Glenn Clark: The Lamar Jackson Effect Truly Settled In For Me During Ravens-Bengals
Ravens vs. Bengals
When Stevie Nicks was on “Saturday Night Live” a few weeks back, I was inspired to watch Fleetwood Mac’s absolutely stirring performance of “Silver Springs” (a song that is oddly named after a Maryland town that doesn’t exist, seriously, look it up) from 1997.
It’s one of the greatest live performances in music history. The passion is overwhelming. The tension is thicker than any thighs that have ever been suggested that they could “save lives.” It is breathtaking. And every time I watch it (which is frequent) I think to myself, “I wonder what it was like to be in the room. I wonder if they knew what they were watching. I wonder if they thought they were witnessing history as it unfolded in front of them.”
It struck me that it’s not dissimilar to how I feel about watching Lamar Jackson.
Something struck me late in the Ravens’ Week 10 win against the Bengals. For all of the anxiety others were feeling about Cincinnati’s potential go-ahead two-point conversion attempt, I just wasn’t as concerned. With 38 seconds and two timeouts left and Lamar Jackson at quarterback, I truly believed the Ravens were winning the game no matter what. It’s why I’m dismissive of the chatter about a potential uncalled penalty on the attempt. I just don’t think it mattered. When the Bengals scored with that much time left, I actually pumped my fist while sitting on my couch.
That’s the Lamar Jackson effect. I’m watching Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. I’m watching Steph Curry in the closing minutes of this year’s Olympic gold medal game. I’m watching Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final. I’m watching Stevie Nicks stare into Lindsey Buckingham’s soul as she tells him she’ll follow him down ’til the sound of her voice will haunt him on a Los Angeles soundstage.
This feeling isn’t new, although Jackson is somehow even better this season — which is just staggering. But it was in the context of a lackluster trade deadline and lacklustier (I don’t think “lacklustier” is actually a thing but I like it so much that I’m begging my editors to leave it in) defensive performance on “Thursday Night Football” that the Jackson Effect truly settled in for me.
We’re all aware of the struggles of the Ravens’ (particularly pass) defense. I have no interest in hiding from it. It’s not great. I wanted to see them upgrade personnel. They didn’t. I think they should consider making schematic changes. I think they need to be better.
But I can’t hear the arguments that the Ravens “can’t win the Super Bowl” with this defense. As I wrote last week, their margin for error is smaller, no doubt! But even if the defense isn’t better, the Lamar Jackson Effect is real. He’s THAT good. There’s nothing in the NFL you’d rather have than Lamar Jackson as your quarterback with MAYBE the exception of Patrick Mahomes, but that requires you to say something like “because I know he’s better than the version of Patrick Mahomes we’re seeing this year.”
While we obsess over the struggles of the Ravens’ defense, we need to recognize that the value of Lamar Jackson is overwhelmingly more significant than the value of any defense. That’s why the Ravens came into the week with an offensive DVOA (37.7%) nearly twice as impactful as not only the second best DVOA offense (Washington’s 21.6%) but also the best DVOA defense (Minnesota’s -23.5%).
Yes, I’m worried about the defense, too. But I’m sick of obsessing over it and making it the focal point of every conversation. Look, I’m a Virgo. Existential dread would be my most likely Olympic sport. But I’m not doing this anymore. The defense will improve or it won’t. But if we’re sitting around a fire on a Saturday night and talking about football, we should be talking about Lamar Jackson and how freaking lucky we are to spend our Sunday afternoons (or Thursday nights or Sunday nights or Monday nights or, yeah, Saturday afternoons and, holy hell, Wednesday afternoons this season) watching this remarkable human play football.
I’m not sure how Saints fans felt when they were watching Drew Brees in 2009 try to overcome the 25th overall defense and 26th-ranked pass defense to win a Super Bowl. Or how fans in Indianapolis felt in 2006 when Peyton Manning overcame the 21st-ranked overall defense and the 32nd (!) ranked run defense. And they’re not alone. The 2019 Chiefs had an overall pedestrian defense (17th) with the 26th-ranked run-stopping unit … but they had Patrick Mahomes.
Lots of pedestrian to bad defenses have won Super Bowls. Those teams haven’t always had breathtakingly brilliant quarterbacks. Eli Manning had a hell of a run to help the 2011 Giants overcome the 29th-ranked pass defense. The 2012 Ravens got one of the best playoff runs of all time from Joe Flacco to help overcome a unit that was in the lower half of the league in overall, pass and run defense.
It can be done. And if there’s someone I’d trust to do it at the moment, it would be the guy who is well on his way to a third NFL MVP award.
There’s lots of work that still needs to be done before then. Jackson still needs to put together the combination of both playing well and beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game. He’s done both. He’s just never done both in the same game. He’s LONG overdue for that.
You guys can continue to panic. I’m just not going to keep joining with you. Lamar Jackson can be my Silver Springs.
