Lamar Jackson took 'too many hits' from Kansas City Chiefs' defense | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

the Kelsey catch was obscured by The Escape yeah Patrick Mahomes is freaking Houdini at times and we saw that a few times last night where a defensive player thinks he has a beat on momes and momes just stops and Spins and moves and whatever and that defensive player was flat wrong and you look at the passing stats last night Mahomes had more yards than Jackson but it really was spread out 33 yards for Rice 35 yards wait oh no no no wait I'm looking at the wrong column rice had 103 103 I was looking at the long I'm sorry I'll blame it on the fact that I'm sleep to five I was looking at the Long play of the night it's like 3335 that doesn't is that up to 291 wait a minute is my brain working wrong Rashi rice was the dominant performer last night worthy with 47 Kelsey was fourth on the list even behind Noah gray Noah gray had three catches for 37 yards Kelsey had three for 34 so he kind of slipped and that's the thing about tight ends and that's what fantasy players crazy you can never really predict on a consistent basis a big night and Kelsey may have 130 and two touchdowns against the Bengals who knows the Ravens might have just decided we're going to focus on taking him away and whatever the rest of the offense does the rest of the offense does and there were some moments where it was like why is Rashid rice being covered by linebacker why why is aier worthy being covered by a linebacker they had guys coming in close to the line of SC scrimmage those tighter splits and they were getting into Zone matchups and man-to-man matchups against linebackers and that that may have contributed to some of the numbers that we saw last night and some of the catches that we saw last night from people other than Travis Kelce yeah no doubt about it Mike and and momes does create so many things down the field with his escapability and you know Lamar does too but you know he takes off running obviously a lot more than what Patrick Mahomes does and and that 122 yards that he had rushing last night on 16 cares that was the third most in his career Mike 87 games which amazes me but he can't keep taking those hits all season I know this he played this game like it was the AFC Championship Game you can't lower your shoulder and do some of the things he did and survive this season he's got to take better care of himself and I don't even think he can have 16 carries a game going forward and survive this season he's got to better protect himself if the Ravens are are going to have him all year and get to do what they think they can do which they's still a Super Bowl Contender they so showed that they can beat the Chiefs they didn't beat the Chiefs but they showed they can do it they came within inches of having an opportunity to do that on a two-point conversion but to get back there they need a healthy Lamar and to get a healthy Lamar he's he's going to have to better protect himself I just don't think he can have SE 16 carries a game every game and I know he's not going to but don't lower that shoulder and don't do some of the things that he did last night MDS came up with the stat at one point the double triple the 100 yards in multiple categories and Lamar Jackson broke the record a long time ago he had his 17th last night with more than a 100 re not receiving more than 100 passing yards and more than a 100 rushing yards receiving would be another category where you could have a 100 yards but it's hard to imagine a quarterback doing that for a quarterback it's going to be passing and rushing and you're right he he's not let me start from the beginning of my observation here before the game and and I I did see some folks on the sidelines who like hey did you bring your flowers for little more so thank you for listening and watching uh PFT live because I was joking about since I'm Mike Flores taking him some flowers but he was out there warming up and we were down on the field early when it was hot before the storm clouds gathered he looks noticeably thin there's no thickness in the Torso for a lot of quarterbacks there's a thickness to the Torso there's that natural suit of armor that Chris Sims refers to that helps protect you against the wear and tear of playing the position when it's you know a matter of basic physics and large strong fast guy hits you your body's in a better position to distribute the forces that hit it if there's more mass there the mass isn't there for Lamar Jackson and he he was taking too many hits as a running back would I have always harped on the notion that if you're a quarterback you need to have an instinct for when to slide when to go down when to get out of bounds avoid that hit because every one of those moments when you get hit is the one that can result in an injury and he did the unforgivable in my opinion and I say this as a card carrying member of the Lamar Jackson fan club and we have always wanted the best for him we've always wanted him to get paid when he was supposed to get paid and he got paid two years later than he should have gotten paid and he eventually got paid and that's great he needs to protect himself and the cardinal sin it's the Jimmy garolo RG3 we saw Garoppolo do it on that field six years ago drop the shoulder to deliver a blow and tore his ACL we saw it week one when RG3 was playing for the Browns against the Eagles dropped the shoulder get a shoulder injury and you're gone for weeks you don't need to do that he was not and I understand there are occasions where you fight for the extra yard he wasn't close enough to the first down when he dropped the shoulder and that that's just not sustainable it'll burn brightly for a while and then he's going to be injured it gets back to the point that I've been making to Steelers fans since the schedule came out oh they're we're upset that we don't play any of the teams from our division until week 11 be grateful for that be because between Lamar Jackson Joe burrow and Deshawn Watson at least one of them going to be injured by then and ifar Jackson Jackson keeps playing the way he played last night he's going to be one of them who was injured by the time the Ravens ever played the Steelers yeah it's just too many hits Mike he took way too many hits last night and and they're fortunate that they have some time now for him to recover but they're not going to have that time going forward into the season after every game he's not going to have that time so they do have some time now so they got to work on that with him um and not play every game as if it is the Super Bowl as if it is the AFC Championship game which I felt like he was doing last night and yes it was a big game but it was the first game of the year you got 16 more of these and then playoff games that you've got to get through so in game one and game two and game three and game 17 you've got to protect yourself to get to the postseason to where then you can make some of those okay it's season's on the line now you know there there's it's no saving yourself youve got to give it everything you have but that wasn't the case last night if he's going to play like that all year I agree with you he's not going to last a year they still got 16 games to go this is only the fourth year of 17 games so early in his career I got 16 games well right now you've played one and it was rough and tumble physical and you had all those carries and 122 yards and a lot of tackles a lot of hits and you still got 16 games to go here's Lamar Jackson and Isaiah likeley talking about the bottom line from last night they went to Kansas City with the goal of beating the Chiefs and they failed I I believe everyone in our our locker room hate losing Point Blank period coaches trainers uh equipment guys cafeteria women and men um and definitely the players you know cuz we out there put it on the line Blood Sweat and Tears and for us to lose to those guys and the way we lost even though I don't want to lose but I I can't be mad at my guys cuz they battled what what do you take away from a competitive game like that against this team I say this is probably the worst game we going to play all year so if this is the best that they got I mean good luck in the postseason I don't know that I'd be right in that check Isaiah this is the worst game we're going to play all year good luck in the not not that those words are going to Echo into January the only thing that matters coming out of last night is the fact that the Chiefs control the tiebreaker these two two teams will be dramatic ically different by the time we get to January and I think that gets back to the fair and constructive criticism that we have been directing to Lamar Jackson it's not a marathon anymore it's a triathlon a football season your team is going to be very different you just need to survive as long as you can especially as the quarterback your biggest superpower as a quarterback is to be available to your team every week and for Lamar you can't have playoff intensity all season long especially not with his playing style it just won't work and if it does give him his third MVP because he'll have off the charts numbers and the Ravens will win far more games than they lose if it comes down to it but we've seen it time and again it's not sustainable you can't you can't treat every game like it's the Super Bowl you can't treat every play like gets the defining moment of a key game you just can't not with a 17 game regular season on the way to 18 yeah no question about it Mike and you know that that Chief's defense is physical I thought they were better than what they were last year I think they have a superstar in Trent McDuffy who they're gonna have to pay an awful lot of money to after this season um he'll be in line for for a contract extension Chris Jones was Chris Jones uh and they took it to to Lamar they they hit Lamar and banged him up all night long I know the sack numbers weren't there I think they had one sack and that was a Chris Jones sack and that was on the fumble but that that defense is for Real Mike and and that may be one of the better defenses that there's a lot of good defenses I know in their division but that's going to be one of the better defenses they play I think that Chiefs defense is better than we've seen the last two years and I think that's going to make a difference for them this year one last thing that got obscured by the outcome last night and the excitement of the final moments there's there's a play where you know fought too hard he wasn't going to get there that's Z flowers play I was thinking that was the drop the shoulder anyway anyway that that's what I get for for not making sure I know what I'm looking at before I pop off hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk