ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A soft snow appropriately blanketed the field inside Highmark Stadium as the clock neared midnight on Sunday. A couple of hours after the coldest game of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s career, all that was left was another long offseason to ponder what might have been. Again.

It was dubbed the latest Game of the Century, Jackson vs. the Bills’ Josh Allen.

And on a chilly evening with a trip to the AFC championship game was on the line, Jackson, the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player and the favorite to win the award for a third time this year, nearly delivered. Until his favorite target and career security blanket, tight end Mark Andrews, didn’t.

Trailing 27-19 with just over three minutes remaining in a divisional round playoff game, the $265 million man drove Baltimore 88 yards in 1:56 and connected with tight end Isaiah Likely on a 24-yard touchdown pass. But on the ensuing 2-point attempt, a sliding Andrews dropped the would-be game-tying pass in the front right corner of the end zone.

And just like that, the Ravens’ season, one filled with dreams of winning their first Super Bowl in a dozen years, came crashing to the turf.

It was only one of a series of blunders when it mattered most and a familiar refrain in the postseason for Baltimore.

The Ravens turned the ball over three times, with Jackson throwing an interception and losing a fumble, while Andrews also lost one midway through the fourth quarter. They led directly to 10 points for the Bills and proved costly for Baltimore in what ended up a thrilling 27-25 victory for Buffalo and left more questions about the Ravens’ postseason misery.

Not that the quarterback was blaming Andrews, who was unavailable to the media, alone.

“It’s a team effort,” Jackson said in defense of Andrews. “He’s been busting his behind, been making plays out there on that field for us.”

“There’s nobody that has more heart who cares more who fights more than Mark,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “We wouldn’t be here without Mark Andrews.

“It’s uncharacteristic to have turnovers like that. There were opportunities to not have those, but we had them so you try to bounce back from them. … You can’t take them back.”

Jackson’s frustration was visible afterward.

“Like I been saying all season, every time we in situations like this, turnovers play a factor, penalties play a factor,” he said. “Tonight with the turnovers we can’t have that [crap]. That’s why we lost the game.

“Hold on to the f—ing ball. Sorry for my language, but this [crap] annoying. I’m tired of this [crap], man.”

The Bills, meanwhile, are just getting started.

They advanced to next Sunday’s AFC championship game against the host and two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. The winner will move on to the Super Bowl to face either the Philadelphia Eagles or Washington Commanders in New Orleans.

The Ravens will clean out their lockers Monday and disperse, their season ending in the same frustrating manner it has so many times before with regular-season magic ending in postseason misery.

Jackson finished 18 of 25 passing for 254 yards and two touchdowns and turned the ball over twice in the same game for the first time all season. Running back Derrick Henry, a free agent splash in the offseason brought in to be a difference-maker at this time of year, had 84 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.

Allen, meanwhile, was an efficient 16 of 22 passing for 127 yards, was sacked just once and rushed for two scores, while running back James Cook finished with 67 yards on 17 carries.

Buffalo, which was second in the league in takeaways and tied for the fewest turnovers, was mistake-free again.

The Ravens were not. Again.

Four years after Jackson threw a costly interception that was returned 101 yards for a backbreaking touchdown in a divisional round loss to the Bills, turnovers cost Baltimore once more on the same field.

After throwing four interceptions in the regular season, including just two in the past two months, Jackson was intercepted once and fumbled once in the first half of the frigid game. Then, with the Ravens driving midway through the fourth quarter for a potential go-ahead score and just after crossing into Buffalo territory, Andrews had the ball punched free after a first-down catch. The Bills recovered near midfield.

It was one of a series of self-inflicted mistakes, once again when it mattered most.

In the coldest game of Jackson’s career at 20 degrees at kickoff, the Ravens’ league-leading offense froze up when it counted. Jackson entered the game 7-3 with 17 touchdown passes and three interceptions in games 35 degrees or colder in his seven-year career.

But facing their largest halftime deficit of the season at 21-10, the hole was too big to dig out from.

Still, the Ravens came close.

Justin Tucker, who made a 26-yard field goal in the second quarter and faced a swirl of noise on a slippery field, knocked in a 47-yard kick to make it 21-13. Then Henry finished off Baltimore’s next series with a 5-yard touchdown run to get within two.

But Baltimore’s would-be game-tying 2-point conversion attempt went by the wayside as Jackson’s pass to an open Likely in the left side of the end zone got knocked down at the line.

Buffalo chewed up 4:33 on its next possession, which ended in a 51-yard field goal by Tyler Bass. Andrews fumbled on Baltimore’s next series, setting up the Bills again. Buffalo drove 52 yards in 5:12 with Bass tacking on a 21-yard field goal with 3:31 remaining.

That left enough time for Jackson’s near heroics. But in the end, it wasn’t enough. Jackson and the Ravens’ season came to an end without a trip to the Super Bowl, just as it has the past seven years.

Left tackle Ronnie Stanley, an impending free agent, called it the toughest loss of his career. He also called Andrews a “warrior” and told him after the game that he loved him.

Safety Kyle Hamilton echoed similar sentiments.

“For anybody to say anything about him you gotta look in the mirror and evaluate your thought process, what he’s done for this franchise what he will do for this franchise in the future,” he said of Andrews. “He’s been a consistent beacon of success. … For anyone to take anything away from him and his work ethic is unfair.”

It was also a stunning end to what had been one of the best teams in the NFL the final two months of the season.

“High frustration level,” Hamilton said. “It’s a shock to everybody walking off that field, definitely me, for it to be over like that.”

Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1.