Ravens QB Lamar Jackson answers questions about his ability to complete comebacks

Ever since he was elevated into full-time starter status midway through his rookie season in 2018, Baltimore Ravens franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson hasn’t trailed or had to mount comebacks from huge deficits in the vast majority of his starts.

The team has made a good habit out of jumping out to large leads early in games with Jackson under center in the regular season and not letting up until the game clock reads all zeros. Jackson boasts an impressive 21-4 record as a starter in the regular season.

However, he is 0-2 in two trips to the postseason, and in both of those games as well as his four career regular-season losses, the Ravens trailed by one or more possessions and couldn’t rally in the second half to secure a come from behind victory.

Following the Ravens third loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the last three seasons on Monday Night Football in Week Three where they fell behind to the defending Superbowl champions by as many as 17 points, closed the gap to seven before ultimately losing by 14, many in the media and around the league are beginning to spin the narrative that Jackson and the Ravens aren’t built to overcome the adversity of having to complete a comeback to win.

“Look at the Chiefs; we can learn from our opponents,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday. “The Chiefs have figured that one out. They have come back and won numerous games when they’ve been down by even a lot more than 10. They’re 6-0 when down 10 since through last year. That’s why they’re the defending champions. And that’s something that we’re going to do our best to try to figure out.”

The focal point of the scrutiny has mainly stemmed from the skepticism and doubt in Jackson’s ability to lead his team back from the brink leaning more his arm as a thrower than with his legs and the Ravens’ run-based offense.

Last season Jackson became just the second player ever voted league MVP unanimously aby not only setting the single-season rushing record for a quarterback but also by leading the league in passing touchdowns last season with 36, including a league-best 25 form inside the pocket.

He believes the best way to dispel this swelling narrative is to avoid falling behind entirely and making enough plays to go blow-for-blow with their opponents or maximize their offensive possessions with touchdowns instead of settling for field goals and in the rare instances in which they do fall behind on the scoreboard, make the plays necessary to overcome any deficit.

“We just can’t get in those situations of being behind,” Jackson said. “We’ve just got to try to score each and every drive like we should be. And if we’re down, just try to execute the plays and try to move forward and put points on the board and make a comeback.”

His head coach expressed the same sentiments when in his Wednesday presser.

“We try to avoid that as much as we can – a. Then b. – we have to figure out how to win those games,” Harbaugh said.

It seems that after suffering his first regular-season loss as a starter since last September, those same pundits that were singing his praises and gushing over the tremendous strides he made as a passer are now questioning and doubting his competency as a consistent and accurate thrower of the football like they were during the pre-draft process the year he was drafted.

However, a team’s ability or inability to come from behind doesn’t fall squarely on the shoulders of the quarterback even though they get the majority of the credit for their success and most of the blame for their failures. It takes a comprehensive effort on both sides of the ball and in all three phases and Jackson’s teammates know what they have in their star signal-caller.

“Lamar is great at drop-back passing,” running back Mark Ingram II said. “He’s accurate. [The Chiefs] just played sound, disciplined defense.”

Jackson likely won’t find himself in too many trailing situations going forward but he and the Ravens will be determined to show that they can rally if they fall behind and will stand behind their MVP-winning quarterback and have all the faith in his ability to lead the charge in the event that they need to overcome a deficit by one or more possessions.