Jarret Johnson wins AFC defensive player of the week award

Posted by Mike Florio on October 4, 2011, 9:51 PM EDT
AP

The Ravens’ defense overpowered the Jets on Sunday night, and a guy who usually doesn’t get noticed much has earned some recognition from the league office.

Linebacker Jarret Johnson has been named the AFC defensive player of the week for his role in the 34-17 victory.

Johnson returned a fumble 26 yards for a touchdown that put the Ravens up 27-7 in the second quarter.  He also had two hits on Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez and three tackles.

Of course, the touchdown shouldn’t have counted, since the ball came loose after defensive tackle Haloti Ngata put his helmet into Sanchez’s back, and roughing the passer should have been called.  But it wasn’t, and so the touchdown stood.  And in turn Johnson stands out in a significant way for the first time in his nine NFL seasons.

As Ryan Mink of the Ravens’ official website points out, three of the team’s linebackers have won the AFC defensive player of the week this year.  Terrell Suggs received the honor after a Week One win over Pittsburgh, and Ray Lewis was the recipient after a Week Three win at St. Louis.

Permalink 39 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

39 responses to “Jarret Johnson wins AFC defensive player of the week award”

  5. The Ravens are playing some straight up nasty d so far this season…
    I wouldn’t be suprised if one of their players wins an AFC DP of the week award every week from here on out.

  6. That’s a dominant defense overall this season, and it’s nice to see one of the unsung guys get recognition.

    But can someone tell me why the Ravens are wearing black uniforms? The Cards were wearing black, Sunday, too. Really don’t like these uniforms. Between the throwback uniforms and now these, it’s like teams are wearing something different every week. I wish they’d stop.

  8. I’m really sick of hearing about this hit. James Harrisons hit on Brees last year was essentially a head butt with no wrap up, you can’t even compare the two. Nagta hit sanchez with his face mask into the most padded part of his body, while wrapping up, sounds clean to me.

  12. roughing the passer, seriously?? that’s your spin on this? How about just report things without the editorial comments….thanks!

  15. Very deserving. This guy sets the edge for so many running plays to get blown up; It’s ridiculous. He completely goes unnoticed 90% of the time until he blows somebody up (Hines Ward) up or makes a game changing play. He is the unsung hero of the Raven defense. I’m glad to see he finally got some hardware. You go JJ.

  16. “Of course, the touchdown shouldn’t have counted, since the ball came loose after defensive tackle Haloti Ngata put his helmet into Sanchez’s back, and roughing the passer should have been called. ”

    LOL! Idiot…

  17. Von Miller put up two sacks against Rodgers and nearly had two more that Rodgers avoided only by falling forward. He still notched 4 additional solo tackles.

    What a terrible choice when I can find a better performance off the top of my head.

  18. People don’t understand how good he is against the run, setting the edge, taking on 2 blockers each time and forcing the run back to the inside so that other players on that defense can make plays. If you don’t understand football you’ll say he only had 3 tackles and a fumble return TD. If you understand football you’ll say he’s the key to Baltimore’s entire run defense. Their CB (Webb) had more tackles and returned a pick for a TD. So obviously there was something the press saw that made Johnson stand out more, even though on paper he didn’t make many plays or tackles.

  19. Calm down, just because the redskins are too overrated to win any award doesn’t mean you need to hate on the ravens……..wouldnt wanna whooop that a$$ just like the jets, steelers, and rams

  20. If you’d have watched the game you’d know but you’d rather pop off about stuff you know nothing about. Typical foreskin fan

  21. Wonder who week # 6 defensive player of the week for the Ravens will be ? They already own defensive player of the week for the first 3 out of 4 weeks. This defense is something to wreckin with.
    Opposing QB’s should be scared. Just ask dirty if he was hitting the turf well before the D got there.

  22. Statistically there may be more deserving guys…I’ll consider this a lifetime achievement award for a true lunch-pail guy who is under-appreciated, works his butt off & does a great job. Always been one of my favorite Ravens…a little self-indulgent back story:

    when he came out of ‘Bama I had a chance to speak to Mel Kiper. I get Kiper’s draft guide every year, and his write up on JJ had me wanting the Ravens to draft him. He wrote about JJ’s relentless motor, and we needed a DE at the time. I asked Mel about the Ravens drafting him (and Oz’s ‘Bama connection never hurts), and Mel said he didn’t think he fit the Ravens defense. My recollection (which is spotty) was that he said he was too small for D-line & too big for LB. Well, we drafted him anyway. Took him a while to crack the regular rotation, and he doesn’t get a lot of media hype. But the guy is the definition of an unsung hero. We’ve been lucky to have him here…he will be missed when the inevitable comes to pass. Glad he got some much deserved recognition!!!

  23. droksid says:
    Oct 5, 2011 2:01 AM
    Von Miller put up two sacks against Rodgers and nearly had two more that Rodgers avoided only by falling forward. He still notched 4 additional solo tackles.

    What a terrible choice when I can find a better performance off the top of my head.

    __________________________________

    You will never get Defensive Player of the Week if your team gave up 49 points and that same QB that got sacked twice accounted for 6 touchdowns. Get a clue.

  24. Agree with everyone here that JJ is the unsung hero of our Defense, he does all the ugly, important things that don’t show up on the stat sheet…so Ray, Ed and Co and run around making the highlights.

    And @Deb Our black unis are awesome. There’s nothing cooler than being in an almost blacked out M & T stadium for a primetime game. And thats probably the only time you’ll see them this year, they’re for special occasions only

  25. you can’t just look at his stats from the game, you have to look at the tape. he set edges all night allowing other players on the D to make big plays. This dude is a dominant LB who gets no recognition. It’s about time he got some praise.

  26. Gotta love how PFT always has to put an asterisk on everything the Ravens do or take a cheap shot at the Ravens at every opportunity.

  28. @ppdoc13. First of all im not bashing ur ravens so chill. Second I would’ve given the award to haloti for causing havoc and forcing the fumble. Third I did watch the game fyi. Fourth u saying foreskin is sooooooo original perhaps u invented a new joke I’ve never heard. @tyler200289 if im not mistaken didn’t kerrigan win rookie of the month? And it takes jj what nine years to get a weekly honor?

  29. @tyler200289 o and just announced orakpo is NFC def player of the week. So the overrated skins got some awards. O yea and what team leads the nfl in sacks? Ah the overrated redskins. Im completely happy with the skins dnt make me out to be jealous bro.

  30. @msw – great point of view. Love the lifetime acheivement award thing. Guy worked his way in to his role. Was great on special teams early in career. Then into special packages Rex developed. Then just a fulltime OLB, edge setter, tough guy. A couple of years ago, had his best year and probably should have been a Pro Bowl selection. This dude eyes are scary! Gets that crazy wild look about him. Perfect Line backer mentality. Plays smart too. Rarely in wrong position, but still aggressive.

    @Deb – you are such a fan of the game and not just a Steelers homer. You never fail to impress me being fair to other good players. I am not a huge fan of the black uni’s because it seemed like we always used them on national games and got beat in them. I have heard there will be even a different black jersey (Black with black numbers and gold trim) later this year. We’ll see. Don’t forget Bisciotti is a Maryland guy…could we see some of the U of M uni styles coming????

  31. tyler200829 says:
    Oct 5, 2011 5:58 AM
    Calm down, just because the redskins are too overrated to win any award doesn’t mean you need to hate on the ravens……..wouldnt wanna whooop that a$$ just like the jets, steelers, and rams
    ___________________________________

    Ummm… Orakpo got NFC defensive player of the week.

  32. @bmorelikeme …

    Thanks so much for answering the question on the unis. Knew I’d take a thumbs-down hit on that, but really wanted to know. I like the purple uniforms. Will say, though, they’re better than the throwback uniforms. The chocolate and yellow things they have the Steelers wear are hideous.

    Good grief, was so focused on the uniforms that I completely forgot Jarret Johnson was one of our Alabama guys! ROLL TIDE!!!!!

  33. Doesn’t the QB have to throw the ball to get a roughing the passer call? Otherwise, isn’t it called a tackle? Or if they’re behind the line, a sack?

  34. For those saying he didn’t deserve this…you are right. Ladarious Webb was much more deserving of this award. Thrown at 5 times and allowed 1 completion for 9 yards, no YAC, and an INT returned for a TD(against the Jets best WR). That is dominance.

  35. @Deb…yeah, black-on-black is our alternate, I think (might be wrong) teams are allowed to wear the alternate twice a year if they want, can’t remember the exact rule. It’s like Miami and Denver in orange, Jets blue-and-yellow throwbacks, Raiders occasionally wear silver…etc. Wikipedia has a “Third Jersey” page that lists them all.

    They might not look to familiar to you because it was reported that for the last two or three years Harbaugh had banned the black-on-black, so Ravens went white pants/black jerseys on blackout days. Don’t know what changed. But I know they’re awesome unis!

  36. The Ngata hit wasn’t a penalty. The Jets punter getting hit twice with no flag however… I don’t think I’ve ever seen that call missed in a NFL game, let alone twice.

  37. @mistersmith22 …

    Thanks for the info on the Third Jersey page–will check out everyone’s alternates. The black unis remind me of Nike’s NCAA Combat unis, which I hate–except for the gloves. Fla. and LSU’s Combat unis haven’t premiered yet and aren’t as bad as Ga. and Oregon’s. But their gloves are awesome. I think the only part of the uni Bama wears is the gloves.

    Wonder why Harbaugh originally banned the black. They look intimidating, but great defenses always look intimidating. Amazing how the Lions suddenly look scary in blue 🙂

  38. Hey moron who wrote this!!!!! lET ME ASK YOU WHAT A CLEAN HIT IS? If you cant hit them in the head and you cant dive at there feet…..where do you? Ngata put his helmet directly in the number. Not sure why that would be a penalty……..Also you cant pile drive the QB into the ground…….if you watch it, he actually went to the side. So not sure why you make such a statement? Really do u wanna see the nfl put flags on the QB and take there man card away?

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.