Browns, Bengals fall behind Ravens in AFC North while Steelers win

Lamar Jackson rope-a-dopes Colts with 500 total yards

Once again, Lamar Jackson sent shock waves through the division, as he compiled 504 yards of total offense to lead a furious comeback charge to allow the Baltimore Ravens to overtake the Indianapolis Colts, 31-25 after being behind 25-9 late in the third quarter on Monday Night Football. They should have called that show Monday Night Jackson (note the photo, he appears as a blur, running past our old friend Andrew Sendejo).

This writer was critical of the Ravens front office for departing from former GM (and Browns great) Ozzie Newsome’s formula of building a stud offensive line, extreme depth, and running back and tight end, while chintzing it at wide receiver. Instead, current GM Eric DeCosta seemed to have the idea that Lamar Jackson needed to be converted into a pocket passer, limit his running, and the team needed to invest in speedy wide receivers galore, including two first-round draft picks and high priced (but often injured) Sammy Watkins.

Watkins, who had a 1,000-yard receiving season in 2015, pulled up lame in this game with a hurt hamstring. It didn’t really matter.

The Colts looked like they were in charge as come-backing sometimes-superstar quarterback Carson Wentz established that he still has it, at least sometimes. Wentz was 25 for 35 for 402 yards, so it’s not like he was a statue out there. He had modest help from his running game also, with Jonathan Taylor, Marlon Mack, and Nyheim Hines leading a rushing attack that netted 123 yards on 26 carries, good for 4.73 yards per carry. So kudos to Wentz and the Colts offense. They looked like winners.

But what happened in the fourth quarter is simply this. Lamar Jackson is the best cardio-vascular-conditioned athlete in the NFL, and his scrambles on play after play after play wear down the Colts. It was like Muhammad Ali getting power puncher George Foreman to punch himself out in “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire.

By the end, the Colts pass rushers were staggering, like Foreman to Jackson’s Ali. “They told me you could punch, George! They told me you could punch as hard as Joe Louis!”

Nope. The result was that Jackson was able to administer a knockout blow against a beat-up, exhausted opponent. So much for being a pocket passer with a posse of speedy wide receivers. Instead, the big man in this game was the Pro Bowl tight end, Mark Andrews. Jackson wound up with four touchdown passes, 442 yards passing and 62 yards rushing. Andrews caught two TD passes and had 11 grabs for 147 yards.

What this means for the Browns is if they do not want to get rope-a-doped by Jackson when they play Baltimore, they had better have all hands on deck to rush the passer. The rotation had better have plenty of snaps for the secondary pass rushers. It might not be a bad time to start three defensive ends or possibly a 3-3-5 base alignment.

Cleveland doesn’t have to be terribly scared of the running backs, but they are going to have to chase Jackson all over hills and creation. At the same time, Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney will need to be rested for a few snaps to keep them fresh for the fourth quarter.

For spy-backer (a linebacker or strong safety who trails the quarterback), at the time they drafted him, several of us in the Dawg Pound were very excited to welcome Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. Man oh man, have we got an assignment for you!

It sounds like we are beating a dead horse, but over in Pittsburgh, the men of steel were beating the Broncos instead of Colts.