Lamar Jackson’s eyes are firmly set on reaching Super Bowl LVIII with the Baltimore Ravens heading into their bye week on the back of a ‘statement’ 20-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Ravens earned their sixth win in the space of seven games at SoFI Stadium on Sunday, with MVP candidate Jackson throwing for 177 yards including a touchdown, while also rushing for 39 yards.
That made Jackson just the fourth quarterback in NFL history with 5,000 career rushing yards, after Michael Vick, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson.
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However, it was rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers who was the star of the show for the Baltimore offense, enjoying a two-touchdown game with his second score coming from a 37-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
With the Ravens up to 9-3 and combining one of the fiercest defensive records in the NFL with an electrifying running game, many are tipping them to top the AFC and potentially go all the way this season.
While Jackson believes in the team’s championship prospects, he is taking things one game at a time, telling reporters: “Getting into the Super Bowl is a goal, but we’re going to just take it a week at a time.
“That’s all we can do. We can’t worry about being the number one seed or anything like that. It’s the NFL. Anything can happen on any given Sunday or whenever you play.
“We’ve just got to keep focused and keep trying to win these games, because it’s a tough league. Now we can take a breath, step away and regroup because there’s still a lot of the season left.”
Kicking it into the DUB column ❗ pic.twitter.com/LnCDPHKvtI
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 27, 2023
The Ravens are allowing opponents a league-low 15.5 points per game in 2023, their fewest through 12 games of a season since 2006, leading head coach John Harbaugh to heap praise on his defense.
“It’s a big win for us. We’re really, really happy with this win. It’s a tough place to play. I’m just proud of the players,” Harbaugh said.
“The defense getting the stops, then the offense finishing it at the end there… I’m just proud, so many guys deserve credit, defensively in particular.
“I thought the fourth quarter was a statement. We put an exclamation point on the fourth quarter.”
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. also highlighted a couple of crucial fourth-down stops from the Ravens defense late on, saying: “The biggest thing is championship teams are built on great defense and defensive teams making those stops and covering for the offense.”
Baltimore are back in action against the Los Angeles Rams on December 10th, before they face a tough set of games against the Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins over the festive period.
Taking our guys over anybody pic.twitter.com/FOHygATB7p
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 27, 2023