On Thursday night, Lamar Jackson put on a show as the Baltimore Ravens erased a 14-point second half deficit to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 35-34 and improve to 7-3. The reigning MVP finished with 290 passing yards, four passing touchdowns and 33 rushing yards on seven carries in what was one of the best performances of his career.
The Ravens superstar strengthened his bid to win the MVP award for the third time in his career, which Colin Cowherd believes is enough to earn a spot on the list of the ten best quarterbacks in NFL history. The analyst downplayed suggestions that Jackson needs to win the Super Bowl to qualify for that list and used Dan Marino as an example of why that isn't the case. On Friday's episode of The Herd, he argued:
"Everybody puts Dan Marino in [the top 10 list but he] never won a Super Bowl.. So why does Lamar Jackson have to win a Super Bowl? That's one of the best players in the history of the league... If Dan Marino is a top 10 quarterback all-time and every list, he makes it, where's his trophies?"
Cowherd added that the Ravens quarterback's highlight reel is unrivaled and his individual accolades speak volumes about his legacy. He said:
"This is the greatest playmaker in the history of football at that position. He makes Michael Vick look, talented, I guess, almost pedestrian. The kid's incredible. Lamar Jackson has become the show Myth Busters. The only difference is none of the myths are ever true."
Lamar Jackson's clutch gene: QB's impeccable stats when trailing
During the same segment, Cowherd also disproved the notion that Lamar Jackson can only dominate when the Ravens are in control of proceedings and cannot engineer comebacks. He said:
"Lamar Jackson, when the big knock on him was, 'He can't play from behind,' This year trailing: 11 touchdowns, no picks and a passer rating over 120.... He's come back and won games trailing by 10. That was a huge knock. All he does is prove people wrong."
Baltimore trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter in Week 5 against the Bengals, were down 10-0 after the first quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 7, and fell behind 21-7 at the start of the second half on Thursday night against Cincinnati. They won all three games.
Jackson's numbers this as a passer and a rusher are otherworldly. He has thrown 24 touchdown passes and only two interceptions and is the only quarterback in the league with over 500 rushing yards.
The Ravens superstar is posting numbers that didn't seem possible for a quarterback, much like Dan Marino did during his playing days, which validates Cowherd's argument that a Super Bowl win isn't necessary to be deemed one of the greatest signal-callers to ever even further.
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