ExtremeRavens Posted 20 hours ago Posted 20 hours ago Lamar Jackson winced and reached for his back Thursday afternoon in Owings Mills. He wasn’t hurt, just reliving the moment Vikings outside linebacker Dallas Turner crunched him to the Minnesota turf with the full weight of his hulking 6-foot-3, 247-pound frame two weeks ago. “God,” the Ravens quarterback said Thursday. “He got me. I wasn’t expecting that at all.” Even Superman has his weakness. In previous years, Jackson’s kryptonite has most often been opponents such as the Pittsburgh Steelers or Kansas City Chiefs. This season, it has been something far more capricious: injuries. Hamstring. Knee. Now his ankle. “I’m good,” Jackson said of his latest trauma after missing the previous day’s practice, later removing a heavy dose of tape from around his right ankle and foot. Asked if the spate of injuries has impeded his performance, he offered only, “If it just happened in the game probably. But if you was injured, took some time off and you’re able to come back, I doubt it.” Perhaps, though two-time NFL Most Valuable Player’s metrics paint a different picture with Jackson not as explosive as he has been in the previous chapters of a career that will one day land him a gold jacket and a bust in Canton, Ohio. Jackson’s 32.3 rushing yards per game are the fewest of his career and his 5.8 yards per carry the third-lowest. Per Pro Football Focus, his tackle avoidance rate of 17.9% along with his averages of 1.9 yards before contact and 1.5 yards against eight-man boxes are also the lowest rates compared to any of his first seven seasons in the NFL. He is still averaging 3.9 yards after first contact — a career-high — so it’s not as if the gas tank is nearing empty, but since suffering a hamstring injury against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4, Jackson has averaged just 20 yards rushing per game and a 3.3 per-carry average, both more than a 50% decline from the first few weeks of the season. It, of course, also caused him to miss the next three games. There have been other, more tangible examples of his mortality, too. In last week’s win in Cleveland over the Browns, Jackson was sacked five times and ran just four times for only 10 yards. Two of those runs were kneel downs at the end of the 23-16 victory, with the two actual carries tying for the second-fewest of his career as a starter. He was also chased down twice by rookie inside linebacker Carson Schwesinger on the Ravens’ opening series, first on a read-option to the right in which Jackson appeared to have the angle but was dropped for a 1-yard loss, then on a 13-yard scramble up the middle when he was dropped at Cleveland’s 4-yard line. Two weeks before that, in a Thursday night game against the Miami Dolphins and in his first game back from the hamstring injury, he again was surprisingly corralled. Faced with a third-and-6 from the left hash on his own 36 early in the third quarter at Hard Rock Stadium, Jackson dropped back to pass and with Miami blitzing five, no one open and nothing but green grass in front of him, tucked the ball and quickly took off. Only one defender — cornerback Rasul Douglas — was on the left side of the field, but he was locked in tight man-to-man pass coverage. As Jackson raced upfield, the vastness appeared to provide a pathway to go the distance or at least a long way. Instead, linebacker Tyrel Dodson slipped away from right guard Daniel Faalele and tripped Jackson from behind, limiting him to a 13-yard gain. Jackson’s longest carry of this season is just 19 yards, which came in Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills. He had eight carries longer than that just last season. Browns defensive end Myles Garrett sacks Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in a 23-16 Baltimore win. Jackson was sacked five times in the victory. (David Richard/AP) Former NFL running back Damien Harris, who spent four years with the New England Patriots and one with the Bills and is now an analyst for CBS Sports, said earlier this week that he believes Jackson is playing “scared” and “hesitant” as well as being “frustrated.” “When I talk about him playing timid, he wasn’t climbing the pocket today,” Harris said. “He wasn’t extending plays with his legs and letting his receivers uncover. We were sitting there asking each other ‘Why?’ There were lanes. There were opportunities for him to tuck and run. Is he still worried about the hamstring? Are there other things going on? “I don’t want to use this opportunity to bash Lamar. I just genuinely want to know what’s going on.” The reasons are myriad. In addition to Jackson running less often and not being as explosive as he has been in the past, he has faced eight-man fronts on 25% of his runs, the highest mark of his career. Some teams have also used a spy along with a heavy dose of pressure to keep Jackson in check. The Detroit Lions were one of them and consequently generated a whopping 30 pressures and sacked him seven times, matching his career high. Baltimore’s porous offensive line has also been problematic. The Ravens rank 26th in pass blocking and 10th in run blocking, per PFF, and Jackson has been pressured on 43% of his drop-backs and sacked on 12% of them, both career highs. Against the Browns, Myles Garrett continually bullied his way through them and sacked Jackson four times. Through 10 games, Jackson has been sacked 23 times, tying his total from all of last season. “God[dang],” Jackson said when informed of the total. “I’m gonna have to talk to my guys about that.” All of it has taken a toll, on the Ravens’ offense, which ranks 21st in yards and 28th in red zone scoring, and on its quarterback’s body. When offensive coordinator Todd Monken was asked Thursday if Jackson’s injuries have affected his play-calling, he offered a blunt retort: “Nope.” Perhaps not, but it’s hard to say it hasn’t impacted the man executing the offense. Already, Jackson has missed three games because of injuries and practice each of the past two Wednesdays, the latter he acknowledged a potential new routine to allow his body a weekly rest day, something that is rare for quarterbacks. And as for if he feels the weight of facing all that pressure and taking all those hits? “It’s part of football,” he said. “Sometimes guys will get you; sometimes they won’t.” The same thing could be said about injuries. Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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