Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson put himself in the driver’s seat for the NFL MVP award on Christmas Day when he outshined San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.
He might have completely wrapped it up on Sunday with another dominant performance in the Ravens’ 56-19 win over the Miami Dolphins.
The win locks up the No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs for the Ravens, and also gives them an opportunity to rest some starters in their Week 18 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It also might have secured Jackson’s second NFL MVP award.
Jackson was masterful on Sunday, completing 18-of-21 passes for 321 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions.
That performance gives him 24 touchdowns to only seven interceptions for the season, and does not even begin to take into account what he is able to do in the running game with his feet.
That aspect of Jackson’s game has always been a game-changer for him, but under first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken the Ravens’ passing game has really started to excel while Jackson has played some of the most efficient football of his career.
The Ravens have now won 10 of their past 11 games and have one of the league’s best offenses, averaging 29.5 points per game for the season. They have also scored at least 30 points in eight of their past 10 games.
What makes Jackson’s performance and all of those numbers so incredible is that Baltimore has had some major injuries on offense, including a season-ending injury to star tight end Mark Andrews, and doesn’t really have many impact players around him.
Rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers looks like an emerging star, but is still a work in progress. After that, there are not a lot of game-changers on that side of the ball outside of Jackson. He has put the offense on his back and carried it to the top of the AFC.
It will almost certainly make him a two-time MVP. Now the challenge will be for the Ravens to actually do something in the playoffs, which has been a major struggle throughout the Jackson era and for the past decade overall in Baltimore.
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