Tom Brady on Ravens' toughness, how Lamar Jackson can get even better
Tom Brady knows a thing or two about epic comebacks. But the FOX Sports lead NFL analyst also knows a thing or two about how difficult it is to beat the Baltimore Ravens.
The resilience of John Harbaugh's Ravens that Brady knows so well showed up again in Dallas on Sunday. Baltimore entered the game 0-2 after one-possession losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders, and then nearly lost a 22-point fourth-quarter lead to the Cowboys amid a furious comeback led by Dak Prescott.
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But Lamar Jackson used a key third-down pass and fake jet sweep run to record game-sealing first downs while capping a 28-25 Ravens win. He also registered an individual performance in which the defending NFL MVP threw for 182 yards and a touchdown and ran for 87 more yards and another score.
"It's a lot of weight off their back," Brady said. "The expectations they had coming into this year based on the way they finished last year and sitting at 0-2, all that week sucked last week for them.
"They came out here on the road, got off to a fast start, weathered the storm from the Cowboys. I like the fight the Cowboys showed, I love the toughness that the Ravens showed. … This game, to me, was all about Baltimore's toughness. They're a tough organization. They got a tough head coach. They got battle tested guys. You got to bring it for four quarters to beat a team like that."
Brady said the diversity of the Ravens' offense, and in particular the tandem of Jackson and running back Derrick Henry — who won Brady's Week 3 LFG Player of the Game after a 151-yard, two-touchdown rushing performance — made it especially difficult on the Cowboys' defense.
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"[The Cowboys are] struggling on the inside, trying to slow these run games down," Brady said. "This is a team that's got a good pass rush. … You may have a great pass rush, but you can't make any difference in the game because you can't even get him to a third down. Today, late, they actually got [the Ravens] to a couple third downs, got them off the field. But early on, when it's Lamar to the right, Lamar to the left, Derrick to the right, Derrick to the left, and then they had the [bootlegs] coming off of those things, you're just such a moving target, and as a defender, I'm sure you get so hesitant. You don't know to rush, you don't know to drop. You're going side to side, and you can't be aggressive."
As for whether the Ravens can continue righting the ship as the season goes on, Brady seems bullish on the notion because of their quarterback. It's been well-documented that Jackson is a massive Brady fan, with the two-time NFL MVP often referring to the seven-time Super Bowl champion as "the GOAT" publicly. But Brady made it clear during Sunday's broadcast that the feeling is mutual, showering Jackson with praise and admiring how the 27-year-old superstar is continuing to grow as an NFL quarterback.
"His [downfield] vision is really spectacular," Brady said during the game. "For a player that does so many things in the pocket then gets out of the socket, his field vision is incredible. His decision-making out of the pocket is incredible. … The evolution of a quarterback is, you go from early on playing with what your skill set is to, ‘How do I continue to develop as a player?’
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"What I saw last year with [Ravens offensive coordinator Todd] Monken, he was coming in and saying, ‘OK, we're going to make a more concerted effort to play from the pocket.' Now, they're talking about, okay, how do we give him more responsibility? Some of the things that's challenged the Ravens defense in critical situations, for example, is when the defense sends a lot of pressure. Kansas City did that last year in the AFC Championship game. They did it early in this season. [The Ravens] said, 'OK, Lamar, when you see this max blitz — and you're the MVP of the league and you're phenomenal — but these are areas where we think you need to improve a little bit. Now you're gonna have more command at the line of scrimmage to make some protection checks and then hurt the blitz, and that's where I really see his evolution as a player going to the next level."
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