Lamar Jackson got absolutely BLASTED while going out of bounds during the second quarter on Sunday. The Cleveland Browns sideline was fired up. The Baltimore Ravens were not thrilled.
Jackson, in his sixth year in the NFL, is one of the better dual-threat quarterbacks in the league. His feet are just as dangerous as his arm, if not more so.
However, with great power comes great responsibility. Rather, in this specific instance, with great feet comes big hit. Lamar Jackson gets popped — a lot.
This week it was Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah laying the lumber. Cleveland’s 6-foot-2, 221-pound linebacker pushed off of a block and hammered Jackson as he scampered out of bounds at the first down marker.
Browns players and coaches immediately converged on Owusu-Koramoah to celebrate. Meanwhile, Jackson’s teammates ran in to check on their quarterback, who was thrown about five yards out of bounds. As they did, some jarring and chirping quickly turned more physical.
It eventually escalated to a full-blown kerfuffle. Both teams were pushing and shoving. A few of the players locked up.
Tempers flared. Everybody involved had to be separated.
The Ravens thought that Owusu-Koramoah was late to Jackson and should have been flagged for a late hit out of bounds. A secondary replay angle shows that his foot hit the sideline right as the two players made contact. Timing of the bang-bang play was about as close as it gets.
Cleveland fans were pumped about what they found to be a clean lick and called for everybody to move on. Baltimore fans wanted Owusu-Koramoah to be flagged, if not ejected.
Had a penalty been enforced, it would have given the Ravens a better chance at scoring before the break. More importantly, perhaps, it would have shown that the NFL is willing to call hits on Jackson in the same way that they might call hits on Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes.