Does Lamar Jackson deserve the criticism coming his way?

Lamar Jackson did not play well enough to win on Saturday vs. the Tennessee Titans. Does he deserve the criticism that will come his way this offseason?

Saturday night wasn’t the result the Baltimore Ravens wanted. Far from it, in fact. Despite being the top seed in the AFC playoffs, Baltimore looked lost against the visiting Tennessee Titans at home. While Derrick Henry and the Titans move on to the AFC Championship, is the criticism Lamar Jackson will be getting this offseason justified (16:14)?

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Josh Hill, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, reflect on the Ravens’ magical regular season and how swiftly they were knocked out of the playoffs. They address if the criticism sure to be going Jackson’s way this offseason is fair.

Schwartz has been a noted critic of Jackson, as he said so himself on the podcast. While he acknowledges that Jackson will win NFL MVP, he has now given us two poor performances in the postseason in as many years. Until Jackson ends his trend of postseason problems, criticism of him will be justified in Schwartz’s eyes.

While Verderame doesn’t believe Jackson should have heaps of criticism piled on him, he too agrees with Schwartz that Jackson and the entire team’s body language looked bad down early in the game to Tennessee. He believes some of that has to fall on head coach John Harbaugh. However, Verderame’s biggest criticism of the Ravens is that they can only play one way.

When everything goes right for the Ravens, it looks fantastic. We saw that in full effect this season and it was spectacular. That being said, this is a critical offseason for Jackson and the franchise. Will they do whatever it takes to grow from this and make a deep playoff run with Joe Flacco’s successor at quarterback?

Ultimately, the Titans are a really good team. They outplayed the Ravens in all three phases of the game. Tennessee was better than Baltimore last Saturday night. All we know is that the Ravens blew a golden opportunity to be in a position to reach their third Super Bowl in franchise history.

Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Verderame talks about his experience of the game (5:15)
• Texans’ coaching cost them the game (6:14)
• Thoughts on Vikings, Seahawks (24:17)
• Another coach will jump from NCAA to NFL in 2021. In or out? (45:11)

All this and more!

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