Baltimore left room for hope, but Zay Flowers will not be playing in the Divisional Round.
The Ravens wide receiver is officially inactive for Sunday night's road playoff game against the Buffalo Bills.
Flowers, who missed practice all week and was given a doubtful game status on the injury report, was given "a chance" at returning by John Harbaugh on Friday, but apparently the second-year WR isn't healthy enough to play.
Flowers injured his knee in the regular-season finale, forcing him to miss his first game of the season in the Wild Card Round. The Ravens handled the Pittsburgh Steelers, 28-14, last Saturday without Flowers, relying on a ground game that set a franchise playoff record 299 rushing yards in the victory.
The Ravens will be faced with that same scenario on Sunday, but this time against a Bills defense that is coming off a superb display last week, holding the Broncos to 7 points and 224 total yards in Buffalo's wild-card win.
Flowers was Lamar Jackson's favorite target during the 2024 campaign. The 24-year-old led the Ravens in receptions (74), yards (1,059) and targets (116), and the breakout season resulted in Flowers becoming the first Ravens WR to earn a Pro Bowl honor.
Sans Flowers, Jackson will have Rashod Bateman and Nelson Agholor, who combined for three catches for 49 yards and a touchdown in the Wild Card Round, as his top wide-receiving targets, but a dynamic tight end duo in Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely, who combined for seven receptions for 80 yards last week, also remain at his disposal.
Ravens-Bills is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.