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top-ranked defense, Jackson posted a
107.7 passer rating and accounted for
three touchdowns and no turnovers —
with a juke, a waltz and plenty of swag
along the way. Not that he wants to
dwell on his own accolades, of course.
Nor the fact that he bamboozled Bill Bel-
ichick’s defense early in the first half
and managed to adapt to its schematic
trickery in the second. Nor the “M-V-P”
chants that echoed across M&T Bank
Stadium in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve got a lot of season left to play,”
Jackson said. “I don’t really care about
that. I appreciate it, but like I said be-
fore, I want something better than that.”
The MVP race is bound to be crowded
through the remainder of the season,
with Russell Wilson, Christian McCaf-
frey and Aaron Rodgers among those
also in the mix.
But Jackson’s unique case is clear: No
player in NFL history has eclipsed 3,
passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards
in the same season. The Louisville prod-
uct is on track to smash both marks.
“That’s our MVP, and that’s the
league MVP,” tight end Mark Andrews
said. “No doubt about it.”
“Absolutely, man,” added right tackle
Orlando Brown Jr. “(It’s just) everything
that he does.”
Jackson bolstered his MVP case Sun-
day by thriving in primetime, against
arguably his toughest opponent yet.
The Patriots are well-known for
throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at
opposing quarterbacks, especially
those who are relatively new to the
league. Entering Sunday’s game, they
had won 21 consecutive games againstfirst- or second-year QBs — the longest
such streak in NFL history — and
smothered those from the 2018 draft
class, holding that group to one touch-
down and 10 interceptions in five games
prior to Sunday.
Then, they faced Jackson.
In his first matchup against a Belich-
ick defense, Jackson fused poise with
creativity. On a third-and-5 in the third
quarter, for example, the Patriots lined
up in a “Cover Zero” look — the same de-
fensive alignment that recently had
New York Jets quarterback Sam Dar-
nold “seeing ghosts.” Jackson identified
the coverage, danced past the rush and
floated a pass to the outstretched arms
of Andrews for an 18-yard gain.
Baltimore went on to cap that 14-play,
81-yard drive with a touchdown to push
its lead to double digits.
“He’s got an amazing ability to take a
lot of factors, a lot of things — play clock,
play call, personnel, formation, defense
that presents, whatever changes that
have to be made — and just process all of
that in that kind of a moment,” Ravens
coach John Harbaugh said.
“(That’s) what makes the position of
quarterback so difficult. That’s why
Tom Brady is so good at it, too. Lamar
does it his way, but Lamar does it as well
as anybody. He did a great job tonight,
and the whole world saw it.”
Jackson completed 17 of 23 passes for
163 yards and one touchdown while alsorushing for 61 yards and two touch-
downs, but traditional quarterback
stats belie the massive impact he had on
the game.
Jackson led the Ravens on four scor-
ing drives of 11 or more plays, which
drained a combined 29 minutes, 51 sec-
onds off the clock. He helped Baltimore
convert 50% of its third downs, plus a
key fourth down in the second half near
midfield. He influenced the Patriots’ de-
fense in subtle ways even when he
didn’t have the ball, contributing to
open running lanes simply because he
was on the field.
“If you’re trying to take our QB away,
there are some eyes on him that aren’t
on me,” said running back Mark Ingram,
who racked up 115 yards on 15 carries.
“He continues to pull people out on his
fakes, and I think that goes hand in
hand.”
So does all that mean Jackson is wor-
thy of the MVP hype? Ask his team-
mates and they’ll tell you the race is al-
ready over. Their answers will all in-
clude some variation of the phrase “he’s
special,” though Andrews prefers to
phrase it more simply.
“He makes grown men that are really
good at football, the best at what they
do, look at times not as good as they
are,” Andrews told USA TODAY Sports.
“What you (saw) tonight is what you
get.”
Contributing: The Associated PressJackson
Continued from Page 1C
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8)
passed for 163 yards and one
touchdown and rushed for two TDs
against the Patriots. TOMMY GILLIGAN/USA
TODAY SPORTStransition. A week before seeing the
Ravens, they handled the Browns ...
who lost in Denver on Sunday.
They can’t be knocked for beating
teams on their schedule. And the Patri-
ots’ defense surely put the clamps on
Sean McVay’s high-flying offense to win
the last Super Bowl. It just all begged for
context, which came in the form of
flunking the test against the Ravens.
“It was a ‘do-your-job’ game,” Patri-
ots safety Devin McCourty said. “If each
guy doesn’t do their job and do it well,
then we’re going to struggle.”
Jackson averaged just 3.8 yards on 16
rushes and passed for just 163 yards. But
those fair-to-middling numbers are so
deceiving. The problem – the word Bel-
ichick used last week in describing the
threat Jackson poses – was that the Pa-
triots couldn’t stop him when they
needed to the most. He pretty much
danced into the end zone from 3 yards
out for his first touchdown on a keeper
around the left end. Not a soul was with-
in 5 yards.
But he was really at his best on a pair
of 14-play touchdown drives – which
chewed up nearly 18 minutes of clock
time – that broke the back of the Patri-
ots’ defense. On a pivotal 3rd-and-5, he
threw a dime to tight end Mark Andrews
for an 18-yard gain, high-pointing the
back-shoulder pass. That led to the 4th-
and-4 conversion when he bought time
rolling right, then dumped a 7-yard
completion to Willie Snead. Then came
an ankle-breaking juke on an 11-yard
scramble to set up a touchdown.
On the next drive, Jackson & Co. con-
verted four third downs. Not enough an-
swers.
But it wasn’t just Jackson. Mark In-
gram had a 115-yard night bolstered by a
53-yard jaunt.
“There were times we were good on
Lamar, but then Ingram split us,”
McCourty said.
And there were times, too, when they
didn’t set the edge on Jackson.
Just when you may have thought that
the Ravens had lost their composure af-
ter two turnovers helped the Patriots
rally from a 17-point deficit with 13 un-
answered points, it was New England
that seemingly lost its cool.
That might explain why linebacker
Dont’a Hightower was caught by the
cameras fuming at teammates on the
sideline. Afterward, Hightower was no-
where to be found, his locker emptied
with barely a trace.
“I think he was just telling the guys to
keep playing,” McCourty said. “A part of
this game is character. Keep playing
each down, even when the game is out
of hand and it’s not going your way.”
It was striking, too, that the Patriots
defense committed four penalties –
three before the snap – that gave the
Ravens first downs. That’s not typical of
the discipline that this defense is built
with.
Add it to the pile of corrections to ad-
dress as New England heads into a byeweek. It would be a stretch to consider
the Ravens’ victory as a “blueprint” for
handling the Patriots’ defense. No other
team has a threat quite like Jackson. But
there are more prolific offenses coming.
Over the course of three weeks, begin-
ning in Week 12, New England will face
Dallas, Houston and Kansas City – three
teams with difference-making stars
who will test the mettle of Belichick’s
defense.
One game does not constitute a
trend. Belichick’s pattern in winning sixSuper Bowls has been to make the cor-
rections, build throughout the season
and make a run for glory. That can hap-
pen again with this unit. But not be-
cause they are destined to rank among
the best defenses ever.
As McCourty put it, “It’s a week-to-
week thing. This week it didn’t work
out.”
There’s still time for the Patriots to
make history. Just not the history we’ve
heard so much about lately.Bell
Continued from Page 1C
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches his vaunted defense get shredded by
the Ravens in a 37-20 loss Sunday night. TOMMY GILLIGAN/USA TODAY SPORTSparing a veteran team hungry to make
amends after a historic No. 16 over No. 1
upset loss, he’s preparing a restocked
team burdened with the pressure of a
national title encore season.
Being defending champs isn’t so bad,
but Bennett believes the mind-set of his
new-look group will make all the differ-
ence of making 2019-20 the proper fol-
low-up campaign. “Team culture comes
as a result of adversity, but it also comes
from prosperity,” Bennett says.
Two stars from last season’s memo-
rable run, versatile forward Mamadi
Diakite and spark plug point guard Kihei
Clark, return. At worst, expect Virginia
to be very good. That has become the
norm with Bennett.
Will Jones make Duke contender?
Coach Mike Krzyzewski called Tre
Jones the “straw that stirs the drink”
last season when eventual lottery picks
Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett were
dominating college basketball head-
lines. Joneswill get the opportunity to
lead another young cast of elite fresh-
men (Vernon Carey, Matthew Hurt spe-
cifically), but this time he’ll be the most
important piece as a preseason All-
American. It also means Coach K has
the lightning he might need to get his
team to a Final Four, something last
year’s heralded team failed to do.
Have 2 blue bloods reloaded?
Kentucky and North Carolina lost
their best players to the NBA draft. And
they’re both expected to be top-10 teams
in spite of doing so. That’s because
coaches John Calipari and Roy Williams
hauled in top-tier talent in this year’s
recruiting classes. Kentucky will make
up for the loss of four NBA players with a
top-rated class led by do-everything
guard Tyrese Maxey and grad transfer
Nate Sestina (Bucknell). Meanwhile,
North Carolina will feature perhaps the
best freshman (and player) in the coun-
try in point guard Cole Anthony, while
graduate transfers Justin Pierce (Wil-
liam & Mary) and Christian Keeling
(Charleston Southern) fill out a bal-
anced roster.Best freshmen-infused team?What do Memphis, Washington and
Georgia have in common? Aside from
the fact that none are elite programs and
all have small success rates in the last
decade, they all feature NBA-ready one-
and-done freshmen who could catapult
their respective teams on deep NCAA
tournament runs. James Wiseman
(Memphis), Isaiah Stewart (Washing-
ton) and Anthony Edwards (Georgia) all
figure to enhance their teams.Penny
Hardaway’s Tigers will have a Fab Five
flavor, with the nation’s No. 1 recruiting
class (including Wiseman, forwards
Precious Achiuwa and D.J. Jeffries and
guard Boogie Ellis) expected to be his
starters.Redemption for Kansas?After 14 consecutive Big 12 regular-
season titles, the Jayhawks succumbed
to a third-place finish in the conference
on which it historically held a strangle-
hold. The finish was affected by ill-
timed injuries and failed team cohesion.Expect coach Bill Self to reposition this
year’s team back atop the Big 12 pack.
He has big man Udoka Azubuike, whose
season-ending wrist injury was a cata-
lyst to KU’s eventual demise. The 7-foot-
er pairs well with guard Devon Dotson
for a solid inside-outside game.Is Texas Tech is here to stay?The national runner-up finish was no
flash in the pan. Despite coach Chris
Beard losing the nucleus of his team to
the NBA or graduation, he’ll have the
Red Raiders in the national equation.
He’s reloaded for 2019-20. Grad
transfers Chris Clarke (Virginia Tech),
TJ Holyfield (Stephen F. Austin), a
top-20 freshman class and key role
players (namely sharpshooter Davide
Moretti) should help the team keep up
its defensive tenacity and grind-it-out
offense.Is this the year Villanova falls off?Villanova has won five of six regular-
season conference titles since the Big
East recast itself in 2013. The season it
didn’t win the league (2017-18), both the
Wildcats and Xavier notched NCAA
tournament No. 1 seeds. Can Jay
Wright’s team be fully knocked off its
perch?
There are a handful of NCAA tourna-
ment-caliber league teams (Seton Hall,
Xavier, Georgetown, Marquette,
Creighton) all capable of winning the
league.A Florida return to the Final Four?Coach Mike White hasn’t exactly
filled predecessor Billy Donovan’s shoes
in four seasons in Gainesville. But thatwas never the plan, and five NCAA tour-
nament wins over the past three sea-
sons aren’t bad. This season’s outlook
figures to position White to get the Ga-
tors into Final Four contention.
That optimism comes as a result of
an ample mix of returnees – Andrew
Nembhard, Noah Locke, Keyontae
Johnson – and newcomers – five-star
freshmen Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann
plus Virginia Tech grad transfer Kerry
Blackshear Jr.Can the Pac-12 bounce back?Last season was one of the worst reg-
ular seasons a power conference has
ever had, with Oregon’s unexpected
Sweet 16 run helping to erase some of
the damage. The Ducks (a No. 12 seed),
Washington (a No. 9 seed) and Arizona
State (a No. 11) were the only teams
dancing and the league bottomed out in
several statistical categories, finishing
last among power leagues in the NET
and going nearly .500 in non-confer-
ence.
But expect better days in 2019-20.
Arizona figures to be back to its elite
status. While coach Sean Miller’s future
is uncertain because of allegations sur-
rounding his involvement in an ongoing
FBI probe, his team figures to be spec-
tacular thanks to the arrival of standout
freshmen Nico Mannion and Josh
Green, who could make up a tantalizing
backcourt.
Oregon has point guard Payton
Pritchard, New Mexico transfer Antho-
ny Mathis and No. 1 junior college trans-
fer Chris Duarte and figures to be a con-
tender.
Arizona State, Colorado and Wash-
ington all have enough returning talent
to be NCAA tournament teams, too.College
Continued from Page 1C