The Winners and Losers from Week 17 vs. Houston Texans
The Baltimore Ravens throttled the Houston Texans on Christmas night with a 31-2 win and maintain control of their division title destiny. Below are Wednesday’s MVP, Winners and Losers.
MVP: Lamar Jackson
Last season, Jackson secured his second league MVP award with a masterclass performance against the San Francisco 49ers on Christmas night. Again, he did so by dismantling the Texans defense on Christmas, throwing for 168 yards and two touchdowns and adding another 87 yards and a rushing touchdown. While Jackson wasn’t the focal point of the offense, seeing as Henry ran straight through the Texans’ defense, he was efficient, effective and made incredible plays when things broke down.
Jackson now is up to 39 passing touchdowns on the season and he broke the NFL record for most rushing yards by a quarterback, surpassing Michael Vick and doing so in 41 fewer games.
Winners
Derrick Henry: Getting the negative out of the way off the bat here, his cutback that turned into a safety was his only poor decision. Outside of one run, he had arguably the most success and greatest impact of any player in this tilt. He ran through big gaps and small, showed excellent vision and delivered a bulldozing performance.
Offensive Line: The blocking was fierce and allowed Henry and Jackson to make magic. Though they allowed a few rushers and negative plays, the positives greatly outweighed the few negatives in this contest. Henry was getting four-plus yards on numerous carries.
Pass Rushers: It was a sack party in Houston as numerous pass rushers were in hot pursuit of a struggling C.J. Stroud. In all, the Ravens finished with five sacks and nine quarterback hits. Namely, Kyle Van Noy continued his career-high season by notching sack No. 11.5. Oweh is now one sack from double digits and Madubuike got back into the sack column.
Kyle Hamilton: No momentum was created for the Texans on their first drive of the second half as Hamilton silenced the post-Beyoncé crowd with a diving interception to generate the takeaway and bury the Texans.
Ar’Darius Washington: Twice in the past two weeks, Washington has made a stellar turnover play on the goal line to deny a score and get the ball back for the offense. After folding Russell Wilson on Saturday, he blew up Joe Mixon on 4th & Goal, shutting his run down and the final push out of bounds by Tre’Davious White secured the turnover on downs.
Mark Andrews: The production from Andrews at the beginning of the season has been long forgotten. Remember when everyone was panicked by his absence in the offense at the beginning of the season? Yeah, that’s gone now as he’s caught a touchdown pass in five straight games and ten on the season.
Isaiah Likely: Getting more involved down the stretch has been an excellent addition to an offensive juggernaut. Likely has a touchdown in three of the past four games and is becoming a better safety valve for Jackson.
Justin Tucker: Back-to-back weeks with a 50+ yard field goal. He’s back, y’all.
Total Defense: The Ravens’ defense finished with 211 net yards allowed. Stroud didn’t crack 200 yards passing and the Texans’ rushing offense finished with 58 net yards. The defense’s turnaround is brilliance.
John Harbaugh: Exiting the bye week, the Ravens faced three games in 11 days. Two were against playoff teams, including the Steelers. The Ravens rolled in all three of them and that happens due to the leadership at the top preparing for what could’ve been a challenging stretch. Just look at the Steelers, who went 1-2 after Thanksgiving and lost control of the division.
Losers
Officiating: A highly questionable pass interference call on 4th & 3 helped the Texans get into the red zone. Then, they needed a challenge to overturn an egregious spot for the Texans’ offense on 4th & 7 that was also turned over. Rather suspect officiating on the night.