Two weeks ago, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll talked up Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson before Seattle hosted Baltimore. And that didn’t keep Baltimore from winning the game.
With six days to go until the Patriots get their first shot at trying to slow down the best quarterback from the 2018 draft class, New England coach Bill Belichick already is talking up Jackson.
"[H]e’s very fast and he’s definitely a hard guy to handle,” Belichick told reporters on Monday. “That’s definitely a problem. He’s fast and that’s really a big problem. A lot of times he just outruns people. I mean, he’s got good moves, too. . . . [A] lot of times he just outruns people with his speed.
“Catching him is an issue, especially when he keeps the ball. A lot of times he’s running against a defensive end and the ends just aren’t fast enough. They have him but they don’t have him. He’s a problem. He’s definitely a problem.”
He’s more than a problem -- he’s an MVP candidate who is becoming the dual-threat quarterback that he was at Louisville, with his skills translating well to the NFL game. Buoyed by that win in Seattle, the Ravens will emerge from the bye hoping to tighten up the race for the top seed in the AFC.
Although Belichick-coached defenses typically fare very well against first- and second-year quarterbacks. Belichick-coached defenses also have struggled at times with mobile quarterbacks. Combine that with the reality that John Harbaugh-coached Ravens teams have competed well against the Patriots, and next Sunday night’s game on NBC could be a very good one.