Lamar Jackson vs. History, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, & More

The NFL MVP 2024 Debate Heats Up!

Will Lamar Jackson Make History?

What does John Harbaugh DO?

Ravens Pass-Catchers Through 16 Games

Best Christmas ever for Ravens fans.  What’s better in (football) life than a one-two combo of the Steelers losing and then the Ravens winning?  Just a couple weeks ago – feels like a lifetime! – on the morning of Sunday December 15, the Ravens were coming off a bye having spent two weeks chewing on a dispiriting home loss to a powerful Eagles team.  At 8-5 they were 2 games behind the 10-3 Steelers.  Ten days later they had earned a one game lead in the division, having won three straight while the Steelers lost three.  Just an amazing stretch.

It’s not shocking.  I think every Ravens fan looked at the Steelers schedule and saw that game #14-16 stretch – @Eagles/@Ravens/home vs Chiefs – as the Ravens’ chance to make the decisive move to win the division.  Like drafting in bike racing: stay in close contact and then make your move.  (It’s not like drafting in bike racing.  Everything would’ve been FAR more comfortable if the Ravens had taken care of business in Week 2 vs the Raiders, Week 8 vs the Browns, and Week 11 vs the Steelers.  But since there were behind, you use the metaphors you got.)

But it’s one thing to spot the opportunity.  It’s another thing to convert it.

Coaching: Harb Knocks

After that Week 11 game vs Pittsburgh, I wrote that, yeah, Tomlin had out-coached Harbs in that game, but we needed to interrogate what exactly we mean by that.  What’s it mean to “out-coach” someone?  The headline writer (hi, Derek!) put this headline on the piece: “Tomlin May Win More Battles, but John Harbaugh Wins the War.”

Now that the Ravens are in first place with an opportunity to clinch the division, that headline looks prescient.

In golf they say, “Play the course, not the leaderboard.”  Harbaugh played the course.  One thing to look at is how the Ravens came through the 3-games-in-11-days gauntlet compared to how the other teams did.  By the third game the Steelers and especially the Texans looked worn down.  The Ravens looked fresh and fast. (And so too, did the team coached by Harbs’ mentor Andy Reid.)

I don’t want to say too much more about coaching, right now.  The division isn’t won; the Ravens may face Pittsburgh a third time; another coaching matchup against Little bro Harbs might loom in the playoffs.  Let’s put a pin in this topic of “coaching matchup” to revisit in later weeks.

But!  If you have HBO or Max or whatever they’re calling it these days, Hard Knocks: In Season With the AFC North deals with this two-game stretch in episodes 4 and 5.  And wow, are those episodes worth watching!  Ep 4 focuses on the two divisional games in Week 15, Bengals vs Browns and Steelers vs Ravens, with an emphasis on how the four teams prepared.  Ep 5 focuses on this past slate of games, including Christmas, and the prep leading up.

In structure, the show devotes about a quarter of its run time to each team.  So when the Ravens play a divisional opponent, about half the episode is relevant to them!  In episode 4, half the episode either features the Ravens, or the Steelers talking about the Ravens.  It’s fascinating to watch Tomlin address his team and talk about individual Ravens players as keys (Lamar, Mark Andrews, Marlon Humphrey, Kyle Hamilton).

Some things that stood out to me:

• How much respect Tomlin has for the Ravens. I had assumed that when one team has a winning streak against another, the coach could develop a bit of contempt for that opponent.  “Oh we got these guys’ number!”  That doesn’t seem true at all.  Tomlin talked to his team in the highest terms about the Ravens.  When he spotted Haloti Ngata on the Ravens sideline pre-game, he had great things to say about Haloti.  When the Ravens made a great defensive stop, on the sideline he was yelling “Man that’s classic Ravens.”
• Harbaugh’s decision about his demeanor. The HBO cameras didn’t capture Harbaugh’s thinking on this, but it looks like he thought the Ravens were too tense the last time they played the Steelers, and that hindered them.  It looks like Harbs decided to do what he could to ratchet the pressure down, get the guys to relax and just play.  We see Harbs talking with Lamar on the practice field about how they’re keeping the gameplan simple: just play football.  On game day we see Harbs telling everyone pre-game, “I’m all high-fives and smiles today.”  That will no doubt play into those folks who think Harbs is just a cheerleader; what I saw was a coach who had made a calculated decision about what his guys needed, and worked to embody that in the lead-up to the game.
• Todd Monken’s telling the offense not to take playoff appearances for granted, and talking about his experience in the NFL before coming to Baltimore. (He joked about how he spent the first playoff bonus he earned in Jacksonville.)  His frankness is always such a breath of fresh air; my wife commented on that.
• Harbs checking in with a “director of player performance” at the close of practice to go over the speed numbers from the session. (The dude had a British accent!)  The players had crushed the practice, hitting top speeds and generally showing great freshness for two days after a game.
• A multifaceted approach to mental preparation. The Ravens used different people and different approaches to get information to the players.  HBO showed a data analytics guy addressing the defense on Russ Wilson’s tendencies.  They caught Harbaugh sitting in the back row of the defense meeting room like a player, taking notes and occasionally interjecting a point.  They showed a defensive assistant giving a Jeopardy-style quiz to the linebackers (with questions like “What is the Texans’ favorite outside run from shotgun?”)

There’s a frequent refrain from a swath of Ravens fandom, esp. on the RSR forum, asking “What does Harbs do?”  He’s not a former O- or D-coordinator, so what does he do for the team?  This!  This is what Harbs does!  He’s not “showy”: he doesn’t demonstrate to the cameras that he’s “coaching.” He seems not to give a shit about being seen to do stuff.  But clearly he’s lining up people behind the scenes to help the players.  He gets a Brit performance guy to give him the latest data on player speed so he can judge how to schedule practices; he gets a data guy to tell the defense in plain language what Russ does (and doesn’t) do; he encourages an assistant coach to make a Jeopardy quiz.

That stuff doesn’t just happen.  Now, I don’t know any better than you do what goes on in the facility. Harbs isn’t sitting down with me to plan out how to engage his team. But I’ve got eyes.  Someone is making decisions about putting this stuff in front of the team.  I suspect it’s the head coach.

Anyway – if you get a chance, check out the Hard Knocks series, especially those two episodes.  Tomlin had emerged as the “star” due to his charisma and pithy quotes.  Harbaugh isn’t seen to do nearly as much.  But notice how active the Ravens staff is; and on how many different fronts they’re acting.  And think about who that staff’s boss is.

MV He – NFL MVP 2024 Chatter

‘Tis the season for MVP chatter. The arguing about the NFL MVP 2024 is reaching a fever pitch.

Coming down to the wire, the four favorites for the award (in some order) are:

• Lamar
• Saquon Barkley
• Josh Allen
• Joe Burrow

I have to say, I have no issue with Saquon winning it.  Seasons of 2k don’t grow on trees, and Saquon brings big “best player on the best team” energy.  Plus he jumped backward over a defender!

View on Threads

That’s some real superhero shit.  I would have no complaints if Saquon won it.  But Running Backs don’t tend to win MVP anymore.  Three times in the first 13 years of this century (counting 2000) the AP MVP was a Running Back; zero times in the last 11 years has it been, even when Derrick Henry had 2,000 yards in 2020.  Mike Tanier said in his Walkthrough column this week that Saquon is not his MVP.

The people who kill me are Bills fans.  Bills fans are devouring social media (Xitter and Threads: not so much BlueSky) with arguments that Josh Allen’s case for MVP is OVERWHELMINGLY GREATER than Lamar’s.  Don’t get me wrong: Allen is of course a very fine player and a worthy candidate. But a lot of the anti-Lamar arguments that vocal Bills fans have been throwing around fall somewhere between “disingenuous” and “stupid.”  NFL writer Scott Kacsmar calls out many of those arguments for hypocrisy, here:

Thread: How Bills Fans Will Stop at Nothing to Get Josh Allen His Charity MVP

No fanbase has been more hypocritical this season than the Bills. Let’s count some of the ways based on the arguments I’ve seen for 3 months.

— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmar) December 30, 2024

That’s a multi-part thread of Tweets.  I co-sign them all.  There are three more pet arguments that vocal Bills fans tend to deploy.  They are:

• Lamar won it last year when Allen had better stats, so obviously stats don’t matter, and now it’s Josh’s TURN!
• Allen is a miracle worker because his supporting cast this year is utterly devoid of talent, while Lamar gets to work with the greatest supporting cast since the Greatest Show On Turf Rams.
• Henry invalidates any Lamar-for-MVP case.

Each of these is a special kind of nonsense.  In case you absolutely must talk to a Bills fan this awards season, let’s go over a quick guide to those three, uh, “allegations.”

The first thing to tell them is: you got to get over last year.  2023 is long gone.  Your 2023 feelings and arguments cannot support a 2024 MVP award.  But also – you’re wrong about last year.  Allen didn’t have better stats than Lamar in 2023!  What Allen had was higher VOLUME stats: 29 passing TDs to 24 for Lamar, 15 rushing TDs to 4 for Lamar.  But Allen had worse EFFICIENCY stats: lower completion pctg, lower yards-per-attempt, lower Net yards-per-attempt, lower TD%.  (Also lower yards-per-rush-attempt.)  Allen had 18 Interceptions, more than 2½ times as many as Lamar.  Allen was 30th in the league in INT%!  That’s bad.  Lamar was tied for 3rd-best.  Allen finished 16th in Passer Rating, vs 4th for Lamar.  Lamar was also better in the games against better competition.  I pointed this out last year: in the toughest eight games of their respective schedules, Lamar passed for more TDs with fewer INTs and a higher yards-per-attempt and a higher passer rating, while also rushing for more yards with a higher yards-per.  Lamar played better than Josh Allen.

It’s not that the “stats didn’t matter” last year.  It’s that volume stats don’t trump efficiency stats, and your guy was spraying interceptions all over the league.

Last thing about 2023: Allen finished 5th in MVP voting last year.  If the 2023 MVP award was an injustice, and it should be “made up” to someone, then there are four people in line ahead of Josh Allen: Dak Prescott, Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy.

The Scott Kacsmar guy I mentioned above called Lamar’s win last a “default MVP.”  We were mad at him last year; but what he was saying was that the other candidates (Tyreek Hill, Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, Dak Prescott, and yes, Allen) failed to “finish” their case, leaving Lamar as the last man standing.  Kacsmar goes on to say that if you dropped this year’s performance from any of the top candidates into last year’s race, this year’s guy would win.  2024 Josh Allen would easily win the 2023 MVP race.  But so would 2024 Lamar or 2024 Joe Burrow, or 2024 Saquon.

The second thing to say to your Bills friend is “GTFOH!” when they try to run that “supporting cast” BS past you.  Mina Kimes does a nice breakdown of the supporting cast discussion – I’m going to link her podcast episode below – and she said that of the three QB candidates, Burrow has by far the best Wide Receivers; the Bills have the best O-line; and the Ravens have the best Tight Ends and Running Back.  So the supporting casts are pretty well mixed among the three QBs.  But interestingly, the delta at Running Back is not as big as you would expect!  Henry is having a great season; but Bills RB James Cook is right behind him in efficiency.  Henry is #2 in DVOA among Running Backs; Cook is #3, with a very close score.  Last year Cook made the Pro Bowl with 1100 yards rushing: he’s a very good player.

Another thing that happened last year is that Bills 1st-round Tight End Dalton Kincaid had almost 700 yards receiving as a rookie – more than either Andrews or Isaiah Likely had.  He’s a talented player.  Sure, the Ravens Tight Ends and Running Backs are better than the Bills; but it’s a much smaller edge than Bills fans are trying to assert.

Bills fans go further: they act like Zay Flowers & Rashod Bateman & Nelson Agholor are basically Torry Holt & Isaac Bruce & Az Hakim (from the Greatest Show On Turf Rams), or Randy Moss & Wes Welker (from the Patriots Imperfect season), or – let’s reach way back –  “the Marks Brothers” Duper & Clayton (from Dan Marino’s 1984 MVP season), or John Jefferson & Charlie Joiner (from the 1980-81 Air-Coryell Chargers).  The only response to that is, what the hell are you talking about??

I mean, I like Flowers & Bateman.  They’ve grown into important contributors.  But the idea that Defensive Coordinators around the league are burning the midnight oil trying to concoct special plans for those two game-changing talents is beyond ridiculous.  Before this season, Bateman averaged 389 receiving yards per year.  Flowers is 35th in the league in Yards-per-target; 70th in Success Rate.

There are two “prongs” for the Derrick Henry discussion.  The first, most obvious one is that Henry “makes” Lamar.  The second is implicit: the idea that an All-Pro caliber teammate invalidates an MVP candidate.  Let’s attack the second of those prongs first.  Here’s a list of some prior MVP Quarterbacks, with the name of an important teammate in parentheses:

• 2021 Aaron Rodgers (Davante Adams)
• 2020 Rodgers (Adams)
• 2018 Patrick Mahomes (Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce)
• 2017 Tom Brady (Rob Gronkowski)
• 2016 Matt Ryan (Julio Jones)
• 2007 Tom Brady (Randy Moss, Wes Welker)
• 2004 Peyton Manning (Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James)
• 1999 Kurt Warner (Isaac Bruce and Marshall Faulk)
• 1994 Steve Young (Jerry Rice)
• 1990 Joe Montana (Rice)
• 1989 Montana (Rice, John Taylor, Roger Craig)
• 1988 Boomer Esiason (Eddie Brown, Ickey Woods)
• 1984 Dan Marino (Mark Clayton)
• 1983 Joe Theismann (John Riggins)
• 1981 Kenny Anderson (Chris Collinsworth)
• 1978 Terry Bradshaw (Lynn Swann, Franco Harris)
• 1976 Bert Jones (Roger Carr, Lydell Mitchell)

Every single one of those players in parentheses made 1st-team All-Pro that season, except: Wes Welker, Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James, Issac Bruce, John Taylor, Eddie Brown, Ickey Woods, Mark Clayton, Chris Collinsworth, Roger Carr and Lydell Mitchell, who all made 2nd-team; and Roger Craig (merely a Pro Bowler in 1989, had been All-Pro and Offensive Player of the Year the season before) and Franco Harris.

Many of those players are in the Hall of Fame.  And if you’re wondering whether I went all the way back to 1976 just to create an excuse to put Bert Jones & Roger Carr & Lydell Mitchell in this column – c’mon, do you even have to ask?

What I’m trying to say is, the entire premise of the “Derrick Henry narrative” around Lamar is nonsense.  It is commonplace for an MVP Quarterback to have a teammate performing at an All-Pro level.  Batman very often has a Robin.  Fer God’s sake, Randy Moss is on this list!  Marshall Faulk is on this list! Jerry mf’in Rice is on this list!  Having a great & productive teammate doesn’t “invalidate” Lamar’s MVP candidacy any more than it invalidated Patrick Mahomes’ or Tom Brady’s or Peyton Manning’s or Joe Montana’s or Steve Young’s.

So Bills fans are wrong to even bring up Henry.  When a fan-favorite is trailing in the MVP sentiment, fans often shift to philosophical arguments.  “What does most valuable really mean?”  But over history, “most valuable” has not necessarily meant the best player on a weak team.  It has meant the player having the best season or accomplishing the most.

They’re also wrong about who’s-helping-who more.  Lamar isn’t getting a Henry bump.  Derrick Henry is getting a Lamar Jackson bump.  This is obvious if you watch a lot of Ravens games.  It’s not obvious if the only Ravens game you watched was when they stomped the Bills 35-10 in week 4.  In that game, on the first Ravens play from scrimmage Derrick Henry busted out an 87-yd touchdown run.  Bills fans can be forgiving for assuming that Henry drives the bus.  They need some information.  Here is some:

• Henry is a 30-yr-old RB posting the highest yards-per-carry of his career at 5.8, half a yard higher (0.48) than his 2,000-yard season
• Henry has a higher yards-before-contact per carry number than any season in his career, more than half a yard higher (0.6) than any previous season
• He has almost double the total yards-before-contact that he had last year (940 compared to 566, with a game to go)

How do you think that happens, Bills fan?  (Ravens fans already know.)  The mechanism was obvious on TV to anyone who watched the last Ravens-Steelers matchup.  In that game, whenever the Ravens ran a read-option play, the Steelers jumped Lamar to force a “give” read.  This created WIDE-open gaps for Derrick Henry to run through.  He took full advantage; he’s a beast.  But it was Lamar’s presence that created those big gaps.  The Steelers know Lamar very, very well.  And with that knowledge they decided they were better off granting Henry huge gaps to run through, than risking Lamar in the open field.  That should tell you everything you need to know.

Stats and film study both support the conclusion that Lamar is helping Henry gain all those yards, more than Henry is helping Lamar create openings downfield.

– Which is not to say that Henry isn’t helping Lamar!  Of course he is.  First, he is finishing those runs that Lamar is helping create those big gaps for.  He’s a beast.  Henry also commands respect from Lamar.  In prior seasons, I’m convinced that every time Lamar was at the mesh point, he knew in the back of his mind that he could gain more yards than his Running Back could.  Now he knows in the back of his mind that “That’s King Henry!”  Lamar is more willing to give at the mesh point (it seems to me) than in any previous year.  Perhaps most important, Henry is a closer.  In prior seasons, Lamar would have to carry the load to close out games, doing a lot of 4th-quarter running.  He’s not doing that this year.  Lamar looks fresher than he usually does this time of year.  I give Henry full credit for that.  And it could be the single most important development for the Ravens postseason.

The final thing to tell your Bills friend is that Lamar has faced a tougher schedule than Allen has.  The Ravens schedule of opposing defenses is much higher than either the Bills or Bengals have faced; the 5th-toughest by DVOA, where the Bengals have faced the 17th-toughest and the Bills the 19th-toughest.  The Ravens have played 10 games against playoff teams, and gone 7-3 (even better if the Bengals manage to squeak in).  The Bills are 2-3; the Bengals a woeful 0-7 with a game against Pittsburgh remaining.  And it’s also reflected in the NFL’s “Strength of Schedule” and “Strength of Victory” stats.  The Ravens have an SOS of .545 vs the Bills .493 and the Bengals .463.   They have an SOV of .539 vs the Bills .462 and the Bengals .238.

The Ravens currently have the #1 SOS & #1 SOV of any playoff contender.

No other NFL team is more proven.

When January & February roll around, give me the team that is battle tested.

Every single time.#RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/XT0Ti9NUFE

— Matt Wise (@TheMattWise) December 28, 2024

At the most fundamental level, the Bills-fan argument comes down to “But our guy is soooooooo good!  It’s NOT FAIR that he doesn’t get MVP!  You guys just don’t appreciate him!”  I get it. But “unfair” is a frequent companion in sports.  Hall of Famer Dan Fouts never won the AP’s MVP award (the PFWA selected him once).  Sometimes you play in the same era as Kenny Anderson & Joe Montana & John Elway; and Joe Theismann sets the NFL scoring record.  Two-time Super Bowl champ Ben Roethlisberger has a great shot at the Hall of Fame; he never won MVP.  Sometimes you play in the same era as Peyton Manning & Tom Brady & Drew Brees; and Adrian Peterson rushes for 2,000 and LaDainian Tomlinson sets the TD scoring record.  It happens.  You can be the 2nd- or 3rd-best Quarterback over an impressive 5-year stretch, but never once be the best in any given season.

Allen has not “done more with less”.  Lamar has done more, against more, and with about the same.  Lamar has posted better stats than both Allen and Burrow – about the same volume production with better efficiency – and he’s done it against tougher competition, with similar levels of “help” from teammates.  And that is that!

https://t.co/DxLDIqpTUz pic.twitter.com/hlGKIbE5E4

— Jack Settleman (@jacksettleman) December 25, 2024

Some further MVP resources – Mina Kimes had ex- Ravens DB Dominique Foxworth on her show, and they thoroughly discussed the MVP race.  She did a careful & thoughtful job examining all of the arguments.  This is very much worth a watch:

The MVP voter who last year went for Allen over Lamar, Aaron Schatz of DVOA, was on Ken Filmstudy’s podcast.  He played coy about who his MVP is; he has an upcoming article about it and wasn’t ready to spoil it.  But he made leading comments, saying that the arguments that (for him) favored Allen last year, favor Lamar this year.  Worth a listen – the Lamar comments come in the last few minutes.

Podcast: @ASchatzNFL explains how some DVOA elements are calculated and why the formula rates the #Ravens so highly (they are 1st in DVOA):https://t.co/clUmd9Icyv#Ravensflock #NFL pic.twitter.com/Pl6MjXr3B0

— Ken McKusick (@FilmstudyRavens) January 1, 2025

And the helpful folks at PFR weigh in:

Lamar Jackson is track to have the NFL’s third season with 30+ passing touchdowns and an interception percentage below one percent… the last two won MVP.

https://t.co/bNNG2fNatJ pic.twitter.com/MzQnam1u4m

— Pro Football Reference (@pfref) December 30, 2024

Passer Rating Redux

I’m really pleased with my timing, having spent my column two weeks ago diving in-depth on how Passer Rating is calculated.  Lamar has a chance to catch Aaron Rodgers for the all-time single-season record in that stat.

Remember that Passer Rating kind of sucks.  It’s an over-engineered niche stat; it has gone up over decades so you can’t compare it one-to-one with historical figures; it can be gamed; and it doesn’t include sacks.  So, it’s severely limited.  But if Lamar has a chance at setting a record in it, we’re going to look at it.

So remember, you take scores across the four “components” of Passer Rating and then multiplier by a, uh, weird multiplier: 100/6.  Here is where Lamar stands today in the four components, compared to Aaron Rodgers’ record of 122.46:

Rodgers is ahead in three of the four components.  Realistically, Lamar won’t pass Rodgers in the Yards-per-attempt component.  His most realistic path to the record is to get by Rodgers in the TD% and INT% components, by enough to offset Rodger’s lead in the comp% and yards-per components.  Lamar could also tack on a lead in the comp% component and thereby win three categories.

Interestingly, Lamar has already had five games this year that, if he repeated those stats, would give him the record.  Those five games were:

Obviously the Perfect rating he posted against Denver (158.3) would be enough.  That would give Lamar a final rating of 124.2.  Paradoxically some lower (non-perfect) in-game Passer Ratings would give Lamar a higher final season Rating, just because of how the arithmetic works out: he would gain more in TD% than lose in yards-per or comp%.  Complicated.  The Houston stats are the most interesting scenario: Lamar would finish with a Passer Rating of 122.50, four hundredths of a point ahead of Rodgers’ 122.46.  Beautiful.

Lamar has also had two other games where, if he matched those exactly he would not get the Ratings record, but if he just changed one number he would:

Two more games are very close: if Lamar copied them exactly he would just miss, but change one number and he would beat the record
DAL: 12 / 15, 182, 1 TD
Change to 2 TDs and that would give 123.0 for the year
BUF: 13 / 18, 156, 2 TDs
Change to 195 yds that would give 122.5

— jimzipcode.bsky.social (@zip_jim) December 26, 2024

It’s kind of crazy: with five games already in the books that would give him the record, and another two that were close, the record is insanely close.  Achievable!  If you’re trying to keep track on Saturday, without staying tied to your laptop with a spreadsheet open, the games Lamar’s already had that would give him the record, fell in these ranges:

• Completion pct between 67% and 84%
• Yards-per between 9 and 15
• TD% from 12% to 23%
• which represents 2 to 5 TDs on attempts ranging from 10 to 33
• No INTs

Basically, if Lamar is completing at least ⅔ of his passes, with yards-per around 10, and one-eighth or more of his passes going for TDs (and no INTs!), then the record is very much in play.

My prediction?  I think Lamar is going to get it.  He’s always shown a real sense of the moment.  The game is in Baltimore.  The Ravens need the win to clinch the division, so they’ll be focused.  They lost to the Brownies earlier this year, so they’ll be double focused.  The Browns suck.  They have the 24th-ranked defense by DVOA.  They’re even worse on offense, dead last, #32; so the Ravens won’t be playing catch up from unfavorable down-&-distances.

Honestly, it would not surprise me if Lamar posted a(nother) Perfect Passer Rating game.  Finish with an exclamation point.

Pro Bowl

Nine Ravens made the Pro Bowl!

Your Ravens Pro Bowlers pic.twitter.com/CSE6nBXqKZ

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 2, 2025

Pertinent to this column, Flowers became the first Ravens-drafted Wide Receiver to make the Pro Bowl, (as a Wide Receiver, as opposed to Kick Returner or Tight End).  What a milestone for the organization.  I want to make a big deal out of this – Broke the dry spell!  End of an era! – but this column is already so damn long.  So let’s just tip the cap to Flowers and Eric DeCosta and WR Coach Greg Lewis and Todd Monken.

Game Stats

Here are your stats for the Christmas game:

(Data from PFR)

This is kind of a crazy box score.  The QB had a fantastic day: over 11 yards-per-attempt, a Passer Rating of 143.9.  And yet no receiver had a “Quality Start”!  No one caught three passes!  No that’s spreading the ball around. Everyone but Zay Flowers seemed to be capped at two targets.  Seven targeted receivers caught everything thrown to them;

Season debuts in the receiving stats for Keaton Mitchell and Anthony Miller!  Mitchell did not have a good statistical day carrying the ball (less than 2 yards per carry) but he had one good run of seven yards, and looked good on this catch.

Speaking of the highs and lows of Small Sample Size Theater, Tez Walker goes from the top of the charts to the bottom.  The new arrivals take his spot.

Crucial element of the offense even when he’s not going for 90-plus.

(Data from PFR except last 3 cols)

Your Ravens are #1 in Offensive DVOA, #1 in yards-per-play on offense, and #1 in Red Zone TD%.  They’re #2 in Passing YTS, tied for 3rd in Pts-per-drive and 3rd-down%, 5th in Scoring% per drive.  And in an echo from last year, they shape up as a historically potent squad:

Here’s the new commentary with updated DVOA ratings. This is now three recent Ravens teams with historically great DVOA… what ties those teams together?https://t.co/0B0Q39KXNX

— Aaron Schatz (@ASchatzNFL) December 31, 2024

Next Up: Finishing up business.  Home against the Brownies; dotting the I’s, crossing the T’s.

On deck: playoff matchups. More arguing about the NFL MVP 2024.

The post Lamar Jackson vs. History, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, & More appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/01/03/street-talk/nfl-mvp-202-debate-allen-jackson/