Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson earned NFL MVP accolades last season, but realizes he didn’t keep up appearances on Monday night.
In a 34-20 home loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, Jackson completed just 15-of-28 passes for 97 yards while rushing for 83 yards, including 30 on one carry on Baltimore’s first series.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jackson said of his struggles. “We’re going to keep playing ball.”
The Ravens have a short week to forget about their woes. They visit Beltway rival Washington Football Team on Sunday afternoon.
“We’re 2-1,” Ravens defensive tackle Brandon Williams said. “There’s a lot more football to come.”
Washington (1-2) has similar resolve after inconsistent play marred a 34-20 Week 3 loss at Cleveland. Washington took a 7-0 lead on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Dwayne Haskins to Dontrelle Inman — their first of two scoring connections on the day — but the Browns responded with a 17-0 second quarter.
Thirteen unanswered points in the third staked Washington to a 20-17 lead entering the fourth before the Browns closed the game on another 17-0 run.
Washington rookie defensive end Chase Young, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 draft, sustained a groin injury in the second quarter Sunday and didn’t return to action, although he did watch the second half from the sidelines. Young, who has collected 2.5 sacks in his first three professional games. He is unlikely to play this week. NFL Network reported Young would not play this week.
“We’ll see how the week goes with Chase,” said Washington defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, who ran practice Wednesday as coach Ron Rivera underwent cancer treatment. “We’ve got time. To make declarations early in the week doesn’t serve anyone’s purpose. We’ll see how that goes as we progress through the week.”
Inman (wrist) and rookie WR Steven Sims Jr. (toe) didn’t practice Wednesday.
Although the Ravens called 28 passes against 21 runs Monday, coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday that he didn’t view the split as an imbalance. The Ravens rushed the ball on six of the first seven plays before the drive stalled with three successive passes in the red zone.
“I don’t think we got away from the run after the first series, but we need to score a touchdown there,” Harbaugh said. “I think once we got in the red zone, we’ve looked at those plays really hard. [Offensive coordinator] Greg [Roman] has, especially hard. Nobody looks at the play-calling more than Greg Roman, who in my opinion is one of the best play-callers in the National Football League and has proven that.
“We’re a running team. We want to run the ball as much as we can. We also want to be productive in the passing game. … We’re not going to get away from being a running team. That’s something that we think is very important and we’ll try to do our best at calling as many runs as we can every single week.”
Baltimore averaged 7.5 yards a carry against the Chiefs, but the team’s running backs combined for just 12 carries.
Washington defeated Baltimore in the teams’ past two meetings, including a 16-10 victory in the most recent encounter, on Oct. 9, 2016. The Beltway rivals have split six meetings all-time, with the Ravens holding a 102-94 scoring edge.
