On November 10, 2019, Lamar Jackson made a play that his coach said people would be watching for decades. In the third quarter at Cincinnati, the Baltimore Ravens quarterback ran left, spun all the way around to make a linebacker fall down and went 47 yards for a touchdown. By the end of the day he also had a perfect passer rating, and the Ravens had beaten the winless Bengals 49-13.
The spin
Baltimore led 28-10 when Jackson took a second-and-3 snap at the Cincinnati 47 with 8:18 left in the third quarter. He ran to the left, got past safety Jessie Bates III, then saw linebacker Nick Vigil closing in. Jackson spun a full 360 degrees. Vigil fell to the turf, and Jackson ran the rest of the way untouched with running back Mark Ingram escorting him.
“I think that was the craziest thing I’ve witnessed on the field with somebody,” Ingram said after the game. “He just spun and took off and let me just escort him. That’s Lamar. That’s special.”
Coach John Harbaugh put it this way: “They’ll be watching that run for decades and decades. That’s one everybody in the country’s going to see by tomorrow afternoon.” Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor called Jackson “the most dynamic quarterback I’ve ever seen.”
A perfect passer rating
The run was only part of it. Jackson’s first pass of the game went 49 yards to Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, and the Ravens scored touchdowns on their first three drives. He finished 15 of 17 for 223 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions. One of his two incompletions was a spike to stop the clock before halftime. That added up to a passer rating of 158.3, the highest possible.
| Part of the formula | Needed for a perfect rating | Jackson on Nov. 10, 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Completion percentage | 77.5% or better | 88.2% (15 of 17) |
| Yards per attempt | 12.5 or more | 13.1 (223 yards) |
| Touchdown percentage | 11.875% or better | 17.6% (3 touchdowns) |
| Interceptions | None | None |
It was his second perfect rating of the season. He had the first in the opener, a 59-10 win at Miami in which he threw five touchdown passes. At the time, Ben Roethlisberger in 2007 was the only other quarterback with two perfect-rating games in the same season. Jackson also ran seven times for 65 yards.
How the 49 points came
The Ravens scored seven touchdowns, and three of them came from their defense. Cornerback Marcus Peters read rookie Ryan Finley’s sideline throw, which was intended for Alex Erickson, and returned the interception 89 yards for a touchdown late in the first half. Finley was making his first NFL start after the Bengals benched Andy Dalton during their bye week. In the third quarter, Patrick Ricard sacked Finley and forced a fumble, and Tyus Bowser returned it 33 yards for a touchdown.
| Quarter | Ravens touchdown |
|---|---|
| 1st | Jackson 2-yard pass to Mark Andrews |
| 1st | Mark Ingram 1-yard run |
| 2nd | Jackson 17-yard pass to Mark Andrews |
| 2nd | Marcus Peters 89-yard interception return |
| 3rd | Jackson 47-yard run |
| 3rd | Jackson 20-yard pass to Hollywood Brown |
| 3rd | Tyus Bowser 33-yard fumble return |
The day had another moment that is still remembered. In the second quarter, Jackson ran an option with Robert Griffin III and pitched the ball to him for a 12-yard gain, with Ingram also in the backfield. That put three Heisman Trophy winners on the field together. Ingram called it “the Heisman package.”
What came next
The win moved Baltimore to 7-2 and was its fifth straight. The Ravens never lost again in the regular season. They won 12 games in a row to finish 14-2, and Jackson was the league’s unanimous MVP. He led the NFL with 36 touchdown passes and ran for 1,206 yards, then a single-season record for a quarterback. Baltimore’s season ended with a 28-12 home loss to Tennessee in the divisional round.
The Bengals fell to 0-9 and finished 2-14. That gave them the first pick in the 2020 draft, and they used it on Joe Burrow.
The two teams meet again on Sunday in Baltimore. The Ravens are 4-2 and the Bengals are 3-2, and Jackson is questionable with a high ankle sprain after missing the last two games.
Related WhyNFL reading: November 3, 2013: Nick Foles throws seven touchdown passes and Lamar Jackson on his high ankle sprain.
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