Yup. Devastating loss. The stars aligned for him like no other, and he couldn't do it. You could see it on the sideline, too. Completely shrunk when the game didn't go his way. No mental toughness. What can you say other than he's a playoff choker.

Yes, if the Ravens couldn’t do it this year, when will they?

QB not yet making the fat part of its deal.

Multiple mercenary vets having strong years.

Team stayed healthy, save for Andrews, and they found a rookie deal star replacement in his absence.

Multiple young players on rookie deals ascending to all-pro performance levels.

That roster plan came together perfectly.

They ended up with homefield advantage against a playoff field that ended up being a lot weaker than expected.

Now, next year they have a few key FAs from the defense that will be expecting big deals. Their star DC is almost certainly getting a HC job, and his best replacement option is taking the same job with the other Harbaugh.

Oh, and their QB has shown that even with a complete and stacked team around him, it isn’t enough (while also continuing to shows signs of physical decline)

It is highly unlikely their path is this “easy” again next year. That’s a problem.

I could replace “Ravens” with “Eagles”, change a couple names, and change the year. This could easily describe last year’s Eagles too.

Expect a similar decline.

Mahomes and the Chiefs have ruined “dream seasons” for very good franchises.

I can’t imagine how low they feel. Even our 2018 team had a shit defense. We a young cheap Mahomes, we had every reason to be positive after that.

When the opposing defenses best course of action and what they wanna do is "rush smart and keep him in the pocket to make him beat us throwing the ball"....you've got a real problem.

Yeah - this is the best Jackson will ever be.

It may not be the best roster he ever has - Baltimore still has a path to improving at a few key areas next season, but they have a couple ugly deals they'll have to deal with that we don't.

They're stuck with $40 million in Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Williams next season. And OBJ's pro-rated bonus from this year is on their books next year becuase of his voided deal. Lamar's deal is already 1/2 bonus next saeson so there's not a lot of money to move out of it. Likewise with Stanley.

We could get Sneed tagged and probably still have around $30 million of cap to play with after draft picks without much damage to the roster. The Ravens can maybe get to $20 million WITHOUT retaining anybody on their roster. If they bring back Queen and/or Madubuike, they're pretty much stuck with a 'run it back' season. In so doing, they'd lose both of their starting guards in the process.

And again, Lamar's peaked. Burrow is back next season. The Chiefs are likely to improve and the AFC North is going to be the same bloodbath it always is. They also have a 1st place schedule next year.

This was their best shot so now they'll have to hope to steal one going forward. It closes the door on any 'historical greatness' that Jackson could've achieved, IMO. Because now they may steal one before he's washed, but they ain't stealing two and they won't remain prohibitive favorites going forward.

That's the ugly reality of the situation. There's no avoiding it...

I heard all this season how dumb teams were for not trying to sign LJ this past off season and maybe some were. But this game kind of shows why they didn't.

Then you don't know ball.

Every season Baltimore's FO is running the Kobayashi Maru again.

You have the courage to do what needs to be done and walk away from Jackson, probably resulting in your getting fired

Or you just watch your team fail again and again, every year, due to his being good but not good enough.

Yup. It’s tough for them.

But they’re in better shape than a lot of the other AFC contenders (Dolphins, Bills, Chargers). But it’s not shape that lets you make big moves to improve the roster.

My god, what a nice pull.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Baltimore is screwed.

Franchise guys don't just fall off of trees. How many QB's are capable of beating the Chiefs when it really matters? 1? Maybe?

So far it's what, Burrow and Brady and Brady's retired. So yeah 1

lmao

A little Joe Burrow ode to the Chiefs.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mh8MIp2FOhc?si=0BZs_AYcOLCgsEYC" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Lamar Jackson is a guy who is fantastic, until he actually has to think. Once you force him to think instead of just react, it is over.

Allen is capable. Josh played a perfect game and had the lead with 13 seconds, but the Buffalo defense choked. Burrow just had a much better defense helping him win games. That Cincy defense was awesome in 2021 & 2022.

...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kbGSa11yA1c?si=cvcg1xmqTZghgQ2j" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I think if you're the Ravens you have to proceed as if you can get there.

Hell the last 2 years it would look like we were epic ****ed and that's obviously not the case.

Let's see if I can trigger some Chiefs-TSD with this, but it's kind of a get in and make some noise kind of thing. Green Bay who wasn't a juggernaut and Detroit who had no business being there were really friggin close to making it happen. Those teams last January weren't necessarily contenders. But catch a few breaks, some guys break out for you and you can get some legs in the playoffs. It can happen, and I think that's what you have to play for if you're the Ravens.

Plus, if you just win the division, your life in the playoffs gets easier, and there is a good case to be made there. Watson is coming back (presumably) so Cleveland is going to be worse - somehow - don't ask, I just firmly believe butthole guy is washed. Presumably Burrow won't be dropped off, but they're losing guys off that defense and Higgins is probably gone right? Plus, there's even more film of Orlando Brown, and we know how he ages. Shitsburgh is probably ****ed. Pickett is fire roasted assholes, and if they run it back with him, that lockerroom has to check out. There's just no way around it. It's possible they have a fairly easy path the playoffs.

Plus, I think if you're in the room, you know that if Mahomes doesn't exist, you're going to Vegas to play a team they blasted by 30. It's hard to walk away from.

Oh yeah, I really enjoyed the movie I watched recently about Joe Burrow. It's a damn shame that nasty dude David was so hard on him.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1JSuF6HCqko?si=I9P_QQedLGMw0Q3I" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In none of the infinite number of multiverses would Lamar Jackson ever beat Mahomes in a playoff game. Ever.

Burro could. With injuries, luck, and bad officiating Allen could. Lamar isn't beating any top 10 QB in the divisional round. Not any of them...

Joe Burrow the guy who after the Flowers penalty tweeted out "let the guys taunt"?

Lamar Jackson.

6 years, 2 mvps, 2 playoff wins.

And they paid him.

Just like Flacco. Their team mascot shouldn't be a raven, it should be an albatross.

Oh of course they do. They're married to the guy and he's ostensibly in his prime. They took a step forward this year over last and have a smart front office that can presumably do so again.

They have NO course but forward.

But it's not gonna work. All they can hope is that they get lucky because they simply will NOT beat the Chiefs straight up. They won't be better with Lamar Jackson under center than we will be with Patrick Mahomes.

Insane stat, since 2013 the Ravens are 0-24 when trailing by 10 or more at half. So not only is Lamar not equipped to play from behind talent wise, he was drafted onto a culture that sucked at playing from behind for 4 -5 years already.

Gotta take a good look at Harbaugh on that front. A frontrunner team that collapses when they get punched in the mouth?

Lamar is never gonna be the guy to bring you back 2 scores with his arm against a defense pinning their ears back.

Mahomes is 16-11 in such games and I believe 8-2 in the playoffs.

I don't understand how people ever thought these guys were near the same plane. They are simply different levels of player.

Brock Purdy has shown me more in the post-season and in tough game scripts than Lamar Jackson. If the Ravens defense doesn't completely dominate, Baltimore loses.

Scott Kacsmar wrote an interesting column about Sunday's games. Heavy on an analytical perspective, he noted that Lamar:

Lamar was 1-3 against the high-flying Chiefs of 2018-21, only winning in 2021 against their worst defense in a game where he still threw multiple picks and needed CEH to fumble in game-winning field goal territory.

Lamar is 3-14 against playoff teams that score more than 21 points against his team.

Why more than 21? Mahomes led the Chiefs to at least 22 points in 15-of-16 career playoff games before Sunday.

Why not include 21 points? Because scoring 21 points is a below-average scoring figure for every NFL season since 2007.

Finally, Lamar was 0-3 in the playoffs when teams scored more than 13 points, already losing 23-17 to the Chargers and 17-3 to Buffalo in a game where he threw a pick-six.

He doesn't come right out and say it (well, he almost does) but it's clear he thinks that Lamar is a decent QB who happens to play on a team with a great defense. You talk about damning Lamar with faint praise. He points out that in EVERY year that Lamar makes the playoffs, Lamar leads his offense to his lowest point total of the season. Further, this is Lamar's 4th wire-to-wire loss in the playoffs. A wire-to-wire loss is a loss in which the QB's team never leads.

Kacsmar doesn't say it but Lamar really is a running back who is playing at the QB position.

Article is here:

https://captaincomeback.blog/2024/01...ionship-games/

It's well worth a read. Started perusing his website and it looks worth examining in more detail.

Lamar can't throw a good ball
Allen can't maintain control of the ball
Burrow can't stay on the field to even touch the ball
Next

People were astounded that the Ravens put the ball into the hands of the 2023 MVP in a playoff game. Meanwhile Christian McAffery is rolling in the playoffs, catching passes and playing on a busted shoulder and a tweaked hamstring.

It's plain to see he isn't good enough. It's not like Jackson is a rookie, he's started 92 games in the league and is the same age as Mahomes.

As his physical talents start to decline with age his deficiencies as a passer are going to become more prominent, not less. This year was probably his chance.

Huh? I swear he came back from a big deficit and beat us in Baltimore. I don't think that stat is right.

Chiefs lead 35 to 24 in the 3rd and lost 36 35 but they weren't up by 10 at the half so it is kind if a misleading stat. So at least in that game he did do just that

It was 21-17 at halftime. The stat he mentioned is the Ravens have 0 wins trailing by 10+ points at halftime in particular.

Well yeah. But it's a misleading stat to make it seem they have never come back from double digits down in the 2nd half.

It’s pretty mindblowing though. Something ain’t right with Harbaugh’s coaching that he seems to be such a frontrunner.

Lamar is terrible I'm pure drop back situations. He needs that threat of the running game. In that game they came back on us they didn't give up on the run if I remember right. It was insane how much pressure us scoring on the first 2 drives put on them.

Spags blitzed the **** out of him all game and they didn't mix in any 2nd down runs to hold him back.

If you had to win a game tomorrow, there's 10+ other quarterbacks in this league you'd rather have. How this guy keeps getting compared to Mahomes and keeps winning MVP's is beyond me

Saw a post on the Ravens forum similar to what you said. Guy said he would take like 15 other QB's over Lamar in these Playoff situations. Multiple people said they wanted Baker Mayfield.

But they're stuck with Lamar. They paid him $80 million this year with a super low cap hit, which means a bunch of that money on the signing bonus is gonna show up in his cap hits later on. They have to wait until after the 2026 season to cut him, and even then it requires eating $35 million of dead cap.

I think they always planed to pay him until he hits 30 and I doubt that has changed based upon this game. He is still one of those electric players that a team needs to game plan around. He does not take hardly any big hits and that quickness he will be fine until then. After this contract will be a question. Flowers is making him look a lot better as a thrower.

Though in fairness I do not think he played a terrible game. The under throw to Lively in triple coverage was the one glaring mistake. Spags out coached them. Gave them personnel packages and blitz's they were not used to seeing. That is for sure. But they had an oppurtunity. Patrick kept them off the field in the first half they did not establish a rythm. Never figured out if they could run the ball. They moved the football in the second half but a lot of stupid plays not all of which were done by Jackson.

Regular season champion

Whenever Pat is asked about an upcoming game/matchup, he always says "I'm looking forward to the challenge."

When Lamar was asked about playing Mahomes, he said, "I don't want to play him at all."

Kudos for honesty, kid, but champions don't think/talk like that.

Yeah you never heard Karl Malone saying that shit.

He missed a couple guys that were WIDE open. I think both were pretty deep outside the hashes.

They're married to Lamar for awhile, that's for sure. I do think he has lost a step compared to 5 years ago. That early 4th & 1 play where he got into open space? 5 years ago it's a long touchdown run. This time the Chiefs ran him down pretty easily. He's still one of the quickest and fastest QB's ever, but not quite the same guy from earlier years. He'll need to keep improving as a passer to help offset a loss of athleticism in his later years.

Problem is, I think he’s done developing. Pretty sure this is Lamar’s final form as a passer. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong, maybe someone here will provide a compelling argument for why he’s still improving, but as far as I can tell, he’s done developing.

The media bitching about Ravens not running the ball is ok I guess but Lamar is their big star and big paid guy so he should have the ball in his hands to go win it. He can't do it and is a choker.

Mentally, Lamar doesn't have the toughness. You could see the dude was shaking like a dog shitting razorblades inside as soon as we went up two scores.

His sideline demeanor and body language is ****ing terrible. He's not rallying anyone, he's not gameplanning, he's just stewing in his own inferiority complex.

Each of these losses is now a force multiplier for his next playoff appearance. That pressure to win is going to crush him to the point that he cannot perform at all.

The contrast between Lamar and Mahomes is hilarious.

Imagine Lamar Jackson losing the lead with 13 seconds left.

Imagine Lamar Jackson getting blasted 24-0 in the first quarter.

Do you see this dude in any way shape or form able to mentally respond to that?

Me neither.

Lamar could win a superbowl in the instance everything goes perfect, their defense scores some points, and they just boat race everyone. Lamar is a dangerous front runner.

Despite all of this he could still be considered a HOF QB when it’s all said and done because of two MVPs. Fascinating to say the least.

There isn’t one thing about Lamar Jackson’s resume that says HOF except this hype based award the Associated Press awarded him.

Yeah he's just a different beast. He doesn't pose the issues on defense like Allen does, but on the other hand he's a lot less likely to hand you the game as well. I used to think I preferred playing Allen over Burrow, but I think after last year's AFC championship game and then playing Allen a couple times I realized it was playing against Burrow, those WRs AND their 2022 defense that was so tough. In a vacuum or with a dead even supporting casts I'd much rather play Burrow now. And don't even bring up the RB in Baltimore.

When his career is finished, Patrick Mahomes will be The GOAT.

He will win more Superbowls than Tom Brady.

If a boatload of things need to be perfect for him to win the playoffs, then he is not the guy. The degree of difficulty increases manifold week to week in the playoffs. Teams will have some combo of elite defensive aspects, QB play and weapons. If Lamar only knows one way to win, then it is easy to gameplan for.

He just needs to catch Mahomes on a bad day like lucky Burrow did or hope that other aspects of his team play out of their minds over a few weeks.

Yeah, he's just not very good.

I noticed the Chiefs had the reel of one of the throws I thought was pretty good...https://www.facebook.com/reel/1155541919130064
...with the blitz, lowers his arm angle. After watching the replay a couple times, not all that strong of a throw though and floated a bit, seemed more impressive in real time.

bahahahaha

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This Lamar F-bomb has to be after the pick �� <a href="https://t.co/pIYczh6AZf">pic.twitter.com/pIYczh6AZf</a></p>&mdash; ��️ Red Tribe Cinema (@ClayWendler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayWendler/status/1752521081070473263?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Maybe that's why they did it. I guess sometimes the people serving the Koolaid drink it themselves.

Isn't Zay Flowers also another Wonderlic bottom feeder? Just like Lamar?

I swear this Ravens franchise must likes'em nice and dumb.

In my search, I found this fun thread...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Browns/comm...you_shitbirds/

And some random person on the internet says he got a 13 as well.
https://www.broncosboard.com/node/239012

We had (PAST TENSE) one of the dumbest mother ****ers on the planet on our team in Toney.

I can't imagine having several Toney's on our team. LMAO

Maybe. But HOF voters love those rings. There's also the 5 year rule: if a QB and head coach don't win a SB w/in the first 5 years of their tenure together, they don't win a SB.

Explained and analyzed here:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...f-not-winning/

Well, Lamar and Harbaugh have been together now for 5 years and haven't won a SB. Will they be the ones to break the rule? If not, who do you get rid of?

Lamar's performance so far demonstrates that he can win in the regular season provided Baltimore gets ahead first. But Lamar's performance in the playoffs has been poor, to say the least. And if they get behind by any substantial amount of points, Lamar doesn't have the skills as a passer to bring Baltimore back. I think this game showed Lamar doesn't have the mental toughness to get them back.

Contrast that to Mahomes. KC gets behind by 10+ points and Mahomes says, "So what? We can come back and win it." And they do. That is one reason Baltimore lost this game. They got down by a touchdown and you could just see Lamar start to worry. You could see him feeling like the game was slipping out of reach even though they were down by at first 7 and then 10 points.

If I was the Ravens I would take a long look at Michael Penix Jr

They're basically in purgatory with 4.3 alex smith

Penix to me seems maddening. He's got a high ceiling but also a low floor. Penix would be a great candidate to draft and keep on the bench for a year or two to learn the game. Not many teams can afford to be patient, although the Ravens could. I don't know what that would do to Lamar's psyche, though, if Baltimore drafted him. And they have a pretty large chunk invested in him.

Grunhard eviscerated Lamar Jackson on 810 yesterday. Talked about how he didn't change any plays or audible anything and got uncomfortable the moment the Chiefs went up 10 and made things hard for him LMAO

Everyone says it's racist but Lamar is not a smart QB and everyone knows it.

Lamar doesn't have to do that against 90% of his opponents. :LOL:

But but but what about his halftime speech against the Texans! Throw it short they blitzing us! That wasn't done again this week? I mean we spent over half the game blitzing his ass and he couldn't adjust?

Are you saying he's not Quarterbacky enough?

It wasn't what he did - it was what he DIDN'T do.

He was just so indecisive back there. When he hits the back of his drop, he's gotta look to 1, then 2, then GO. He stayed on 1 too long and then if 2 wasnt there, he just kinda vapor locked.

He simply wasn't aggressive enough. He left a ton of yards on the field. The fumble was the most obvious example of him holding the ball too long instead of running with it, but there were several others.

Just get SOMETHING with your legs. Even if it's only 3-4 yards, it keeps you at the sticks and allows you to get the RBs more involved. Instead of trying to keep the ball moving and drives alive, he got indecisive in the pocket and kept waiting for coverage to break down. That's the wrong thing to do against this team.

He just kept throwing incomplete passes to covered guys (or overthrowing the uncovered ones) and it killed them.

He was terrible last weekend. Spags helped in that regard, but Jackson was simply bad.

Only a subset of Ravens fans and Lamar Jackson would consider him a savant.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b2f8b81d23.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To be fair, Lamar has a lot of daddies

W thread

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.

:LOL:

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.

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.

The old Chiefs...he would gave ran that catch his own pass in for a TD

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.

The broken play, a big play to Agholor down the sideline, and a few scrambles.

That was literally it.