Lamar Jackson capped an almost perfect regular season for him and his team last Sunday in a crushing 56-19 victory over the Miami Dolphins. The quarterback practically sealed the second MVP of his young career with a performance of 18/21 passes connected for 321 yards and no less than five touchdowns, all for a maximum rating of 158.3 on the scale. Without a doubt, what the Baltimore Ravens have achieved on offense in 2023 has been worthy of study throughout the entire campaign, so now that they have secured the number 1 seed in their conference, I wanted to take the opportunity to analyze in depth what makes them so dangerous on this side of the ball.
It is practically impossible to find weak points in this attack. In the absence of one inconsequential, for them, on the final day of the regular season, they are Top 2 in points scored, Top 4 in yards, Top 5 in turnovers conceded, Top 3 in passing yards, Top 1 in career yards, Top 8 in third downs and Top 7 in the red zone. Only three times all year has Baltimore been less than 23 points, which is paired with a defense that has received the fewest points because we have the best record in the league.
Now we will talk about Lamar Jackson at length, but first I want to start with the work done by the entire Ravens technical staff. Without a doubt, the hiring of Todd Monken as offensive coordinator turned out to be one of the key moves of the offseason. The new attack coach has expanded a passing game that always lived in the shadow of the ground game during Greg Roman’s journey. Between Monken and quarterback coach Tee Martin, they have gotten Lamar to think about throwing first and only running as a last resort. Thanks to them, Jackson has perfected his handling of the position, being much more patient and much more effective in his movement inside the pocket, something key to connecting pitches that he previously let go to use his legs. Martin was curiously one of the seven “historic” quarterbacks who were selected ahead of Tom Brady in his 2000 draft. Now, in his third season in Baltimore, but first as a quarterbacks coach, he is helping Lamar Jackson join the team. select group of players who have won the MVP more than once, including Brady of course.
Baltimore has suffered from injuries on offense throughout the regular season, especially in the backfield where it has lost its most explosive players, JK Dobbins and rookie Keaton Mitchell. On the offensive line, only one of their five starters, left guard John Simpson, has remained unchanged in his position. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley has missed four games, right tackle Morgan Moses three. Center Tyler Linderbaum missed two and right guard Kevin Zeitler was unavailable in the last one against Miami. Despite all this, the attack has not stopped producing, and in particular the offensive line, has even been improving its performance as the weeks have gone by. Against the Dolphins the OL gave Jackson pockets as huge as the one I reflect below.
2024-01-05 14:51:00
#Lamar #Jacksons #maturity #real
