Kansas City, Mo.-Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, said that he did not know the gravity of the hamstring injury in the quarter-Arrière Lamar Jackson, which strengthens the concern surrounding the worst start of his club in a decade.
Jackson started halfway through the third quarter of the defeat of 37-20 on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs after being dismissed by the defensive winger George Karlaftis and did not return. The most useful double player of the NFL was sitting on the bench for the rest of the match, sometimes bending his injured right leg.
“There is nothing that looks like an end of the season by anyone for anyone,” said Harbaugh after looking at five of his starters go out with injuries.
When he was asked if Jackson could have returned to the match if the scoring was closer, Harbaugh replied: “I really don’t have the answer to this for the moment.”
Jackson was not made available to journalists after the match.
His injury occurred while Baltimore fell to 1-3, which occurred twice before in the history of the franchise (2005 and 2015). The Ravens failed to make the qualifying series at each of these seasons.
Before being injured, Jackson recorded his worst campaign performance, fighting against Kansas City blitz. After not having returned the ball during the first three outings, Jackson launched an interception and then escaped when he fell to the Tyler Linderbaum center. Jackson was under constraint on 56% of his drops, which was the highest pressure rate he ever faced in a match with at least 10 drops, according to ESPN Research.
Jackson has proven to be sustainable in recent seasons. He has not missed a match since he was sidelined for the last five games of the regular season in 2022 with a knee injury. If Jackson cannot play on Sunday against Houston Texans visiting, Cooper Rush will make his first departure for Baltimore.
“Pray for Lamar,” said Kyle Hamilton, Ravens safety. “I don’t know how serious it is, but we’ll see.”
In addition to Jackson, the Ravens watched four other starters go with injuries and no return: the secondary of the Roquan Smith (hamstrings), the cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey (calf) and Nate Wiggins (elbow) and the offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley (Ankle).
The defense of the Ravens, which allows a first point of the NFL of 33.3 points per game, was already disagreement, after entering the match on Sunday without four runners. Baltimore placed the defensive platform Nnamdi Madubuike (neck) and the defensive winger Broderick Washington (ankle) on the injured reserve on Saturday and made the outside secondary Kyle Van Noy (ischio-legs) and the Travis Jones (knee) nose (knee).
“Obviously, it fears,” said Ravens at the back of Judge Hill about increasing injuries. “I hope they will come back quickly.”
Harbaugh said he was “worried but not exceeded” by the start 1-3.
“The three defeats are probably against three of the best teams in the League, for sure,” said Harbaugh, whose ravens also fell on the Buffalo Bills and the Detroit Lions. “It’s just the hand we were treated, but it doesn’t really matter. We have to win the next game. Then, once you won the next game, you have a chance to stack some victories. This is what we have to do importantly.”
