Los Angeles Chargers: Three keys to get past the Baltimore Ravens
By Jason Reed
2. Disguise pressure on Lamar Jackson from different angles
Lamar Jackson did not throw the ball particularly great against the Los Angeles Chargers. Jackson was 12-22 throwing for 202 yards and a touchdown with 68 yards coming off of a long touchdown pass to Mark Andrews in which Jahleel Addae broke coverage.
That was a good throw, we cannot deny that, but Jackson didn’t beat the Chargers much with his arm. Jackson instead beat the Chargers with his legs, often extending plays to either pick up short first downs or give the receivers enough time to make an easy completion.
Jackson had 13 carries for 39 yards and constantly evaded the pressure from Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa off the edge. While the Chargers did a good job at bringing pressure to Jackson, the team did a bad job of closing out that pressure for sacks.
The defense has to get smarter in this second matchup and needs to bring pressure from different angles and even sag off the pressure more frequently than the team did in the first matchup.
A huge component to this will be Derwin James, who can play back in the secondary but can also play press on the line. James can bring pressure on the outside and inside and needs to be the defense’s swiss army knife.
Los Angeles needs to bluff pressure as well and drop one of the linebackers as a quarterback spy that will roll out with Jackson outside the pocket.
Lamar Jackson is certainly dangerous, there is no denying that. However, he is also still a rookie quarterback and is going to make the wrong reads more frequently than an experienced quarterback.