Lamar Jackson beats Colts in OT with furious comeback, amazing final throw

The Colts thought they had Lamar Jackson and the Ravens beaten for a Monday Night Football win. Then, Jackson went off in historic fashion.

It seems that every season is the season in which the NFL will figure Lamar Jackson out. Or, at least that’s the narrative of the naysayers who believe that just because Jackson has always been an electric runner, and has had things to develop as a pure passer, that he’s incapable of improvement, and the league will just shut him down.

Those who believe that were shut up on Monday night, as Jackson’s Ravens beat the Colts, 31-25, in overtime. It was a remarkable comeback for the Ravens, who sunk to a 25-9 deficit when Colts kicker Rodrigo Blankenship booted a 43-yard field goal with 12:00 left in regulation.

That’s when Jackson went off. He threw two touchdown passes to tight end Mark Andrews from there, and the Andrews score with 39 seconds left, followed by the Jackson to Andrews two-point conversion, sent the game into overtime. Blankenship’s 47-yard miss with time expiring in regulation furthered that cause.

The Ravens took the ball first in overtime, and they never gave it back. Baltimore, led by Jackson, went on a 10-play, 68-yard drive in which Jackson either threw or ran the ball on every single play, and that winning drive ended with a five-yard pass to receiver Marquise Brown.

Hitting a late read in the end zone under that kind of pressure? Not bad for a guy the league has apparently figured out.

Because things were so lopsided in the Colts’ favor, it was up to Jackson to bring them back, and the Ravens went away from their usual run-heavy paradigm. Jackson completed just eight of 11 passes for 107 yards in the first half, but finished the night with 37 completions in 43 attempts for 442 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. It was Jackson’s first 400-yard passing game, and he didn’t waste a single throw.

Per ESPN, Jackson’s 86.0% completion rate was the highest in NFL history for any quarterback throwing for more than 400 yards in a game, beating out Deshaun Watson in 2019, and Philip Rivers in both 2013 and 2015. And he joined Drew Brees in 2015 and Donovan McNabb in 2007 as the only quarterbacks in at least the last 40 years to throw for 300 yards, four touchdowns, and a completion rate of at least 90% in a single half of football.

The win put the Ravens at 4-1 on the season, and though they lost their opportunity to set the NFL record for consecutive games with 100 or more rushing yards… as Jackson told ESPN’s Lisa Salters after the game, the important thing was to get the victory.

And perhaps, to put Lamar Jackson’s doubters in the penalty box yet again.