BALTIMORE — A smile stretched across Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s face as running back Derrick Henry extended a congratulatory hand, while sporting a freshly unpacked AFC North champions T-shirt and hat. The two men were inside the locker room at M&T Bank Stadium, where the victorious scent of cigar smoke still hung in the air.

Moments later coach John Harbaugh handed out a series of game balls, one of which went to Jackson for a historic regular season. Henry nudged the quarterback to make a speech. Jackson, whom Baltimore signed to a five-year, $260 million contract before the 2023 season, was brief.

“We gotta lock in, ’cause it’s go time,” he said. “A lot of us have been here plenty of times, and we ain’t finish. So, let’s just get started right now.”

The job, as Jackson said later in his news conference, was still “undone.”

For all his records and accolades over the past seven seasons and the Ravens’ accomplishments in that span, the only measure remaining that matters is the draft night promise of a Super Bowl title that he made to the city the day the organization selected him in 2018. So far, Jackson has failed to maintain his same level of play in the postseason; the Ravens are just 2-4 in the playoffs and have never reached a Super Bowl with him at the helm.

Perhaps it’s fitting that to get there this year, Baltimore will have to go through its most bitter nemesis, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin — the only NFL coach with a longer tenure than Harbaugh — in an AFC wild-card game Saturday night at M&T Bank Stadium.

It marks the just the fifth time, and first since 2015, that the teams have met in the playoffs, but time hasn’t softened the rivalry.

“I don’t know if I have any one particular moment that makes me hate those guys,” said Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, who is the team’s longest-tenured player and lone holdover from their last playoff meeting. “I think it’s a slow burn over a number of years. It’s one little thing here. One bigger thing there. One play that gets made, one play that doesn’t get made. For whatever reason you remember those. You hold onto them. That makes it a little more personal. … It all kind of adds up into one big, emotional experience.

“To sum it up in a word, it’s intense. There’s a lot of emotion, lot of energy that goes into any football game. But you talk about two teams that are very familiar with one another, that have had great players on both sides, playing at the highest level in games with the highest stakes. There’s a history of epic plays and epic finishes on both sides that just adds to the lore that is the rivalry between Baltimore and Pittsburgh.”

That history, be it against the Steelers or in the postseason, has not been kind to the Ravens in recent years.

Baltimore rallied to a division title for a second straight year with four straight victories to ultimately set up Saturday’s game. And along the way, Jackson became the first player in NFL history to throw for more than 4,000 yards and run for more than 900 in the same season. He is again an NFL Most Valuable Player candidate, an award he has already won twice, and a first-team All-Pro.

But in Jackson’s six playoff games, he has thrown six interceptions and lost three fumbles.

Until 2015, Pittsburgh had also won three straight playoff games against the Ravens, including the 2009 AFC championship game. And until the Ravens’ most recent victory over the Steelers on Dec. 21, Pittsburgh had won eight of the previous nine regular-season matchups, though Jackson did not play in more than half of those games.

Even when he has, it’s often been a struggle, which has largely been true of his postseason performances as a whole.

“I’m just too excited, that’s all, too antsy,” he said of his past playoff foibles. “I’m seeing things before it happens like, ‘Oh, I have to calm myself down.’ Being more experienced, I’ve found a way to balance it out.”

That remains to be seen, particularly against a familiar foe that has often vexed if not frustrated the Ravens into mistakes.

“I think everybody had their guy that they wanted to just punch in the mouth,” said former Baltimore running back Jamal Lewis, whose biggest adversaries were vaunted defenders Larry Foote, James Farrior and Joey Porter Sr. “We just hated each other.”

Lewis remembers one year stiff-arming a Steelers defender and bouncing into space. Then he put his mitt into Porter’s face mask, driving him to the ground. There’s a picture of Lewis standing over his most hated rival like Muhammad Ali above Sonny Liston, and he still sends that picture to his Steelers fan friends as a reminder.

It goes both ways, of course.

On an episode of “Hard Knocks” last month, Joey Porter Sr. lounged at home explaining to his son and current Steelers defensive back, Joey Porter Jr., “It’s way more intense than anybody can speak on.”

Porter Sr. went on to say he’s heard all about Baltimore’s famous crabs. “I ain’t never had it,” he deadpanned. Tucker didn’t hold back in his response to the moment.

“Joey Porter was a great player,” he said. “But I don’t [care] what he has to say.”

Former NFL safety Rod Woodson is perhaps best positioned to explain how both teams view one another. He spent from 1987 to 1996 with the Steelers. He also played for the Ravens from 1998 to 2001 and is the team’s radio color commentator.

“They’re very similar in the way they like to play,” he said. “They like to run, like to beat you up, like to get after the quarterback.

“The organizations are very similar.”

It’s a rivalry that, as former Ravens receiver Qadry Ismail said, is “just different,” particularly when it comes to the postseason.

“It sticks with you if you lose” to the Steelers, he said. “It’s like … we lost to them?!”

©2025 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.