Rich Eisen: “From the eye test it looks like things aren’t coming as easy for you this year. Is that a safe way to look at it?”
Lamar Jackson: “A lot of it is schemes. We’re going against defenses and they’re calling out our plays... Like they know what we’re doing. Sometimes stuff won’t go our way because they beat us to the punch.”
Eisen: “So, you’re hearing on the other side of the line of scrimmage the defense calling out your plays?”
Jackson: “Yes, definitely, like runs. That kind of stuff. ‘Watch out for this, watch out for that,’ and sometimes that’s what’s going on.”
Lamar Jackson went on the Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday afternoon telling Rich that opposing defenses are calling out their exact plays at the line of scrimmage, and often times already know what the Ravens offense is running before the ball is snapped. Jackson also attributing Baltimore's 'schemes' on the team's scoring down from 33.2 point per game in 2019 to 28.4 this year, and their year-to-year yards per game way down from from 407.6 to 347.0
Despite Baltimore setting an NFL record of 31 consecutive games scoring at least 20 points, Jackson’s stats are way off his MVP pace at the season’s halfway mark.
Jackson ranks just 17th in QBR, and 27th in passing yards. After leading the league last season with 36 passing touchdowns, Jackson is on pace for just 24 in 2020. His 66.1% completion percentage from last season and 7.8 yards per attempt has dropped to 62.9%, and 7.1 yards per attempt.
The comments were a bit odd, as you rarely, if ever, hear an NFL quarterback admit during the season that ‘schemes’ are the reason their offense hasn’t clicked this season, and that the opposing defense often had their plays down.
Fox Sports Radio’s Doug Gottlieb said that he thought Jackson’s comments were questionable, saying Jackson threw Ravens coordinator Greg Roman under the bus.
Check out the Rich Eisen segment above and the Doug Gottlieb Show segment below.
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