This "Lamar Jackson is in the same league as Mahomes" nonsense on every football related show I see needs to stop.
Lamar Jackson, on the biggest stage, has now shit down his leg in both opportunities. Lamar is a player who has to have everything around him working perfectly to have success. Put him down 2 scores and ask him to carry the team, he cannot answer the bell.
There's a big difference between a running quarterback, and a quarterback who can run. Lamar Jackson and The Ravens ran 88 plays and put up 12 points.
Jackson attempted 59 passes, only threw one touchdown, but also threw two picks and lost a fumble. 12 points on 59 pass attempts should tell you all you need to know about Lamar as a QB when the lights are the brightest.
Nobody would bat an eye if before the game, soneone told us Pat would put the ball up 59 times. Matter of fact, id be pretty excited to see how many points and yards he would put up in that span of plays.
When things got bad for both QBs, you saw the odds on favorite to win the MVP this year get visible frustrated, press, and ultimately fold. He was nowhere to be seen trying to work out what was happening, rallying his team, he simply pouted on the sideline as his team fell further behind.
The reigning MVP had literally no quit. Its one thing to say after the fact, that we had faith all along, its quite another for that to be true.
Down 24, think about that for a moment. 24. Mahomes is captured, in that moment on the sideline saying we have everything we want. Everyones already counted us the **** out, so go do something special.
Then, to walk the walk after talking the talk, leading the team to 7 straight touchdowns and 8 scoring drives, throwing 5 touchdown passes, and displaying a fiery emotion that if you dont feel anything when you see this kid going nuts after a huge play, call the coroner, because youre already dead.
The two qbs could not be further apart. Jackson cannot hold Mahomes jock when it comes to putting the team on his back.
Lamar should consider signing with KC as a running back. Its the only way barring injury to Mahomes, that hes ever getting a ring.
Mahomes is the MVP. Its not even close. Lamar is a running back executing the halfback pass play about 20-25 times a game.
Jacksons first two years have ended with dud playoff performances.
Mahomes first two years as a starter sees his team hosting back to back AFC title games for a frachise that in its entire history never hosted a single one before he arrived. [Reply]
At this point, I think it's fair to say or at least arguable, that John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens were more concerned with killing the narrative around Lamar Jackson as a RBQB, than they were with winning the game and going to the superbowl.
The Ravens didn't even begin the football game trying to run the football. In total, there were 8 rushes, including 2 designed runs by Lamar Jackson, and totalling 6 carries for their running backs.
It was like Harbaugh went into the game thinking that Lamar was going to put the football up 40+ times, against the leagues best secondary.
Why? To try to catch us off guard by playing right into our strength? I don't think so.
Baltimore never tried to establish the run at any point. Either they really shit the bed and panicked horrificly early (a fair point considering the early 4th down attempt from their own 30) and completely abandoned the thought of the run going forward, or they really wanted Lamar to be the guy to take them over the hump.
It just doesn't appear that the Ravens ever planned to lean on the run to try to win this game.
In the end, all they did was cement the fact that Lamar is more RB than QB. He's a highlight reel guy, 2 time MVP with 2 playoff wins in 6 years. Not only that, but they've called into question just WTAF was Harbaugh doing signing off on a gameplan that ended with just 8 rushes on the day by leagues best rushing offense.
Lamar and Pat became starters in the same year.
While Patrick has made his legend largely coming roaring back to drive daggers through the hearts of opponents that go up 2,3,sometimes 4 scores on him, even in post season, and maintaining around an 80% win rate in those games, Lamar Jackson has yet to win a single one in which his team goes down a couple scores at half.
It rarely ends well when you have the ability to run, but you want your QB to be the one getting the credit. Pete Carrol knows a little something about that, and we can probably add John Harbaugh to that list as well. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Wallcrawler:
At this point, I think it's fair to say or at least arguable, that John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens were more concerned with killing the narrative around Lamar Jackson as a RBQB, than they were with winning the game and going to the superbowl.
I read someone say the TD to Flowers gave the Ravens a false sense of security that they could beat the Chiefs passing.
They got a broken play TD and thought that was gonna happen every down.
I don't think I've ever seen a Chiefs team squeeze Lamar in the pocket and mostly shut down his scrambling AND scrambling to throw better. He had one big run and not much else. [Reply]
Games are organic. Baltimore went in with the plan of what they wanted to do. The Chiefs dominated the time of possession and forced Baltimore out of their comfort zone.
I guarantee you the BMore planned to run. A lot. The Chiefs made them change that plan. [Reply]
Originally Posted by notorious:
Games are organic. Baltimore went in with the plan of what they wanted to do. The Chiefs dominated the time of possession and forced Baltimore out of their comfort zone.
I guarantee you the BMore planned to run. A lot. The Chiefs made them change that plan.
I definitely think Baltimore pushed the "panic" button after KC started the game with 2 very strong, time consuming drives for touchdowns. This placed Baltimore into a mentality that they needed 40 points to win the game. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DRM08:
I definitely think Baltimore pushed the "panic" button after KC started the game with 2 very strong, time consuming drives for touchdowns. This placed Baltimore into a mentality that they needed 40 points to win the game.
I think this narrative is a bit overblown. The Chiefs were stacking the box and daring Lamar to throw.
Any competent team would take their chances through the air under those circumstances, especially if they have a league MVP QB and perimeter weapons.
The Chiefs stacked the box, dared the Ravens to throw and the Ravens obliged.
"Take what the defense gives you" as they say. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
I read someone say the TD to Flowers gave the Ravens a false sense of security that they could beat the Chiefs passing.
They got a broken play TD and thought that was gonna happen every down.
I don't think I've ever seen a Chiefs team squeeze Lamar in the pocket and mostly shut down his scrambling AND scrambling to throw better. He had one big run and not much else.
The broken play, a big play to Agholor down the sideline, and a few scrambles.
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
I think this narrative is a bit overblown. The Chiefs were stacking the box and daring Lamar to throw.
Any competent team would take their chances through the air under those circumstances, especially if they have a league MVP QB and perimeter weapons.
The Chiefs stacked the box, dared the Ravens to throw and the Ravens obliged.
"Take what the defense gives you" as they say.
Exactly. The same with “Lamar should have ran more”. There was a reason he didn’t. I’ve watched the replays and I haven’t seen all those opportunities for Lamar to take off. The one that’s consistently shown is the strip sack but 1) Bateman was open on a deep crosser, Lamar just waited to long to pull the trigger and 2) Lamar didn’t see the pressure. And the pass plays were open. Lamar just couldn’t make the throws. If we gave Burrow or Allen those same looks we would have gotten blown out.
Chiefs dared Lamar to beat them with his arm and he couldn’t. Simple as that. And not at all surprising. [Reply]
Originally Posted by notorious:
Games are organic. Baltimore went in with the plan of what they wanted to do. The Chiefs dominated the time of possession and forced Baltimore out of their comfort zone.
I guarantee you the BMore planned to run. A lot. The Chiefs made them change that plan.
I don't think you can say that you planned to run a lot, and only attempt 8 rushes in the entire game, especially in such a low scoring contest. They even disregarded running the ball on 3rd and short, getting Lamar popped in the process.
If this is what happened, tgat Harbaugh blinked after just 2 possessions, then it almost has to be a fireable offense for Harbaugh, to flat give up on the overwhelming strength of his team, and ask his qb to do something he's just not built to do, and that is be a one dimensional dropback passer for the entire game.
That's a tall task for elite throwers of the football, to have success based on passing attack with no support from the run.
Originally Posted by Arch Stanton:
Looked to me like LJ's lost a step already.
On the play he broke out into the open, he ran lookin over his shoulder til he got taken down from behind.
First time I've seen him do that.
Same, I'm not sure if he'd lost a step, or just hadn't fully committed, or what but I thought he was gone on the play that Sneed tracked him down. [Reply]
