Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson saw an MVP regular season come back to earth with a loss in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, and that’s nothing new for Jackson, who has consistently played worse in the playoffs than he has in the regular season.
Although Jackson continues to run the ball well in the postseason, his passing gets worse, year after year.
Over the course of his career, Jackson’s completion percentage is worse in the playoffs (57.4 percent) than in the regular season (64.5 percent). Jackson’s passer rating is worse in the playoffs (75.7) than in the regular season (98.0). His average yards per attempt is just 6.8 yards in the playoffs, significantly worse than his 7.5-yard average in the regular season. In regular season games, Jackson has thrown 125 touchdown passes to just 45 interceptions. In the playoffs he’s thrown only six touchdown passes, and six interceptions.
Jackson’s passing numbers in the playoffs have been worse than his passing numbers in the regular season in all four of the seasons that he reached the playoffs.
And, of course, the Ravens have won just two of the six postseason games that Jackson has started.
As Patrick Mahomes continues to step up his play in the playoffs and add to his Hall of Fame legacy, Jackson continues to fall short when the games matter most. Mahomes has won two regular-season MVP awards and Jackson is poised to win the second of his career next week, but in the playoffs, there’s no comparison.