In his “Monday Night Football” debut, Lamar Jackson added more evidence to his Most Valuable Player Award case, leading the Baltimore Ravens to another blowout win.
Jackson matched a career high with five touchdown passes and ran for 95 yards in another splendid all-around performance, and the Ravens routed the Los Angeles Rams, 45-6, on Monday for their seventh consecutive victory.
Mark Ingram rushed for 111 yards and a touchdown and caught a scoring pass as the Ravens (9-2) became the fourth team in the 21st century to score touchdowns on their first six drives in a game. With Jackson operating almost flawlessly at the controls, Baltimore embarrassed a previously solid Rams defense by racking up 480 yards.
Jackson, 22, went 15 for 20 for 169 yards while constantly making smart moves with his arm and his feet. He hit Willie Snead for his fifth touchdown pass with 14 minutes 43 seconds to play and took the rest of the night off.
“We’re clicking on all cylinders right now,” Jackson said. “It’s O.K., but we’re trying to win the Super Bowl. This is cool, but we’re chasing that right now, and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Even the L.A. crowd serenaded him with “M-V-P!” chants in the final minutes.
“That’s just operating at the highest level you can operate as a quarterback,” Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said of Jackson’s first half, in which he went 9 for 9 and led four touchdown drives.
Snead and Marquise Brown had two touchdown catches apiece for the Ravens, whose winning streak is their longest since they won seven straight to close the 2000 season, when they won their first Super Bowl title. Baltimore has outscored its last three opponents by 135-26.
Jared Goff passed for 212 yards with two interceptions and Todd Gurley rushed for just 22 for the Rams (6-5), who took the worst loss of their three seasons under Coach Sean McVay.
Los Angeles, which failed to score a touchdown for the second time in three games, hadn’t lost by more than 21 points in its first 43 games under McVay. The Rams, the defending N.F.C. champions, were among the N.F.L.’s best offensive teams for the previous two seasons, but they have lost that status this year while Baltimore has ascended to dominance.
Source: Football - nytimes.com
