Happy New Year! And based on what I saw on Sunday evening, 2024 could be a very good one indeed for the players and coaches of the Baltimore Ravens, as well as their fans.
The Ravens have enjoyed quite the couple of weeks. On Christmas Day, they recorded an emphatic 33-19 road win against the number one seed in the NFC in the San Francisco 49ers. And on New Year's Eve, they hammered home their dominance in the AFC with a 56-19 thrashing of their closest challengers, the number two seed Miami Dolphins.
It was yet another big stage upon which quarterback Lamar Jackson has delivered an elite performance this season. The favourite to be named the NFL's Most Valuable Player has now beaten 10 teams with winning records during this campaign.
Can anyone stop Lamar or the Ravens? It's hard to look past them when it comes to lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Las Vegas in February.
Jackson produced the perfect NFL passer rating of 158.3 as he hit on 18 of 21 passes for 321 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. But you didn't need those numbers at all. You simply needed to watch him for three hours on Sunday night to know that quarterback play doesn't get any better than that.
And the leader of all NFL quarterbacks in rushing yards barely needed to take off on scrambles, running just six times on the night. Even with Lamar playing within himself in that department, the Ravens still rushed for 160 yards and two scores.
While Lamar was the headline act, this was a total team performance. Five different players caught touchdown passes and the defense recorded two sacks and two interceptions. Over the past two weeks, against their closest rivals and star-studded attacks, Baltimore's top-ranked defense has registered seven sacks and
Read on nfl.com