Lamar Jackson Sends A Loud Message With a 5 Touchdown Day That This MVP Race Is Just Getting Started

Yawn. Another 5 passing TD day by Mr. Jackson.

This is the 6th time this guy has done it. That has him inching closer to some pretty elite company, and he's probably still in the 2nd quarter of his career.

More impressive is that it's the 4th time he's done it while having fewer incompletions than touchdowns. Nobody else can match that number.

Lamar is playing the most efficient football of his career and it's really not even close. His tally is up to 34 passing touchdowns and only 3 INT's.... and none of those 3 INT's were even his fault.

He's leading the league in yards per attempt, touchdown percentage on his attempts, and is 2nd in interceptions per attempt only to Justin Herbert. He's tracking towards over 4,000 yards, 40 TD's, and a tally of INT's that you can count on one hand.

That's ONLY looking at what he's doing through the air. Today he opened it up a little more on the ground than we've seen most the season and picked up some big chunks. He's tracking towards around 900 yards on the ground and joined Mike Vick as the only other QB to top 6,000 rushing yards in his career.

All of this exceeds the performances of his two previous MVP seasons… which isn't basis to say he should be handed a 3rd MVP, but I think the appreciation for the season he's putting together is getting lost a little bit nationally just because the Ravens are looking up at another team in the AFC North right now. Josh Allen has put together a really awesome season that also exceeds some great seasons of his own. There's been a ton of energy thrown towards his candidacy mostly because he simply hasn't won it yet. 

But if you simply take a close look at the numbers, Lamar is statistically playing a slightly better season. I think it's fair to add context to things like team record and supporting cast that play to Allen's favor and say this race should be considered a dead heat…but not the runaway race for Allen that so many want to make it out to be. It should be noted, by the way, that Lamar beat the brakes off of Josh Allen in a nationally televised game in October.

Regardless… this race will probably be decided by what happens in the final few games of the season here. Lamar has nationally televised games against Pittsburgh and then Houston on Christmas to earn back some of the spotlight… and he'll probably have to win both (and subsequently the AFC North) to overcome voter exhaustion and the cushy Pats/Jets/Pats finish JA has in front of him.

As for the rest of Sunday's game… the Ravens did exactly what they needed to do against a bad opponent. There was still slop when it came to penalties and we didn't get to see JT attempt any kicks other than extra points, but the mission was clear today and it was accomplished. Hopefully the Eagles do a job here and give the Ravens an opportunity at home to beat the Steelers on Sunday and even up the AFC North race. Very fired up for that one.

Lot of ballgame left. Go Vens.