HOUSTON — Lamar Jackson’s arrival as an NFL supernova has turned his audition for the league into something of an afterthought. In becoming maybe the sport’s best quarterback by age 23, he has made playing the position look natural, as easy as blowing bubbles.
Of course, not everyone saw what the Ravens did, a transcendent talent lifting the team to weekly greatness. During the predraft process two years ago, several teams asked Jackson, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Louisville, to work out at wide receiver. Bill Polian, a Pro Football Hall of Fame executive, said Jackson would be better off catching passes, not throwing them.
Jackson refused to consider it. “I’m strictly a quarterback,” he said. But the only thing Jackson loves more than playing the position is winning, so there he was on Sunday afternoon, lining up at wide receiver for the most pivotal play of a 33-16 road win over the Houston Texans (0-2).
When the Ravens (2-0) needed a yard last season, they put the ball in Jackson’s hands and asked him to move the chains. When they needed it in the fourth quarter inside NRG Stadium, they asked him to move as far away from the ball as possible. Running back Mark Ingram II took a direct snap, burst through a crease and was in the end zone 30 yards later.
Houston had mostly bottled up Jackson all afternoon, holding him to 204 yards and a touchdown on 18-for-24 passing and 54 yards on 16 carries. He was sacked four times and struggled to find top target Mark Andrews (one catch for 29 yards). But when the game’s most dangerous player was out of the play, the Ravens were, for one play, at their most dangerous.
With their 14th straight regular-season win — and second blowout of the Texans in as many years — the Ravens will head into the NFL’s game of the year atop a lot of league power rankings. Next Monday night, they’ll host the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who struggled in an overtime win against the Los Angeles Chargers in overtime.
For now, all the Ravens can do is hope for regroup after their first significant injury of the season. Cornerback Tavon Young left the game in the first quarter with a knee injury and did not return. Coach John Harbaugh said afterward that it’s likely to end his season.
Young, who tore his ACL before the 2017 season, had been one of the Ravens’ top standouts in training camp, equally capable of shadowing towering tight ends and fleet-footed wide receivers. If he’s lost for an extended period, the defense will have lost two Pro Bowl-level talents in a month. Earl Thomas III had his contract terminated last month after an altercation with fellow safety Chuck Clark.
In some ways, the box score Sunday flattered the Ravens’ performance. They finished with 407 yards, including 230 on the ground. But the offense’s passing game was muted in the second half, just as its ground game was nullified in the first.
It’s not just the Ravens offense that makes them a Super Bowl contender, though. It’s their special teams; kicker Justin Tucker was 4-for-4 and kept the scoreboard ticking upward, even when the offense wasn’t lighting it up.
It’s their coaching, which kept Deshaun Watson (25-for-36 for 275 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception) on the move for a lot of the afternoon and was bold enough to convert two key fourth-down opportunities.
It’s their defense, which limited the Texans to 51 rushing yards, sacked Watson four times and scored a touchdown one season after finding the end zone six times.
Houston trailed by double digits for more than half of the game, but the Ravens struggled to grab control of the game as they had against the Cleveland Browns in Week 1. Their first half was one of fits and starts. They had just one touchdown drive in five possessions, and their first and last went a combined 12 yards. Houston, which struggled to contain the Chiefs’ ground game in its season opener, held Ravens running backs to five carries for 14 yards.
Jackson was the team’s most dynamic runner early, and he completed his first 11 throws from the pocket. But he left some plays on the field, too. In the second quarter, he missed wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown in the corner of the end zone on a would-be 21-yard score just a few plays after he didn’t notice running back J.K. Dobbins leaking out, uncovered, down the left sideline.
The Ravens entered halftime up 10 and outgained in yardage 200-172 because their defense made plays their offense could not. With five minutes left in the second quarter, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, whose punch-out in Pittsburgh made him an overtime hero last year, channeled his inner Charles Tillman again.
After Watson found wide receiver Keke Coutee for a short reception over the middle, Humphrey blindsided him, jarring the ball loose with his right hand. Inside linebacker L.J. Fort scooped up the fumble in stride, hurried to the corner of the end zone and stretched just far enough to break the plane for a 22-yard score. His second career defensive touchdown gave the Ravens a 20-7 lead.
The next time the Texans got the ball, the Ravens’ other All-Pro cornerback did what he does best: Get both hands on the ball. Marcus Peters broke on a crossing pattern for wide receiver Brandin Cooks before launching himself for a full-extension interception. It’s his 28th career pick in 79 games; legendary Ravens safety Ed Reed had 27 in his first 74.
With the ball back, the Ravens had over two minutes to cover 52 yards and land a knockout blow. Instead, they went 4 yards in four plays before punting. Houston entered halftime with the quarter’s last score, a 44-yard field goal by kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn as time expired.
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