Lamar Jackson struggled in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, completing 20-of-37 passes for 272 yards, one touchdown, one interception and a lost fumble.
While Jackson turned in a magnificent regular season and will likely win the second NFL MVP Award of his career, his postseason performance as a passer has been troubling,
Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith broke down the numbers, and they’re not pretty.
Over the course of his career, Jackson’s completion percentage is worse in the playoffs (57.4 percent) than in the regular season (64.5 percent). Jackson’s passer rating is worse in the playoffs (75.7) than in the regular season (98.0). His average yards per attempt is just 6.8 yards in the playoffs, significantly worse than his 7.5-yard average in the regular season. In regular season games, Jackson has thrown 125 touchdown passes to just 45 interceptions. In the playoffs he’s thrown only six touchdown passes, and six interceptions.
To be fair, the Ravens mysteriously abandoned their running game early in yesterday’s matchup, leaving Jackson to throw on nearly every down.
Also, Jackson did rush for 154 yards on 19 carries in this year’s postseason, scoring a pair of touchdowns on the ground in the Divisional Round win over the Houston Texans. The 27-year-old star was an efficient 16-of-22 passing for 152 yards and two TDs against Houston as well.
Still, this is a definite “thing” now. Until Lamar does it, he’s going to continue to have the reputation of being an incredibly talented player who doesn’t bring his “A” game as a passer when it matters most.