BALTIMORE -- Lamar Jackson wasn't pleased the moment the Baltimore Ravens entered the locker room at halftime. Hard to blame the captain given the circumstance.
The Ravens were in a dogfight with the Houston Texans after 30 minutes. The game was tied, it was cold, and the Ravens weren't the team that shredded opponents all year. They looked like another Baltimore team destined for an early playoff exit.
Whatever Jackson said motivated the locker room. Enough that Isaiah Likely put out a big smile when his halftime speech was brought up.
"When the leader talks," Likely said. 'You listen."
Jackson's halftime address powered the Ravens to outscore the Texans by 24 points in the second half, en route to a 34-10 rout at M&T Bank Stadium. The Texans never stood a chance coming out of the locker room, as Jackson led the way by going 9 of 11 for 100 yards and a touchdown in the final 30 minutes. Jackson also had five carries for 50 yards and two touchdowns in the second half, including an 8-yard touchdown run with 6:20 left that prompted him to run into the tunnel and declare game.
The Ravens took a 21-point lead when Jackson rushed for his second touchdown of the night, as Baltimore will host a conference championship game for the first time since 1971.
"I don't know what led me to it," Jackson said. I just seen it and I was off to the races."
So what did Jackson say that fired up the Ravens? All Baltimore did was outgain Houston 234-68 in the second half, outrushing them 134-24 and not allowing the Texans past the Ravens 39-yard line.
"It'd be inappropriate if I said it," Jackson said with a smile. "We really wasn't doing anything to that defense. They was playing great and the offense was playing great as well, but we wasn't doing our job. In the second half, we went and put points on the board. We started moving the ball, moving the chains, and started looking like ourselves."
Tyler Linderbaum gave a G-rated version of what Jackson said to gravitate the team.
"Just stay locked in," Linderbaum said of Jackson's message. "We're a better team than what we put out in the first half. Got 30 minutes left in the ball game. I think we went out and played a little different -- and better in the second half."
Likely told the same version, keeping the graphic parts out.
"(We) understand that it was a 0-0 game at halftime and we had another 30 minutes," Likely said. "So we just had to hone into the little details that we missed. We just had to execute from there."
The Ravens have been accustomed to playoff failures since capturing Super Bowl XLVII 11 years ago. Baltimore was just 2-5 in the postseason following that Super Bowl victory, failing to win a single playoff game at home in that stretch. The Ravens were just 1-2 in postseason games Jackson started, failing to score over 20 points in any of the contests.
Forgive the team with the best record in football and that beat an NFL-record 10 teams with winning records this season for being frustrated at halftime. The Ravens were not going to let the ghosts of playoff past get to them.
"Everyone was kind of a little edgy. We all were a little edgy," said Ravens coach John Harbaugh. "We were edgy and we were mad. We have a lot to prove. Everybody just kind of took a deep breath and said all right, it's 0-0. It's our game to go win and we gotta go take it."
The Ravens showed they were the best team in football in that second half, ending the Cinderella story that was the Texans. They have one more game to go to reach the Super Bowl.
That narrative Jackson can't go deep in the playoffs is no more.
"I don't even gotta hear it, I see it," Jackson said. "But it is what it is. I really don't care what people say. I'm trying to win day in and day out every time I'm on that field. I'm trying to play to the best of my ability.
"Those guys had our number in the past. It's a different team, what I've been saying."
