Baltimore Ravens: Lamar Jackson has to play better in big games

Lamar Jackson was uninspiring in the Baltimore Ravens’ 28-24 loss to the Steelers.

While Lamar Jackson has been tremendous during his young career with the Baltimore Ravens, one of the biggest knocks on him has been the lack of big wins in his NFL career. Jackson is not only 0-2 in his only two playoff games to this point, but he struggled big time in both of those games.

This season has gone mostly well for Jackson and the Ravens, but he’s not playing at the MVP level that he was this time last year. As a result, his Ravens are 5-2 and are going to have an incredibly tough time winning the AFC North for the third straight year.

The two biggest games for Baltimore this year have come against the Chiefs in Week 3 and the Steelers in Week 8. The Ravens lost both of those games and Jackson struggled in both losses as well, which is becoming a concerning trend for Ravens fans.

Lamar Jackson can’t seem to get it done against better opponents.

Beating up on the Browns and Bengals is one thing, but Jackson has to start playing better when the spotlight is the brightest on him. He immediately allowed the Steelers to gain momentum by throwing a pick-six on the third play of the game, which gave Pittsburgh a 7-0 lead just like that.

Jackson finished this match-up going 13 of 28 for 202 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions (one being that pick-six mentioned earlier). Jackson did take off with the football 16 times and had 65 yards on the ground, which needed to be done on a day where the weather was pretty disgusting in Baltimore. Losing Ronnie Stanley for the year didn’t help the Ravens’ cause.

It seems like an eternity ago, but Jackson really struggled to do much of anything when his Ravens hosted the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs in Week 3. That game saw Jackson go just 15 of 28 for 97 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 83 yards on nine attempts. His Ravens got blown out in that one, losing 34-20 (and the score makes it look much closer than the game actually was).

Lamar Jackson is still a very special player, but the Ravens need him to be better if this team wants to take the next step. They have an uphill battle when it comes to winning the division now and while it’s not all on Jackson, he hasn’t looked like that same player we loved watching run roughshod over defenders last year.

Jackson has a chance to bounce back next week when he and his Ravens head to Indianapolis to face one of the best defenses in the league.