Jackson needs to figure out how to win from behind
Lamar Jackson and the Ravens are unbeatable when they get the lead, but Peter King and Mike Florio are concerned about Baltimore and its star QB when they fall behind.
Video Transcript
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MIKE FLORIO: "PFT on Yahoo Sports." Peter King and Mike Florio talking about some of the biggest stories in the National Football League. And in the aftermath of the week three Monday night game between the Chiefs and the Ravens, a 34-20 victory by Kansas City, snapping a 14-game regular season winning streak by Baltimore, does the performance, Peter King, of quarterback Lamar Jackson, the defending MVP, raise any red flags for you?
PETER KING: Oh, definitely. And Mike, first of all, this is not a big game thing. Lamar Jackson last year won plenty of big games. And you can't tell me that playing the 8 and 0 Patriots in primetime at home and killing him is not a big game. That's a big game. You can't tell me beating the 49ers in a huge game when are whatever they are, 10 and 1 or 10 and 2, that's not a big game. That's a big game. You can't tell me going to Seattle last year and beating the Seahawks is not a big. Those are big games, they're big wins.
Here's what bothers me about Lamar Jackson. Tell me how he plays when he gets slugged in the jaw In the first half. Tell me how he plays having to come from behind and look, it's bad. And I agree, I heard everybody talking last night. Well, his teammates are not helping him. The offensive line was terrible. He had five drops by his receivers, I get that. But come on. You watched the game. He played poorly. And that's putting it nicely. He was not, he did not throw an accurate ball.
I think my overriding concern, Mike, about Jackson, is that you're not going to get up by 10 in the first 15 minutes of every game you play, when you can just start running and rolling downhill on people. Football is not like that. And the Ravens are finding that out. When they get behind a really good team, they really have trouble coming back and playing their game. And to me, a good deal of it comes down to the accuracy of Lamar Jackson in those games.
MIKE FLORIO: Yeah, 0 and 10 when trailing at halftime with Lamar Jackson as the starter. And we saw it last night when the Ravens were down 14 points and they were trying to cut it from 34-20 to 34-27. You could see the demeanor, the frustration.
PETER KING: Yeah.
MIKE FLORIO: With the Chiefs, it's also easy and loose and they know they're always going to find a way out of the maze, no matter how lost they may feel. And I feel like when the Ravens are behind in the fourth quarter, and you're right, the downhill running isn't working, you have to pass to try to get back in the game, they just haven't gotten the offense to evolve to the point where they can score those points when they need those points in order to erase a deficit late in the game.
PETER KING: Yeah, and you don't see what you see with Mahomes, which is under pressure. I mean, and who does this? Mahomes and Russell Wilson, that's about it. Who hits a pass that goes 58 yards in the air right into the hands of Mecole Hardman, where it looks like, it looks like Patrick Mahomes is deep at the center field fence and just unleashes a ball and throws it to home plate as hard as he can? And that's what he did in this game.
But Mike, coming back to Lamar Jackson, he has to get in the huddle and say, we're stopping the bleeding right now. We are doing this right now. And I have no idea what he says. His teammates love him, capital L, love him. I've seen it. I've been at training camp, I've been in their locker room, you can see it. They trust him. The trust has not gone away. However, he has got to prove that he can play better when he's down to a good team, period. That's all there is to it.
MIKE FLORIO: Remember that moment last year against Seattle when he went to the sideline and he basically said to John Harbaugh, we're going for it on fourth down?
PETER KING: Yeah, oh, yeah.
MIKE FLORIO: That's what he should have done last night on that first drive. You don't take field goals when you can get touchdowns against the Kansas City Chiefs, or you're not going to win, Peter.
PETER KING: Yeah, I would agree. And the one other quick thing, show some confidence instead of a little bit of that hangdog look, which you saw last night with him.
MIKE FLORIO: All right, check us out all season long for "PFT on Yahoo" videos. He's Peter King, I'm Mike Florio, we'll see you next time.
