Lamar Jackson says Ravens underestimated the Titans and were caught by surprise

Last season the Baltimore Ravens were the best team in the regular season with their league-leading and franchise-best 14-2 record. They had their division, a first-round bye, the No.1 seed in the AFC, and home-field field advantage throughout the playoffs locked up before the final week of the season. The road to the Superbowl had to go through M&T Bank Stadium and the Ravens were riding a team-record 12 game winning streak heading into the playoffs.

With their sensational young signal-caller, Lamar Jackson, putting together a strong case to win his eventual league MVP award, a defense that rounded into shape during their winning streak and finished in the top five by season’s end and a record-setting rushing attack that was built to carry a championship-contending team deep into the postseason when the weather got cold and stakes were at their highest, the Ravens looked virtually unbeatable.

Baltimore was declared by some as the team of destiny until fate intervened in the form of the unheralded Tennessee Titans. They shocked the league and the red-hot Ravens by delivering a stunning 28-12 defeat the Superbowl hopefuls, crushing their championship aspirations for that postseason in a lopsided affair.

Immediately following the game and in the months that followed the Ravens, their coaches and other team officials have not made any excuses, minced words, or shifted blame. They have owned up to their short cummings and admitted that while they believe that they were the better team, the Titans played the better game.

On Tuesday, Jackson was officially revealed as the EA Madden 21 cover athlete for the popular sports video game. He made an appearance on the Complex’s Load Management podcast hours later and admitted that the Ravens committed one of the cardinal sins in competitive sports. They underestimated the Titans and paid dearly for it.

While he didn’t say that they were not prepared for Tennessee, he did admit that his team was looking ahead instead of solely focusing on the opponent that they had to face to get to where they ultimately wanted to go and that they were caught by surprise by the loss.

“That’s what happened in the playoffs, and we end up losing to the team people had us favored over,” Jackson said. “It’s any given Sunday. You can’t underestimate no team, no opponent and that’s what we did.

Losing to a team that you’re heavily favored to beat is never an easy pill to swallow or a reality you want to accept in the immediate aftermath but it shouldn’t be that surprising or unfathomable that the Titans could and were able to pull off the upset. They were almost as equally hot heading into the playoffs as the Ravens after recovering from a woeful 2-4 start to the season, finishing 6-2 down the stretch after replacing Marcus Mariota with Ryan Tannehill and upsetting the defending Superbowl champion New England Patriots the week before in the opening round of the playoffs.

Jackson vowed that the Ravens under his leadership will not overlook or underestimate any opponent in 2020 whether it’s during the regular or postseason. The first team on the docket for the Ravens in this upcoming season is the Cleveland Browns on September 13th. While they failed to live up to their lofty offseason and preseason hype last year, the Browns managed to get one of their mere six wins in 2019 in Baltimore where they handed the Ravens one of their two defeats in the regular season and the most lopsided of the pair the losses in a 41-20 thrashing that proceeded the 12-game winning streak.

“So I’m looking forward to this 2020 season playing the Browns first,” said Jackson. “Don’t underestimate your opponents. They [Tennessee] caught us by surprise. That’s all it was.”

The Ravens will get a crack at every team that handed them a loss in 2019 including the Browns twice since they both reside in the AFC North, the reigning Superbowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at home in primetime on Monday Night Football in Week 3 and the Titans at home as well in Week 11 on November 22nd.

This year’s team is equipped to achieve their ultimate goal with the key additions that General Manager Eric DeCosta and Co. made via the draft and free agency to surround Jackson with more weapons (RB J.K. Dobbins WR Devin Duvernay, and WR James Proche), fortify the offensive line (veteran DJ Fluker and rookies Tyre Phillips and Ben Bredeson) and address the deficiencies on defense (veteran DT’s Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe, rookie ILB’s Patrick Queen and Malik Harrison, and rookie DT Justin Madubuike).

The Ravens caught the league by surprise last season with their incredible run to the postseason and were caught by surprise themselves once they got there but they won’t be catching anyone by surprise in 2020 nor will they be underestimating anybody that gets in the way of their Superbowl aspirations.