Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson had a miserable showing against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night.
Over the course of three quarters, Buffalo’s defense hounded Jackson whenever he dropped back – preventing him from getting anything done. As a result, he failed to score for the first time since his first ever NFL start back in November 2018 – breaking a 39-game streak of at least one passing or running touchdown.
At the end of the third quarter, two plays after he threw a pick-six, Jackson suffered a concussion that took him out of the game for good.
Just like that, for the third year in a row, Jackson’s season ended in disappointment. In 2018 his Ravens group suffered an upset at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers, and in 2019 he played so poorly in an upset loss to the Tennessee Titans that people suggested he had been poisoned.
And now it happened again.
When it was all said and done, Jackson went 14-of-24 passing for 162 yards for the day.
Following the loss, several of Jackson’s teammates got very honest about what his latest playoff disappointment will mean going forward.
“He’ll look back at the whole season and he’ll make those adjustments that he needs to do to be an even more elite quarterback,” wide receiver Willie Snead IV said via Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic.
“There are steps that he can take, and he knows that. That’s the competitor in him to want to get better each and every offseason, to fix the little things and to continue to get better as a passer. “If he knuckles down on that part of his game and really reaches his full potential in that area, the sky is the limit for Lamar. It’s just a matter of time. It’s really on him. I think this game is going to be a wake-up call for him this offseason. We’ll see what he does next year.”
Similar things were said about Jackson last year, after Baltimore went 14-2 and then got beaten by the Titans. This year, he promised it would be different. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out.
Jackson is still only 24 years old. He has plenty of time to get better and finally earn a signature playoff victory against elite competition. But at this point, he is officially on the clock.
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