ExtremeRavens Posted October 9 Posted October 9 Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard has three inches and 60 pounds on Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Down the stretch Sunday in Cincinnati, it didn’t matter. “There’s nobody in the world that moves like him,” Hubbard said. “I chased him down. He’s stiff-arming me in the face. [Linebacker] Germaine [Pratt] is coming to hit him. He launches the ball across the field to somebody. How do you make that up?” It was more than just another dazzling if not unbelievable play in a six-plus year career full of them for the NFL’s two-time and reigning Most Valuable Player. Jackson’s stiff-arm of Hubbard — bookended by a dropped shotgun snap and a touchdown pass across his body to tight end Isaiah Likely — helped lift Baltimore to its improbable and spectacular 41-38 come-from-behind overtime victory over the Bengals. The win was the Ravens’ third in a row, propelled them into a tie atop the AFC North with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has them once again part of the Super Bowl conversation after an 0-2 start had temporarily squashed that talk. A day later, the superlatives were still flowing. “It’s an amazing play,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “I just thought it was an incredible, fabulous play that will go down in history.” But how did he pull it off, what was actually supposed to happen and what does it mean? Trailing by 10 for the second time in the fourth quarter and facing second-and-goal from the Bengals’ 6-yard line, Baltimore was in familiar 12 personnel (two tight ends, one running back) with Jackson in the shotgun and back Justice Hill to his left. Receivers Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman were split left and right, respectively, while Likely lined up next to Mark Andrews tight to the left then motioned across the formation before the snap. Had Jackson caught center Tyler Linderbaum’s snap cleanly, he had options. Andrews ran an in-route with cornerback Jalen Davis trailing him, Bateman crossed underneath to further clog the middle, Likely continued into the right flat, Flowers ran an inside curl on cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt and Hill flared out to the left flat. Both Flowers and Andrews had good position if an accurate pass was made, while Likely and Hill were both open as check-downs, too. But as Jackson fumbled with the ball, everything started to break down. Hubbard pushed right tackle Roger Rosengarten back, then beat him inside and closed in on Jackson. That meant throwing to Flowers or Hill was out. Jackson, who began to scramble right, incredibly stiff-armed Hubbard. Then he did it again, this time sending the defensive end to the Paycor Stadium turf. “He doesn’t look as strong as he is,” Hubbard said of Jackson. “He’s one of the strongest.” With Hubbard down, Jackson, who dropped 15 pounds in the offseason to be faster, kept rolling and at one point pulled the ball down as if to run, but then slowed as Pratt closed in and he neared the sideline. Andrews had worked back to the front right corner of the end zone but was blanketed. That left only Likely, who had thrown his right hand up as he drifted behind the defense, first in the back right corner then back toward the middle, where he leaped and hauled in the pass. ONLY LAMAR. WOW. : #BALvsCIN on CBS/Paramount+: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/KenO7criwG — NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2024 According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Jackson ran 33.4 yards before making the throw, the most of any touchdown pass in the league so far in 2024. The completion probability? Just 31.4%. “It really was incredible,” Andrews said. “I went to him and I said, ‘I’ve never seen anybody throw anything like that in my entire life.’ That’s just the type of player he is. The play’s never dead. He’s so special, and that was a really cool one.” In many ways, it was not all that dissimilar to the play Jackson made at the end of the game in Week 1 in Kansas City, where he twice eluded Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones to throw what he thought was a potential game-tying touchdown pass to Likely in the back of the end zone. Only this time, his perhaps new go-to target when things hit the proverbial fan easily got both feet down in bounds. “That boy different, man,” Flowers said of Jackson. “We talk about it every game. He just proves it every game, so I’m just wondering when we’re going to stop talking about it.” Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson threw four touchdown passes Sunday against the Bengals. One stood out above the rest. (Jeff Dean/AP) View the full article Quote
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