OWINGS MILLS — Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are the best quarterbacks to emerge from the 2018 NFL draft and are playing at a high level again this season.
Allen has led the Buffalo Bills to three straight wins and they have the league’s top-scoring offense, averaging 37.3 points per game. Jackson is also thriving for the Baltimore Ravens, who are 20-3 in primetime home games under coach John Harbaugh.
Allen and Jackson are the only two of the five quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2018 draft with their original teams. The other quarterbacks selected were Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Josh Rosen.
Allen and Jackson will meet for the fourth time when the Bills battle the Ravens in a primetime showdown at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday night. Allen has admired Jackson throughout their careers in the NFL.
“I think he’s an inspiration to a lot of people in this country,” Allen said about Jackson. “He’s really changed the way that I think guys play the game. But make no mistake about it, he can throw the snot out of the football. Got a lot of respect for him, a lot of love for him. Love watching him play because every play is never dead with him. He’s got a crazy ability to keep plays alive and make guys miss and then get the ball downfield. So, he’s a special player.”
Allen was named the AFC Player of the Week for his performance in a 47-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night. Allen completed 23 of 30 passes for 263 yards and four touchdowns for a 142.1 passer rating. Allen, who also ran for 44 yards, has been named player of the week a league-high 13 times since entering the league in 2018.
The Ravens got their first win of the season in Week 3 at Dallas, escaping 28-25 after leading by 22 points in the fourth quarter. Jackson was efficient, throwing for 182 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 87 yards and a score.
He became the fifth quarterback in NFL history to reach 30 rushing touchdowns within the first seven years of a career, joining Allen (55), Cam Newton (54), Jalen Hurts (42) and Kordell Stewart (33).
Jackson has been impressed by Buffalo’s defense, which is tied for eighth in the NFL, allowing 286.7 yards per game.
“Those guys [are doing] what I’ve always seen, [they’re] flying around, [they have] a great secondary, a great front, great ’backers,” Jackson said. “They just play smashmouth football. That’s what I do see on film.”
Opposing teams have been able to run against the Bills, who are allowing 118.3 yards rushing per game. After two uneven performances, Ravens running back Derrick Henry had a breakout performance against Dallas, finishing with 151 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 25 carries. He also caught a 23-yard pass.
Henry has averaged 75.8 rushing yards per game with seven touchdowns in four career games against Buffalo. The Bills will be focused on containing Henry and forcing Jackson to make plays downfield.
“I don’t know that anybody’s ever stopped him,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “It’s an all-day affair when you have the weapons that they have on offense. They were in full effect against Dallas, and that’s a good team Dallas is. So, we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”
The Ravens’ secondary has given up big plays in the past three games and allowed 291.7 yards passing per game, ranked last in the NFL. They’ve been particularly vulnerable in the fourth quarter. Allen will look to exploit the Ravens’ weakness, and he has done a solid job of spreading the ball around, completing passes to 10 players.
Buffalo wide receiver Khalil Shakir has has 14 receptions for 168 yards with two touchdowns. Shakir has also caught 27 consecutive targets dating to last season.
Allen has played some of his best football under the lights. He has gone 6-1 on Sunday night, throwing for 1,696 yards and 13 touchdowns. Allen has been methodical in his approach this season, completing 54 of 72 passes for 634 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Ravens have been outscored, 32-7, in the fourth quarter in the past two games. Closing out games has been a point of emphasis heading into the showdown with Buffalo.
“It definitely is a mental thing in terms of just playing the defense the same way you play it for the first three quarters,” Harbaugh said. “The calls really aren’t any different, so we’re fully capable of doing that. You’re going to want to be in the right mental space to do that, and also, being intentional about it at practice – putting yourself in that kind of a situation in terms of the plays that we run and the things you have to stop and then making the plays. It’s a playmaking business.”
Harbaugh said the team needs to be more consistent in rushing the passer to support the secondary, which has been loose with its coverage. The Ravens are also the most penalized team in the NFL and that issue needs to be corrected, according to Harbaugh.
“It is really technique,” Harbaugh said about the penalties. “Honestly, it’s 95% technique. There is part of it that is awareness and those kinds of things and mindset. There are cadence issues; there are formation things that are more the mental things sometimes – you work on those, too. But the technique is really what it boils down to, and we do try to chase good technique.”
