Ravens: Lamar Jackson finally exorcized his Chiefs demons

The only demon in the Baltimore Ravens‘ game against the Kansas City Chiefs was in Lamar Jackson when he was possessed by some ecstatic spirit to somersault into the end zone for a late touchdown.

Jackson celebrated this score in never-before-seen style —  after all, the Ravens had never before beaten the Chiefs in the Lamar Jackson era.

That all changed on Sunday night when Jackson led Baltimore to a 36-35 victory at M&T Bank Stadium.

Jackson’s record-breaking game in Week 3 broke the scales for what many believed to be a David/Goliath battle as the Chiefs entered the matchup with a 3-0 record against the Ravens during Jackson’s tenure.

But in one of his most Superman-performances to date, the Ravens star quarterback laid to rest those ridiculous notions that anyone could “figure out” Lamar Jackson. More importantly, he can cross “get revenge against Patrick Mahomes” off his list of things to do this season.

After the game, Jackson told ESPN:

"“It feels good to get that monkey off of our back. We’ve got to move on to Detroit now. We didn’t win the Super Bowl yet; it’s just one game. We’ve got to just keep staying focused.”"

It is just one game, and the Ravens are miles away from punching their ticket to the playoffs (not with their current injured list of injuries, anyway).

The Ravens and Lamar Jackson silenced critics with their Week 3 upset

Still, we can marvel at Jackson’s brilliance long after the crowds have stopped cheering and after the dust has settled.

Jackson didn’t just win against Patrick Mahomes. Jackson mounted the second-biggest comeback win against Mahomes, with the Los Angeles Chargers being the only other team to beat Mahomes after falling behind by double digits.

By now, most of you have seen the heartwarming video in which coach John Harbaugh yells, “Lamar, do you want to go for it?”

At one point with a little over a minute to go, Harbaugh let Jackson make the crucial decision as to whether Baltimore should try to convert on a 4th-and-1 at their own 43-yard line. Even if he says he would have gone for it anyway.

As we all know, Jackson does, and the Ravens win, but they very nearly didn’t.

Putting the game in your quarterback’s hands like that took cajones, and it took the entire Ravens team putting their faith and confidence in Jackson for him to finally get the job done.

This was Jackson’s — not the Ravens’ — game to win, and these were his demons that he had to face. It was only fitting that the last play came down to Lamar Jackson, and he carried that football as if he were carrying his own fate.

The game couldn’t have been won any other way.