Pittsburgh Steelers 26, Baltimore Ravens 24
Q. Lamar, what are the emotions when a season ends that way?
LAMAR JACKSON: You know the emotion, Jamison, like that's -- we did all that, man, to come up short, bro, you know? Devastated. Furious. All type of... I don't know. I'm everywhere with it right now.
Q. Lamar, when you took the field for that final drive, how confident were you at that point that you were going to get into the position in field goal range?
LAMAR JACKSON: Extremely confident. I told my guys let's be legendary. Let's put the drive together. 55 seconds. We practiced this, you know? 55 seconds, three times, I believe we had three time-outs. We had great field position, I believe. I feel like it was -- I feel like we had it. We was only down what? Two? We would have won the game.
And then we had that penalty, too. We were having a lot of penalties, like, that kept stopping drives. But I'm proud of my guys because we kept overcoming. We kept overcoming adversity and situations like this, divisional games be like that sometimes, so, yeah.
Q. How hard is it sometimes, it gets left in the hands of the kicker and you guys kept battling?
LAMAR JACKSON: I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know how many times it had to come down to it being the kicker to win the game for us. Probably years in the past. I don't know.
Q. Have you seen Tyler Loop after the game?
LAMAR JACKSON: No.
Q. You haven't talked to him?
LAMAR JACKSON: No. I didn't. I talked to him during the game because I kind of was livid at him when he kicked the ball out of bounds. But I told him, you know, I'm just hype based on the emotions of the game right now. I felt like it was going to come down to him win the game for us at the end because just how the game was going, you know? He's a rookie. It's all good. Just leave it in the past, man.
Q. Lamar, on one of the drives when you kind of straggled out and took a hit, it looked like you kind of got in the face of one of the Steelers players. What happened in that interaction and --
LAMAR JACKSON: I just felt like he did something extra while I was on the ground. That's it, but...
Q. Did that change anything about your approach to the game? Did you feel more aggressive after that?
LAMAR JACKSON: No, I was playing football.
Q. Lamar, just what's the feeling? You guys have had a lot of games where you're in the lead or you've had opportunities to win and missed opportunities, missed opportunities. Does this kind of epitomize the season in a way?
LAMAR JACKSON: I guess so. If that's what you want to call it, I guess so. I don't know. I can't call it, man. Just came up short. We didn't want to. I feel like the offense played great. The offense was playing great, second half, fourth quarter -- third quarter, fourth quarter. I just wish we scored more points.
Q. We're not sure when we're going to be able to a talk to a you next after this. This offseason there's a lot of questions about your contract, your salary cap number. Do you feel you'll be back at the Ravens quarterback next season?
LAMAR JACKSON: Bro, I'm -- we just lost a game, you know? A divisional game, a game to put us in the playoffs. I'm not even thinking about that right now to be honest with you. I'm still caught up in what just happened. That's not my focus right now.
Q. Are you just stunned? Have you completed that last pass, it looked like this thing -- it's not over until it's over, but are you still stunned right now?
LAMAR JACKSON: Definitely. I'm definitely stunned, man. I thought we had it in the bag. I thought we had it in the bag, man. I don't know what else we can do.
Q. Lamar, do you think this team -- obviously you guys struggled with (inaudible) all year, but do you think this team as it's currently constructed had the ability to compete if things had broken a little bit differently? Do you have confidence in this core going forward?
LAMAR JACKSON: Yeah, absolutely. I always got confidence in my guys, all phases, you know? We had our shots with those guys. They had their opportunities against us. It's football. Sometimes it be a little bit of back and forth. Just last week, we were playing lights out. It just happens. Line I said, it's a divisional game. We just played these guys like five times in two years, so. It be like that sometimes.
Q. Lamar, why do you think in the last three years it's so hard to win in Pittsburgh?
LAMAR JACKSON: I don't know, I feel like we had a game. If you go back and watch all those games, it be close games. It don't be no oh, they just had the advantage or we had the advantage. It comes down to situations like this. Two-point conversion one year. Field goal another year. And again this year. Just got to find a way to get that win here.
Q. What do you feel like this team's potential was if it got to the playoffs?
LAMAR JACKSON: Just focus on the next opponent. I wasn't worried about anything, just focusing on winning and we had to win here. We didn't, so.
Q. Lamar, there's a lot of questions about Harbaugh's future as well. Do you want to see John remain the coach here?
LAMAR JACKSON: That's -- you're asking me about next year, Jamison. Like, I'm so caught up in what just happened tonight. I can't focus on that right now. I just told you. Like he asked me are you stunned? I'm stunned right now and I'm still trying to process what's going on. Like, I know we lost, but what the -- you know? That's all.
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