Marquise Brown saved his best performance in an up-and-down season for the postseason.
The Baltimore Ravens receiver set a season-high in receptions and yards, corralling seven passes for 109 yards in Sunday's 20-13 win over the Tennessee Titans.
"He's come up big for us, man. He's made so many plays. He's come up big for us; catch-and-run plays, over-the-top plays," coach John Harbaugh said of Brown's play, via the team's official website.
Known as a burner, the Ravens finally used Brown as more than just a deep threat. A 28-yard first-half catch was his longest of the game, as the rest of his grabs were more of a move-the-chains variety as opposed to home-run shots we'd seen for long stretches of the season. The Ravens also got the ball in the speedster's hands with two backfield pitches, which he took for 19 yards.
Brown earned 109 of Lamar Jackson's 179 passing yards Sunday.
It was just the second time all year that the second-year receiver passed the 100-yard receiving mark. The first came in Week 1.
For his career, all four of Brown's 100-plus yard receiving games have come in either Week 1 or the postseason (147 rec yards in Week 1, 2019; 126 in 2019 Divisional Rd; 101 in Week 1, 2020; 109 in 2020 Wild Card Rd).
It's been a rollercoaster season for Brown. After the big Week 1, his usage sank as the pass-game struggled. Following a one-catch game in a Week 8 loss to Pittsburgh, Brown famously Tweeted: "(W)hat's the point of having souljas when you never use them (Never!!)."
Down the stretch of the season, the Ravens have gotten Brown more involved. In his last seven games, he earned 33 catches for 447 yards and six TDs. From Weeks 2-11, he had just 27 catches for 330 yards and two scores.
"Every game is not going to be great, and every game is not going to be bad. You take the bad with the bad, the good with the good and keep moving," Brown said. "Just because I had a good game this week, I've got to still put in the work to do good next week. So, I never get too high, I never get too low; I just keep pushing.
"Greg Roman, he continued to trust me to get me involved in different things. So, I just do my best out there to try to execute what they tell me to do, and hopefully, going forward, it continues."
The Ravens utilizing Brown's speed on more than just deep shots has helped open up the offense. With defenses gearing up to stop the run, getting the ball in Brown's hands anywhere on the field adds another game-breaking element.
Against a Buffalo Bills team that gave up a lot of yards after catch in its Super Wild Card win over Indianapolis (125.48 YAC, per Next Gen Stats), the Ravens need to keep Brown heavily involved in the divisional round.
