The Baltimore Ravens spent an entire half of their AFC divisional game dancing on the Houston Texans. John Harbaugh kept it going in the locker room.
The Ravens head coach celebrated the Ravens’ 34-10 win over Houston with the kind of dance moves that 61-year-old men can get away with only after leading a complete dismantling of their opponent.
The Ravens’ locker room obviously loved it:
The picture worth 1,000 words:
If this feels familiar, it’s because Harbaugh got down in the same locker room after the Ravens’ Week 17 win over the Miami Dolphins, another blowout that set the team up for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
There were some key differences in technique, though:
Just like the Miami win, Saturday’s game was a performance that warranted dancing.
The Ravens began the game tight, averaging only 3.8 yards per play on offense during the first half and struggling to maintain a pocket against the Texans’ aggressive blitzing. Baltimore’s defense held strong against star rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, but a punt-return touchdown by Steven Sims left the score tied 10-10 at halftime.
Baltimore came out of the locker room and played near-perfect football for the rest of the game. Lamar Jackson led three straight touchdown drives to open the half, while the defense kept turning the screws on Stroud.
By the end of the game, the Ravens had run 17 plays inside the Texans’ 25-yard line and the Texans had run zero plays inside the same threshold in Ravens territory. Jackson scored two touchdowns through the air and two on the ground, matching his number of total touchdowns in his first four career playoff games.
The win was a special day for Harbaugh as well. The Ravens had not reached the AFC championship game since 2013, the year they won their most recent Super Bowl. Since then, the team had seen a decline under Joe Flacco and repeated playoff struggles with Jackson, from either injuries or underperformance. Unlike the 2019-20 season, when the Ravens went 14-2 and fell on their face in the playoffs, Harbaugh’s team looked every bit as good as it did in the regular season.
And now the Ravens are set to host the AFC championship game next week for the first time in franchise history. Win that, and you can only imagine what moves Harbaugh will be showing off.
Gregory Daniels is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, he explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture. Gregory enjoys staying ahead of the curve and sharing emerging trends with his readers.
