'Sleeping giant' no more: Ravens assert contender status with rout of Lions

When your name is Lamar Jackson and you’ve thrown for a season-high 357 yards, your offense has produced more than 500 yards and you’ve blown out the team tied for the NFL’s best record, you can, well, afford to be a bit picky about it all.

And hey, given some of struggles in recent weeks for the Baltimore Ravens' offense, Jackson surely deserves to be hyper-vigilant.

“I don’t think he’s even that happy with the game,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after the 38-6 smashing of the Detroit Lions on Sunday. “When I (saw) him in the locker room it not like he’s all giddy in there.”

Harbaugh glanced at tight end Mark Andrews, who caught two of Jackson’s three TD passes and waited nearby for his turn at the podium.

“Is he, Mark?” Harbaugh said. “Sure wasn’t. He’s thinking about the plays he could’ve had.”

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It was that kind of day at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens (5-2) won the coin toss, scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and, as Jackson put it, “showed a glimpse” of what they are capable of.

Sure, it was a complete game. On an afternoon that they honored Terrell Suggs, aka “T-Sizzle,” by putting him in the Ring of Honor as yet another defensive legend to uphold a certain tradition, they nearly pitched a shutout.

Yet this occasion turned out to be, finally, more of a breakout showcase for the retooled Ravens offense, now under the watch of new coordinator Todd Monken, who returned to the NFL after pushing the buttons on offense for back-to-back national championship teams at Georgia.

Guess this was what Andrews was talking about a couple weeks earlier when he called them “a sleeping giant" that needed to “wake up” following a sloppy loss at Pittsburgh.

If what the Ravens displayed against a formidable opponent on Sunday is an indication of their true identity, this will be one exciting team to watch as this season progresses….and challengers to Kansas City’s throne in in the AFC take their places in line.

Then again, nothing is for certain, given the split-personality tendencies of this team. For the bulk of the season, inconsistency has been the ticket. The loss to the Steelers in Week 5 was marred by five dropped passes and three turnovers. In Week 6, Baltimore beat the Tennessee Titans in London, but it felt more like survival as the offense had to settle for field goals on five of their six trips to the red zone. Now, suddenly, the group exhaled against a team that brought with it the league’s top-ranked run defense and four straight wins with double-digit victory margins.

“It’s time,” Andrews said. “You talk about the time of year it is. It’s time to separate and become the team you want to be.”

The offense was rather flawless. Matched against one of the NFL’s up-and-coming defensive fronts, heavy on power-rushing, the Ravens didn’t allow a sack. Jackson posted his first 300-yard game of the season and connected with nine different targets while completing 21 of 27 passes. The unit averaged 9.1 yards per play and converted 50% of its third downs and handled its only fourth-down try.

And Monken’s schemes were so on point. On the opening drive, rookie receiver Zay Flowers was wide open over the middle for a 46-yard gain. Jackson capped the series with a bootleg sprint around left end for a 7-yard touchdown, untouched. Later, it was 28-yard flare pass to the 311-pound fullback, Patrick Ricard, who was wide open. Then it was an 80-yard catch-and-run by Gus Edwards, who slipped behind the linebackers and found a clear lane along the sideline.

With so many targets running free and easy across the Lions defense, it’s no wonder that Monken and his offensive assistants received game balls during the postgame locker room celebration.

“The schemes are great,” Harbaugh said, “but it was execution, too.”

And that execution, Harbaugh added, began with No. 8. Jackson, 28, who was the league’s unanimous MVP during his second NFL season in 2019, has had many banner days in his young career. Sunday, which included a 155.8 passer rating, marked his seventh NFL game with four TDs (passing and rushing) and a completion rate of at least 75% – more than any player has tallied before turning 30.

“He was slinging it, man,” Andrews said. “He was on the money all day. Money Lamar. At times, just extending drives when he had to. Ball placement was incredible.”

The latest case was impressive enough that someone asked Harbaugh if it rated as Jackson’s best game yet. The question reminded Harbaugh of the text-messages he routinely receives from his father, Jack, after victories.

As Jack typically puts it to his son, “That was your best game ever!”

Harbaugh now can say the same of Jackson.

“I’d say that was his best game ever,” Harbaugh said.

Of course, he’d love to say the same thing next week and for weeks to come.

But Jackson knows. This is a fickle, week-to-week NFL. And his playoff record has been nothing to brag about as he still chases a Super Bowl ring.

“It’s just one regular-season game,” Jackson said. “We need to just keep being consistent. That’s the biggest aspect I got out of this game.”

Jackson, now 16-1 lifetime against NFC opponents, also got quite the reminder about the standard they are trying to establish. For all of the superlatives flowing out of the big win, when it was over, the quarterback was still a bit miffed about the bungled exchange with running back Justice Hill that resulted in the fumble that marked the Ravens’ only turnover.

“One hiccup,” is what Jackson called it.

“We talked about it on the sideline,” he added. “We shouldn’t be having that problem any more. But little stuff like that, that’s why I’m not pleased with the win. Because we were trying to strive for every drive we’re going to score, put points on the board.”

Nobody’s perfect. But Jackson and Co. will be dangerous enough with a consistent A-game.