Lamar Jackson is regressing, and the Ravens are struggling because of it

Lamar Jackson is going backwards and it’s costing the Ravens dearly.

The story of the 2019 NFL regular season was clearly Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback Lamar Jackson, who put together an incredible statistical season on his way to the MVP award. Jackson fell short in the playoffs but his tremendous performance led to a thought that the Ravens had found their answer to Patrick Mahomes in the AFC.

The bloom is off the rose for Jackson this year and today’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers was the biggest evidence yet of Jackson’s regression. Losing left tackle Ronnie Stanley to injury early didn’t help, but Jackson was incredibly sloppy with the football, losing two fumbles and throwing a pair of interceptions in the 28-24 loss.

Jackson is also demonstrating less accuracy, completing just 60.5 percent of his passes over Baltimore’s first seven games, a significant drop from his 66.1 percent mark in 2019. The passes that Jackson is throwing also aren’t going as far, averaging just 7.1 yards per attempt, down from a high of 7.8 yards per attempt during his MVP season.

Those latter two figures are more in line with Jackson’s rookie-year performance in 2018 which is disappointing since he is not building off of his strong showing from a year ago. Jackson’s struggles are clearly hurting the Ravens’ offense since teams are working harder to take away Baltimore’s running game, forcing Jackson to shoulder more of the offensive load through the air.

It is also concerning that both of Baltimore’s losses have come to elite AFC competition in the Chiefs and Steelers. Jackson didn’t play well in either game, with Steelers’ safety Minkah Fitzpatrick mocking Baltimore shortly after their defense sealed the win. Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin also noted that while the Steelers respect Jackson, they don’t necessarily fear him.

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This is a big problem for the Ravens, who have looked sluggish as Jackson has yet to exceed 300 yards passing in a game. The modern NFL has become a passing league and Jackson simply has to give Baltimore far more through the air then they have gotten so far.

This loss was also very damaging for the Ravens, who are now two games behind Pittsburgh in the AFC North standings with the Steelers holding a head-to-head tiebreaker. The rematch comes on Thanksgiving night at Heinz Field, which should be an absolute doozy in terms of physicality. Jackson will need to find a way to contribute more in that contest to avoid condemning the Ravens to a lengthy January road trip in pursuit of the franchise’s third Lombardi Trophy.