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Lamar Jackson can lead Ravens to playoffs with another NFL record

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Lamar Jackson insists he's more focused on making the NFL playoffs than league history.

Heading into Sunday's season finale in Cincinnati, Jackson downplayed the fact that he's 92 yards away from becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to produce two 1,000-yard rushing seasons.

"Honestly, I just want to win Sunday and come out of the game healthy," said Jackson, whose Ravens can clinch a wild-card berth by beating the Bengals. "It doesn't matter about records being broken or anything like that. I just want to win to get into the playoffs."

Jackson's track record says the Ravens' chances of clinching a wild-card berth are actually increased if he sets this NFL mark.

Baltimore is 12-0 when Jackson rushes for 90 or more yards in a game, including 2-0 against the Bengals. This season, he went over 90 yards rushing in three games and the Ravens won each time, beating the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Browns (a wild 47-42 victory on Monday Night Football).

Jackson already is in select dual-threat company by rushing for 908 yards this season, which ranks as the fifth most by a quarterback in NFL history and leads all quarterbacks this season by 92 yards (Kyler Murray's 816 yards are second). He set the single-season record for quarterbacks last season when he ran for 1,206 yards.

Did Jackson ever imagine he would run for more than 1,000 yards in the NFL?

"I did it in college before; I never doubted myself," Jackson said. "It wasn’t really on my mind that I'd be running for 1,000 yards, either. I really didn't think about that, to be honest."

For quarterbacks, posting big back-to-back rushing seasons had proven elusive. Before Jackson totaled more than 900 yards rushing in consecutive years, the previous two quarterbacks to rush for more than 900 yards in a season (Randall Cunningham and Michael Vick) recorded less than 600 rushing yards the following season.

"Lamar is a special person,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "He’s a talented guy, of course. He's in the process of improving himself and making a name for himself and building a career as a quarterback in the National Football League. I think all of us -- players, coaches, the organization and fans -- it's cool to be a part of it."

Whether Jackson reaches 1,000 yards depends on how the Ravens plan to attack the Bengals defense, which ranks 25th against the run and 23rd against the pass. He ran through Cincinnati in his first three meetings, averaging 112 yards rushing, including a spectacular spin move on a 47-yard touchdown sprint. But Jackson attempted just two runs in his last game against the Bengals, managing a career-low 3 yards against them in Week 5.

Lamar Jackson is 4-0 against the Bengals as a starter. How has he been so successful against Cincinnati? And what's it going to take to win?

"The same reason he's been successful against everybody else," Bengals linebacker Carl Lawson said. "Because he can run and throw. Gotta stop him from running and throwing."

ESPN Bengals reporter Ben Baby contributed to this article.