John Harbaugh, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens are once more kings of the AFC North.
The Ravens easily defeated the Cleveland Browns, 35-10, on Saturday to clinch their second straight division title and the AFC's No. 3 seed.
"Feels good. Hat and t-shirt game," Jackson told reporters after the win.
Much as they did all season, the Ravens rode the greatness of Jackson and backfield mate Derrick Henry on Saturday.
Jackson finished 16 of 32 for 217 yards and two touchdowns to become the first player in NFL history to finish a season with 4,000-plus passing yards and 900-plus rushing yards. Not to be outdone, Henry rumbled for 138 yards, punctuated by a 43-yard score in the fourth quarter. Henry finishes his first season with the Ravens with 1,921 yards on the ground and 18 total TDs.
"4,172 yards passing. 41 touchdown passes. How many interceptions? Four? OK, that's pretty unbelievable," Harbaugh said after the game, marveling over Jackson's final regular-season totals. "Over 900 yards rushing. 20,000 passing yards for his career right now. … What else needs to be said? Not just that. Dude's a competitor, man. He's a fighter. He's just one of a kind. There's nobody like Lamar Jackson. He's in the locker room and he's not happy about the last drive. We didn't handle it great, had some personnel challenges and all that stuff. He wants everything to be perfect. Everything. That's why the numbers are the way they are."
Baltimore now is guaranteed a rematch from this season during Wild Card Weekend as it will face its division rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, or the Los Angeles Chargers, helmed by John's brother Jim.
The Ravens previously beat the Chargers in Week 12 and split their season series with the Steelers, losing in Week 11 before a Week 16 victory.
Baltimore had seemingly long odds of repeating as division champs two weeks ago when a Pittsburgh win over the Ravens would have clinched the title for the Steelers. Instead, the Ravens responded with a dominant 34-17 victory.
Now, Baltimore enters the postseason on a four-game winning streak.
"It's awesome, it's an awesome thing. It's a week-to-week league, and you really just have to take it one week at a time, one day at a time, one play at a time, and our guys have done a really good job of holding on to that," Harbaugh said. "... And so four wins later, we're the AFC North champions."
It's the fourth division title of Jackson's career and the sixth of Harbaugh's tenure, which began in 2008.
Baltimore advanced to the AFC Championship Game a year ago, losing to the eventual champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. Its Super Bowl quest now commences once more, with at least one guaranteed home game to kick things off.
A preseason Super Bowl favorite that stumbled out to a 0-2 record, the 12-5 Ravens are now soaring into the playoffs.
"Very proud of our team," Jackson said. "This division is very tough. We got some of the best defensive players in the league in our division. Matching up against them twice a year. … I'm very proud of my team. We battled, and we got the job done. But the job is undone."
