The Baltimore Ravens have pulled off arguably the biggest win of young quarterback Lamar Jackson’s career, after an incredibly gutsy coaching decision with a minute to go.
Baltimore had battled back against the Kansas City Chiefs, to whom they had lost every game to since Jackson entered the league in 2018, and led by a point with a couple of minutes left.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1439792387748876288
With the score at 36-35 and 2018 MVP Patrick Mahomes driving the Chiefs down the field for what would be a game-winning field goal, a brilliant defensive effort from rookie Odafe Oweh jarred the ball out of the hands of running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, allowing the Ravens to recover.
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After the Ravens were left needing one yard for a first down, they were faced with two choices: Punt the ball away and trust their defence, or get one yard and guarantee the win. The risk being that if they had failed to convert, the ball would have been handed back to Kansas City in brilliant field position.
Coach John Harbaugh looked at his star man and asked, “Do you want to go for this?”
He was asked after the game if there had been any doubt from either party in that moment.
“No, there wasn’t,” Harbaugh said.
“I knew he was going to say yes … I have complete confidence in Lamar Jackson to make every play.”
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Jackson kept the ball himself, got the first down and the Ravens ran out the rest of the clock to secure a famous win.
The pair embraced after the final whistle.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys,” Harbaugh said after the game.
https://twitter.com/Ravens/status/1439794116934656000
When he was asked if they wanted to go for the first down, Jackson said, “Hell yeah, no doubt.”
“I gotta get this first down no matter what,” he said of his mindset in that moment.
Analytics remains a hot button issue in every sport, but perhaps nowhere is there a greater chasm between old school and new school than in the NFL. Harbaugh has been one of the coaches most accepting of aggressive and modern decision-making, which has drawn him praise when it works, and criticism when it doesn’t.
In this case, with the Chiefs offence carving the Ravens defence up seemingly at will, there was no question this was the right call – and the numbers back that up.
https://twitter.com/NextGenStats/status/1439793664390144005
After stumbling in overtime to the Raiders last week in their season opener, the Ravens sorely needed this win, and carry a huge scalp into their week three clash with the Detroit Lions.
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