3 things we learned as Baltimore Ravens cruised past Browns

The Ravens beat the Browns. Here are the three things we learned in the game:

1. Lamar Jackson can take over a game with his arm:

The Baltimore Ravens didn’t win because of their over powered run game. Lamar Jackson led all Ravens rushers with 45 yards. Ingram had 10 carries and he only got 29 yards. Did we see exciting signs from J.K. Dobbins? Yes, but he only had 22 yards on the ground. The Ravens put up 38 points and Lamar Jackson the passer is the reason why everything went so smoothly for Baltimore. Jackson only had five incomplete passes in the game and he had three touchdown passes. Jackson got 275 passing yards on 25 attempts. The efficiency of Jackson against the Browns was incredible.

Lamar Jackson was the only ball carrier with a healthy average per rushing attempt. In the past two seasons, this has spelled trouble for the Ravens. The run game wasn’t completely stifled and the Ravens ran it 29 times compared to the 25 passing attempts. Still, this didn’t look like the team that rushed for over 3,000 yards last year. That’s a good thing. The Ravens didn’t just prove they could win another way, they proved that they could be dominant. Jackson took over this game with his arm. When the Ravens were pinned deep inside their own territory, Jackson led a drive down the field for a last second touchdown. He knew what he wanted to happen and he made it happen as a passer.

When the Ravens let Jackson take shots down the field, good things started happening. Jackson led the league in passing touchdowns last year and put on quite the performance as a quarterback. This may not have eclipsed his five touchdowns against the Rams on Monday Night Football, yet it may have been his most advanced quarterback play yet.

Jackson’s ball placement was great. Other than making Mark Andrews work a little harder than he should have on a touchdown catch, he was right on the money. He put the ball in the spots they needed to be and his deep passes to Marquise Brown were beautiful.

The Ravens dominated this game, so they still have to prove that they can play from behind. Here’s the thing, if the passing game is this efficient and this productive, they can win any style of game. Jackson had one game over 300 yards passing last season. 275 passing yards is his second highest total of his NFL career. Jackson kept his efficiency up and added but the passing game got a little more effective for the 2020 season. Jackson’s greatest skill is that he can win just about any way. If Jackson can continue to have this kind of a passing performance, the MVP’s team is going to be borderline impossible to stop.