So the Ravens wrangled with the unsigned Lamar Jackson for months and months, and negotiations for a new contract seemed broken more than once, and then, one night in April, a bridge got built, and Jackson and the Ravens signed a five-year, $260-million deal.
All for days like Sunday.
Sunday’s game—Ravens 38, Lions 6, and it could have been two touchdowns worse—had to remind coach John Harbaugh and GM Eric DeCosta why those perpetual knots in their guts from January to April were worth it. Sunday was a Lamar 2019 MVP day. The white-hot Lions, 5-1 with pedigree road wins in Kansas City and Tampa Bay, came to Baltimore and the Ravens were 4-2 but with a bit of an asterisk. The asterisk: a sputtering offense. Entering Sunday, only one of their 18 possessions over the past six quarters ended with a touchdown. And the Lions had held their past four foes to 14 points per game. Not a day, seemingly, for the Ravens’ offense to get well.
Jackson has never opened a game this explosively in the NFL. Four drives—of 75, 68, 92 and 80 yards—all ending in touchdowns in the first 23 minutes. By midway through the third, it was 35-0 and the Lions were beaten into submission. “Lamar beat us,” coach Dan Campbell of Detroit said. “He hammered us with his arm. He ran when he needed to, and we did not handle it well.”
In 2019, MVP Lamar played 12 of 15 games without an interception, with seven games of three TD passes or more. He threw three TD passes Sunday, and he didn’t throw a pick. The difference Sunday? In 2019, Jackson didn’t have a passing game of even 325 yards. Against the Lions, protected well from an oppressive Detroit rush, Jackson threw for 357.
Tight end Mark Andrews, who caught two of Jackson’s three TD throws, was asked to grade Jackson’s day, scale of 1 to 10.
“Ten, man. Ten. His ball placement was incredible,” Andrews said.
What was most notable, I thought, was that he was effective on the ground (nine rushes, 36 yards, one TD) but absolutely lethal in the passing game. He started the scoring with a deceptive 7-yard keeper, faking inside and then running left; he could have walked the last 5 yards. Then he had all kinds of time on a 12-yard TD strike to Nelson Agholor in the back of the end zone. A couple of times on Baltimore’s four early TD drives, you’d swear Jackson was taking off for a gain of 8 or 10, then sliding down, but instead he’d stop suddenly and find a receiver for those 8 or 10 yards. The maturation of a player who wants to last 15 years in the league—that’s how it struck me. And the longer he works with offensive coordinator Todd Monken, the more they’ll get to learn what the other likes to do most. The relationship seemed symphonic Sunday.
When he came to the phone an hour after the game, I expected ebullient Lamar. But he was more like Harbaugh described him: “I don’t even think he’s that happy with the game. In the locker room, it’s not like he’s all giddy.”
Jackson was beyond level. Blasé, even. “We need to keep playing with the consistency we showed today,” he said. “If we do, I believe the sky’s the limit for our offense.”
I gave him the 18-drives, one-TD streak entering the game, and wondered what made this game different. “We knew how good we’d have to be, because of the great team, great defense we were up against,” he said. “Keep the ball. Keep getting first downs. Keep getting long drives. Then, once you keep scoring points, you’re messing with the defense’s head a little bit. They can’t stop it [the offense]. Our offense is automatic, I believe. It was today.”
Baltimore’s an intriguing team in the top-heavy AFC North (Ravens, 5-2; Browns and Steelers, 4-2; Bengals, 3-3), with one of the league’s biggest schedule quirks. After playing Arizona in Glendale Sunday, they come home for three games in Baltimore (Seattle, Cleveland, Cincinnati) in 12 days. That’s not the quirk. This is: After facing the Bengals on Nov. 16, the Ravens have two games in the next 30 days: Nov. 26 at the Chargers, Dec. 10 at home with the Rams. Talk about a time to heal. That’s it. Everything’s looking up for Baltimore.
Read more in Peter King’s full Football Morning in America column.
