The Baltimore Ravens are AFC North champions and will enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the conference. This division title comes as Baltimore came away with a 35-10 win over the Cleveland Browns at home to wrap up the regular season. This loss drops Cleveland to 3-14 to end its 2024 campaign.
The Ravens were a bit slow to jump out to their lead, as the offense took a few drives to get moving. However, that didn’t stop John Harbaugh’s team from getting points on the scoreboard early. During Cleveland’s second offensive possession of the night, rookie corner Nate Wiggins picked off Browns starter Bailey Zappe for his first career interception and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown. From there, Jackson led a touchdown drive in the opening minutes of the second quarter to build up a two-score lead at the break.
Then the Ravens opened up the third quarter with a seven-play, 70-yard touchdown drive where Jackson found a wide-open Rashod Bateman to extend the lead. The second half — particularly the fourth quarter — was where Baltimore blew the doors open. After Zappe scored Cleveland’s lone touchdown of the game on a pass to Jordan Akins, Baltimore scored back-to-back touchdowns to make it a 25-point lead. Derrick Henry was the catalyst of that run as he piled up 130 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the second half en route to the win and the division title.
Lamar Jackson finished his night completing 16 of his 32 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 63 yards. Thanks to those totals, Jackson became the first quarterback ever with 4,000 yards passing and 800 yards rushing in a single season. As for Zappe, he concluded his game 16 of 31 for 170 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
From here, the Ravens will stick around M&T Bank Stadium as the No. 3 seed and gear up for the opening round of the playoffs. They’ll also wait to see how the rest of the Week 18 slate unfolds to see who they’ll host on Super Wild Card Weekend. As for the Browns, they’ll be scoreboard-watching on Sunday as well. This loss locked them into a top-three pick at the 2025 NFL Draft, but wins by both the Patriots and Titans on Sunday would shoot them up to the No. 1 overall pick.