There are all kinds of statistics you can point to when discussing just how remarkable Baltimore’s offense has been this year with Lamar Jackson on the field. The Rams probably don’t want to hear any of them after the Ravens beat the stuffing out of them in a 45-6 Monday Night Football debacle, but that’s a good place to start.
Against Wade Phillips’ defense, the Ravens scored touchdowns on each of their first six drives. They successfully converted all three of their fourth-down tries. They were six of seven in the red zone, and three-for-three in goal-to-go situations. Jackson threw those five touchdown passes on just 20 attempts. The Ravens racked up 480 total yards to the Rams’ 221, and ran 74 plays to the Rams’ 48. Baltimore’s rushing offense seemed determined to make a specific point against Aaron Donald, the consensus best defensive player in the NFL (unless you’re on the Stephon Gilmore train, which I am). Per NextGen Stats, the Ravens ran right at Donald 13 times, gaining 87 yards and scoring a touchdown.
People just don’t do that.
You know what else people just don’t do? Avoid punting to the degree the Ravens are this season. In their last three games — wins over the Bengals, Texans, and Rams in which they outscored their opponents 135-26, the Ravens haven’t ended a drive with Jackson on the field with a punt. Not once. In fact, the last time the Ravens punted with Jackson in the game was in Baltimore’s 37-20 Week 9 win over the Patriots — the only defeat Bill Belichick’s team has suffered all season. They hit a third-and-6 snag with 1:51 left in the first half, and Sam Koch punted the ball 48 yards out of bounds, from the Baltimore 34-yard line to the New England 18.
Since then, the Ravens have punted twice: With 1:14 left in the fourth quarter of their 49-13 demolition of the Bengals, when backup Robert Griffin III was in the game because things were well in hand; and with 3:22 remaining in their win over the Rams, when Griffin was the quarterback again for the same reason.
When Jackson’s been on the field? Well, it looks more like this:
Ravens' last 24 drives with Lamar Jackson at quarterback:
TD, TD, kneeldown, TD, TD, TD, kneeldown, TD, TD, missed FG, downs, TD, TD, kneeldown, TD, FG, FG, TD, TD, TD, TD, TD, TD, TD— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) November 27, 2019
In fact, as Smith points out, the Ravens are on pace to punt 32 times this season, which would be the fewest number of punts in a season for a team since at least 1970, not-including the nine-game, strike-shortened 1982 season. The 1990 Run-and-Shoot Houston Oilers hold the current mark with just 34 punts in a post-1970 season. (Note: The 2019 Chargers have punted just 32 times this season, but that’s primary because so many of their drives have ended in Philip Rivers interceptions of late). The Ravens are doing it the right way. They lead the NFL in third-down conversion rate (50.4%), and they lead the league in both fourth-down conversions (13) and fourth-down conversion rate (76.5%). When you can do that, why punt?
It’s just one more historic way in which the Ravens are putting the beatdown on enemy defenses in 2019.