Lamar Jackson is a serious MVP candidate! Lamar Jackson and the Ravens defense led Baltimore to a crushing victory 37-26 victory over the Patriots, proving that last weekend’s collapse against Miami was just a fluke.
If this game proved anything it was that this Ravens offense, led by Lamar Jackson, is legit. Again, Jackson had another dominating performance as he put up 5 combined touchdowns against a very stingy and underrated Patriots defense.
Passing for 18/29 (62%), 218 yards, 4 TDs, and 1 INT, and rushing for 107 yards and 1 TD, Jackson showcased that he is an utterly unstoppable force as he carried the Ravens throughout this game. How many quarterbacks in the league can pass for over 200 yards and rush for another 100, while also throwing for 4 TDs and rushing for a 5th? None as far as I’m concerned.
Sure, Jackson’s critics will say that he “only threw for 218 yards”, but that’s all the Ravens needed out of Lamar today. Bill Belichick’s defense was designed to force Lamar Jackson into throwing the ball as much as possible as the Pats knew if Jackson broke free with his legs, he was going to dominate them.
And Jackson did dominate the Patriots with his legs with 107 rushing yards and 1 TD, which was the game-clinching touchdown as Jackson ran past five Pats defenders to put the Ravens up 37-26. Yet, Jackson also dominated the Patriots threw the air, even though he only threw for 218 yards.
With 4 passing TDs, the Ravens would have still won this game by two points if Lamar Jackson hadn’t rushed for a single yard. Jackson consistently hit up his ‘Ol’ Reliable’ target in Mark Andrews (who’s probably the most underrated TE in all of football, in my opinion) as he had a great game with 8 REC, 89 receiving yards, and 2 TDs.
Plus, Rashod Bateman had a sneakily good game as he put up an additional 59 receiving yards and was vital on that clinching TD drive at the end of the 4th quarter, though his contribution was admittable sparce as he only caught two balls.
Anyways, what was even more impressive than Lamar Jackson and his WR/TE core was the much-maligned Ravens defense. They were SO much better today as they not only held the Patriots to under 28 points (or 4 TDs against), but also were able to cause 4 turnovers against a Bill Belichick coached team.
Led by CBs Marcus Peters, Marlon Humprey, and LB Josh Bynes (who each had a pick), the Ravens were able to pick off Mac Jones THREE times, with two of those occasions directly leading to points on the ensuing Baltimore offensive drives.
Even better, they were able to pick off Mac Jones in the 4th Quarter twice and the 3rd Quarter once.
Why is that important? Well, considering that they were unable to stop Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami pass attack at all in last week’s utter collapse, securing their three interceptions in the 2nd half shows that the Ravens defense isn’t as incompetent in clutch moments as some have thought (cough…Stephen A. Smith…cough).
It’s true that this Ravens defense can’t compare with the legendary 2000 Super Bowl winning defense, or even the 2012 winning defense, but they can compete and close out games against NFL offenses.
Yes, The Patriots offense may not be a great, but they have proven that they are somewhat difficult to shut down completely as they were in the game until the final Ravens drive, as well as being competitive against the Dolphins and winning against the Steelers.
Thus, being able to pick off Mac Jones three times and forcing a 4th turnover through a fumble should be seen as win and a momentum boost for these Ravens players on their path to winning the AFC Noth title.
As for the Patriots, I’m glad they finally figured out how to use Devante Parker. He was a monster out there as he had 5 REC and 156 receiving yards and was dominating jump balls against the Ravens cornerbacks all game long.
The only unfortunate thing is that Mac Jones must have thought that Parker activated some kind of cheat code with how good he was playing as he began blindly throwing up ‘lob pass’ after ‘lob pass’ to the former Miami receiver, even if he was covered by 2 or even 3 Ravens defenders.
Mac, you can’t just throw up passes to a guy whose double/triple covered! They are going to get picked off!
And they were…three times, in fact.
I know Mac Jones is only in his sophomore year in the NFL, but he needs to cut out those reckless, blind lob passes that get picked off 50-85% of the time. The Patriots could have won this game if Mac Jones didn’t throw 3 INTS as, like I said, they were in this game up until Jackson’s final TD run.
Yeah, Lamar Jackson ran all over the Patriots, but Dedrick Wise Jr. and Matthew Judon were still able to reach the elusive Ravens QB as they had 3.0 and 1.0 sacks, respectively.
And when Mac Jones threw his 2nd INT in the Ravens’ Redzone when the Patriots were only one score behind (it was 31-26) with 9 minutes left in the game, it was the Patriots defense that gave them that chance to comeback as Myle Bryant forced fumble on the previous drive.
Even though the Patriots let up 37 points and nearly 400 total yards of offense, the defense wasn’t the reason why,
It was the offense’s insistence on turning the ball over in the worst moments possible, which constantly put the defense in difficult positions.
And it’s those kinds of moments, along with Mac Jones limping off the field in serious pain after his final INT (which I hope isn’t serious), that will cost them a playoff spot come January.
Images Source: Featured Image:
