The Baltimore Ravens lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Wild Card Round by the final score of 24-17, effectively ending their season. They tried to knock of their division rivals with quarterback Tyler Huntley at the helm, as former signal-caller Lamar Jackson was unavailable due to a knee injury that he suffered in Week 13 against the Denver Broncos.
Jackson didn’t travel with his team to Cincinnati in order to watch them try to advance, a storyline that caused plenty of controversy. Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh spoke to the media at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, and when asked about if it says something about Jackson as a leader that he didn’t travel to the playoff game, Harbaugh made it clear that the quarterback’s main focus was getting him back on the field.
“No, I don’t think so. I think his focus was on getting himself back on the field. You can talk all about that stuff, but he was thinking singularly about one thing: rehabbing, keeping the swelling out of his knee as much as he could. That’s all he was thinking about; that’s all he talked about.”