Lamar Jackson Does It Again, Ravens Roll To A 23-17 Win Over The Cardinals
24 of 37. 272 yards. 2 TD’s. 0 INT’s.
120 rushing yards. 120!!!
An absolute dime to Hollywood to ice the game.
W.
That’s the statline for Lamar Jackson today, and he is the reason the Ravens won. I have to give a lot of credit to Kyler Murray here. That kid can ball. Although the Ravens were in full control from the opening drive, he put a scare into the home crowd and made us work until the final minutes. All signs point to him being great in this league.
But Lamar really is something special. It wasn’t quite the performance he put together last week, but that was a level of play that nobody could maintain. He still played out of his mind. Last week the Dolphins tried to force Lamar to throw and they got burned. This week showed a much more balanced attack, and it was an attack that should scare every defensive coordinator in this league. There were a couple of throws Lamar would like to have back, especially that ball he sailed over Mark Andrews’ head late in the 4th quarter that could’ve gone for 6. But he made the big throw when it counted. Truly a thing of beauty.
The kid can throw the heck outta the football. Granted, we probably don’t want Lamar to run 16 times, but that’s just a reflection of the Cardinals picking their poison. They played situational defensive football, and we took advantage accordingly. When you can pick up 8 yards on first down with ease by having Lamar carry the football, it’s hard to turn it down. He’s pretty impressive at avoiding hard contact, so I can live with it given the results.
I’d be remiss not to share some concerns about the defense against a rookie QB. Regardless of how good Kyler is and will be, there were still some major lapses that need to be cleaned up. Tony Jefferson had a couple of bad moments, and it’s clear that Anthony Averett is a somewhat of a liability in replacing Jimmy Smith. I don’t think he’ll be back until October, so we’ll just have to wear that against Mahomes and Mayfield the next two week.
Hard not to be excited with how the Ravens have started off the year, along with the outlook of the franchise long-term. Lamar, Mark Andrews, Hollywood Brown… what a trio. Also doesn’t suck to see Pittsburgh drop their home opener to fall to 0-2. I won’t get greedy and ask for a Jets upset against the Browns tomorrow, but I wouldn’t hate to see that either.
We’ve got our franchise QB. We’ve got an early lead in the division. Things are looking up in Baltimore. Lamar gonna bring us a Super Bowl. So buy a damn shirt already, and tell your friends too while you’re at it!!
