heavily rely on Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.
The Lombardi Trophy glimmers are still far down the road, but the offensive duo, at least thus far, has more than held up their end of the bargain.
In the initial half of the Ravens’ AFC wild-card game versus the Steelers in Baltimore, Jackson and Henry have jointly amassed 164 rushing yards and scored three touchdowns.
Jackson was 13-of-15 on completions with 144 passing yards in the first half as the Ravens took to the locker room with a 21-0 lead.
The Ravens made an impressive start by scoring a touchdown on their opening drive of the game. This involved a deliberate 13-play, 95-yard march culminating in a 15-yard touchdown throw to wide receiver Rashod Bateman.
The biggest play of the drive came several snaps earlier when Henry took a direct snap and busted his way to the Steelers’ 12-yard-line, a gain of 34.
The Ravens’ second drive of the game was something of an outlier — lasting just six plays.
However, Baltimore bounced back, with the third and fourth drives looking similar to the first.
Henry accounted for the Ravens’ second touchdown — an 8-yard run at the end of a 13 play, 85-yard drive — and Jackson hooked up with running back Justice Hill on the third score of the evening.
That latter scoring drive — nine plays, 90 yards — took only 1:51.
Baltimore has dominated on both sides of the ball, with Mike Tomlin and the Steelers mustering together just 59 total yards in the half compared to the Ravens’ 308.
“It’s Lamar, man — he’s making plays, he’s extending plays when they get behind the chains,” the Steelers head coach told Amazon Prime’s sideline reporter as he head for the locker room. “We just got to be more solid. We have to possess the ball and we haven’t done that enough.”