Ravens MVP of the Week: Lamar Jackson

Another week, another Lamar Jackson MVP article. Jackson’s case for league MVP strengthened with a dominant performance in Baltimore’s 49-13 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. The Ravens offense was unstoppable, scoring on five of six drives with Jackson in at quarterback.

Jackson set the tone early with a 49-yard pass to wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown on the very first offensive play of the game. Jackson followed that up with a 19-yard completion to tight end Mark Andrews. Two plays later, Jackson connected with Andrews again for the two-yard score and the first of four touchdowns for Jackson. The opening drive for the Ravens only lasted five plays for 2:42.

Jackson’s second touchdown was once again to Andrews, this time from 17 yards. Jackson never lost his rhythm in the passing game with his first of two incompletions coming from a spike on the fourth offensive drive before the end of the first half. The biggest and most exciting play of the day came from Jackson on the ground, however. On the offensive’s first drive of the third quarter, instead of handing the ball off to running back Mark Ingram on second down, Jackson kept it himself. After picking up the first down, Jackson juked one player in the open field and spun away from three more immediately after, causing a collision of Bengals players on the way to a 47-yard touchdown.

Jackson’s fourth and final touchdown of the day came with 6:40 left in the third quarter. On 3rd-&-8, Jackson stood in the face of a blitz to deliver a 20-yard touchdown pass to Brown as he was blasted by a Cincinnati defender. With a score of 42-10 in the third quarter, Jackson was pulled from the game. With a perfect passer rating for the second time this season, Jackson finished the game 15/17 for 223 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 65 yards on seven carries. Jackson was awarded AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season.