FIRST TAKE | I’m DONE with Ravens! – Stephen A. Smith slams Lamar & BAL after 32-14 loss to Bengals

FIRST TAKE | I’m DONE with Ravens! – Stephen A. Smith slams Lamar & BAL after 32-14 loss to Bengals

Lamar Jackson was playing with his third lower body injury in as many weeks and looked off in the Ravens 3214 loss to AFC North Cincinnati. Baltimore turned the ball over five times, including two fumbles from Jackson and an interception. Those three turnovers for Lamar are his most in a game since 2001. Lamar has now gone three straight starts without a touchdown pass, which marks the longest drought of his eight-year NFL career. So, this could be a trend. It could be an uh a one-off. But Cam, how do you see this bad sign or bad game for Lamar Jackson? Uh this is an obvious bad sign. And it’s not because it was this game specifically. It’s just what we have been seeing, you know, as a constant in the last couple of weeks. Uh there were completely you know things that you are not used to seeing you know the the the willy-nilliness with the ball protection. Then you also add in there he looked uncomfortable. He did not find no no type of rhythm and glaring overthrows and inaccuracies that’s just like yo who who who is this guy? You know what I’m saying? There’s obvious frustrations on his face and and and team members. But going back to it, do I think that he can turn the tide here? Absolutely. But there also has to be an understanding around guys around him. When you see an Isaiah likely, you know, uh, situation going into the end zone with ball protection, when you see, you know, a guy like Zay Flowers a fumble amongst other individuals, these Baltimore Ravens offensive members have to step up, including Lamar Jackson. And that’s why this is a bad sign for this team. It’s a very bad sign. I think it’s over. Um I’ve lost all faith just that quickly with Baltimore. I can’t believe how Lamar Jackson is looking. He is not healthy. It’s just that simple. He’s not healthy. There are times you you’ve seen uh the ability to be able to scramble out of the pocket. You didn’t see that last night. Uh Cincinnati had a season high in terms of pressure like 40% of pressures against Lamar Jackson. They haven’t been able to apply that kind of pressure uh to a team of opposing offense all season long. Lamar Jackson is not protecting the football. Uh wide receivers aren’t getting open as frequently as you would like them to be in Z Flowers and Baitman obviously in De Hop. You saw that last night only four of 11 targets they connected on. And so I look at it from that standpoint. We know likely what happened with the end zone and what have you. But the biggest thing is also is on top of all of that you’ve got the five turnovers. you can’t you’re not protecting the football and then you have something else to take into consideration. I’m not completely blaming the defense because that’s hard to overcome five turnovers RC but Cincinnati won time a possession by 17 and a half minutes. 17 and a half minutes, you know, like like they stayed on the field damn nearly as long as they wanted to. And so these are the kind of things that I think you have to look at if you’re looking at the Baltimore Ravens. And and I really think that it’s because Lamar Jackson is not healthy. He’s trying to play through something. He is not himself. He doesn’t look it. There’s no feel to it. And this, it seems like the team knows it. And nobody seems capable of stepping up and taking the bull by the horn because their superstar player ain’t himself. Nobody seems capable of doing that for Baltimore right now. So, it doesn’t look good for them. This isn’t a bad sign. This is a stop sign because this is who the Baltimore Ravens are. This is just a mirror that has been held up to who this team has been since week one. Week one, by the way, was the last great outing we’ve seen from this offense. But on Monday Night Football, Stephen, they when you and I were there and we watched them lose to the Detroit Lions, that wasn’t a good football team. The team that went to Kansas City the week that Lamar Jackson pulled his hamstring, that wasn’t a good football team. The team that was neckand-neck with the New York Jets last week, down 7-3 at halftime, that team ain’t good. or the team that needed a trick play from Mark Andrews on a tush push formation to score against the Cleveland Browns and win that game by one score against Sadur Sanders who only who didn’t take snaps with the first team. That team ain’t good either. This is who the Baltimore Ravens are and we talked about this yesterday. This is who they have been trending to be and they just ran into the right ones with Joe Burrow and the Cleveland Browns. At the beginning of the season, we said this was one of the best rosters in football, if not the best. I mean, they were peacocking around because of what it said when you looked at the list of the names on the paper. Well, that peacock then got his uh feathers plucked because it’s no longer the team we thought they were. They are the team we are watching week in and week out. And that team cannot win a playoff game. Cam, I see you laughing over there. God damn. I mean, the peacock that got his feathers plucked. That’s a good word. But hey, man, you’re right. And I and it’s sad because this is the modernday version of the dream team when when Philly had that, you know, remarkable roster and then you start to see this player that player. I mean, they had Vince Young and Mike Vic, you know, they had so a nominee awesome award and you go out and get M. It was a wowing. I mean, every team or every every player was picking them for Madden. That’s the similar kind of situation that we have, you know, in Baltimore. And it’s unfortunate because these guys are really still good. But what about this Baltimore? Hey, if your quarterback struggling, why not hand it off to one of the league’s premier rushers in Derrick Henry? It’s almost like we’re trying to find identity. We’re trying to find a rhythm. We’re trying to find certain things that we need to do. But giving Derrick Henry an opportunity no less than 20 to 25 times a game is blasphemy. It’s satanic. These are things that you start to say like, yo, like these are bad signs that bad. Like real talk, you have that good of a person in the back field. Your quarterback’s struggling. Why not give him an opportunity? He’s obviously showed you that he’s well, willing, and capable, and we’re still not doing it. But yet, we still have a bad play from the Baltimore Ravens offense. And you know, whatever they have coming for them in the in the near future, I hope they can fix it sooner rather than later. Cam, you fit willy-nilliness and satanic into one segment here. So, kudos to you. But Stephen, a floor is yours. I don’t know. I don’t I don’t know about I don’t know. I don’t know about the satanic part, but we we we’ll give a pass on that. But I but I will say I will say this. I will say this. Uh Derek Henry running the football just 10 times. That’s ridiculous. Uh he averaged six yards a carry. Given that they scored an early touchdown, give him the ball a little bit more. You know, we we’ve had this discussion before when it came to Todd Mon and those guys. Uh they you got to give Derrick Henry the ball more. No doubt about that. On the flip side, you’re the Baltimore Ravens and you gave up 32 points and lost time of possession by 17 and a half points to a team that didn’t even have T. Higgins on the field. You’re talking about Jamar Chase being out there doing his thing with with with Joe Burrow. And Joe Burrow, this is his first game back after a ninegame absence. Okay, so he was supposed to be rusty. He was supposed to be somebody that wasn’t really really ready to go and clearly he showed otherwise. So all of those things are bad signs for the Baltimore Ravens because just listen, you got you got the Patriots, the Packers, and the Steelers to end the season. That’s bad in and of itself, but you know what? You going to see you know you you you going to see these boys again too, Cincinnati. So it’s not a good look at all. It really isn’t. Evan McFersonson too a big part of why they won last night. Not just Joe I mean Joe Burrow coming back that it reminds me a lot of last year because we had this conversation in December when they looked like they were out of it and they try to run the table down the stretch. They’re four and eight. Stephen A. What do you how do you view them as far as whether they can actually get to the playoffs here over

FIRST TAKE | I’m DONE with Ravens! – Stephen A. Smith slams Lamar & BAL after 32-14 loss to Bengals