The Baltimore Ravens are 2-1 on the season. This is exactly where they were at the same point in the year in 2019. In fact, they lost to the same team, the Kansas City Chiefs, on September 22, after winning their first two games and compiling the largest points differential in the NFL.
They skidded, losing their next game, and then it took them until overtime to beat a Pittsburgh Steelers team already playing with a backup quarterback who was knocked out in the second half, thrusting an undrafted rookie into the lineup under center.
They didn’t lose again in the regular season until…last night. In fact, today is the anniversary of the Ravens’ previously most recent regular-season defeat, at the hands of the Cleveland Browns 40-25, and whom they blew out again in the season opener this year.
With the loss, Lamar Jackson is now 21-4 in the regular season as a starting quarterback, having won 14 games in a row—and three of his losses have come against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Mahomes and Baker Mayfield are the only quarterbacks to whom he has lost in the regular season, now with 25 starts under his belt.
Of course, he and the Ravens are also 0-2 in the postseason with him. They lost handily to the Los Angeles Chargers in 2018 in a game that was 23-3 halfway through the fourth quarter before two late touchdowns. The Tennessee Titans took them down 28-12 last season, again, in a game that was 28-6 at the start of the fourth quarter.
It continues a pattern of the Ravens being able to play from behind. Of course, everybody plays worse generally when you’re losing, especially losing by double digits. And it also has to be added that the Ravens have rarely played from behind under Jackson.
But when they have, it’s not usually gone well. Last night, they trailed 27-10 at halftime. It was the first time that they trailed in a game at the midway point in the regular season since they lost to the Browns in week four last season. They had a halftime lead in 11 consecutive games, the fifth-longest streak in NFL history.
Jackson has six total losses as a starter in his career, including the postseason. He is now 0-5 in games in which he has ever trailed by as many as 10 points. The Ravens are the only team in the NFL without a victory in games in which they have trailed at halftime over the past three seasons, going 0-10 overall.
Jackson has never won a game in which his team has trailed by more than eight points—again, granted, he has rarely been in the position in which he has to come back. But then, neither has Mahomes, and he led comebacks throughout the playoffs last year en route to a Super Bowl title.
Meanwhile, Jackson is 0-2 in the playoffs, falling behind in both games and showing minimal ability to establish a comeback. At some point down the road you’re going to have to play from behind.
