Lamar Jackson threw for a career-high and Baltimore Ravens franchise record 442 yards on Monday night as they overcame a 19-point second half deficit against the Indianapolis Colts to win in overtime, 31-25.
Jackson had just six incompletions on the night despite the offense being unable to find the end zone until late in the third quarter. But once the end zone had been breached for the first time, the flood gates opened for the Ravens offense.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was amazed by the performance of his quarterback in leading the team to the win.
“It’s one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen,” Harbaugh told reporters after the game. “And it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t like we came out just up and down the field. We had to overcome and fight through some things. He was under pressure. He created plays with his feet, threw the ball away when he had to throw it away. ... He just came alive and all of our guys did, all the guys who made plays and the offensive line, but it starts with Lamar and he deserves the credit.”
The Ravens had only one 400-yard passing game in franchise history prior to Monday night. Vinny Testaverde threw for 429 yards in a 37-31 win over the St. Louis Rams in 1996, one of just four wins during the team’s first season in Baltimore.
But Jackson’s performance was more than just a franchise record. He completed 37 of 42 passes on the night, which nets an 86.0 completion percentage. Via Sheil Kapadia of TheAthletic.com, no quarterback to ever throw for 400 yards in a game has had a better completion percentage in accomplishing that task than Jackson did Monday night.
“Damn!” Jackson said when informed of that statistic.
Deshaun Watson previously held the mark, completing 84.9 percent of his passes while throwing for 426 yards in a game against the Atlanta Falcons in 2019. It’s only the 19th time, per Pro-Football-Reference, that a quarterback has throw for 400 yards with a completion percentage of 80 percent or better.
“I ain’t going to really say it’s a zone, I was just locked in. I was just calm, everything was just moving slow and I was just taking it a play at a time and that’s what it was,” Jackson said.
Jackson was happy about a different statistic, however.
“We got the win. That’s all I care about, for real,” he said.